Race Report: 2024 Original Merced Criterium - Men's Cat 4/5
Race: Original Merced Criterium - Men's Cat 4/5
Date: February 22, 2024
AVRT racers: Clark Penado, Henry Mallon
Top Result: Henry 20/44
Course (description from Fraser’s 2023 report): The course is a 0.6 mile almost four corner crit on the streets of Merced. Most of it is at least two lanes wide, and the first, second, and fourth corners are 90-degree right-handers. The third corner is where things get interesting. It resembles a three-quarter turn around a roundabout, narrows to one lane, and has bad pavement. There’s only one racing line through it. The pavement on the rest of the course is fair to good.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10884287845
Nutrition: 1 bottle with 80g of homemade malto/fructose mix.
Race Recap: Written by Henry. After Snelling RR was canceled due to flooding, Clark and I decided to try our luck the following day in Merced. Since we both have very little crit experience (and generally do better on climbs), we planned to sit in for most of the race and try for a breakaway in the final 15 minutes.
When the ref blew the whistle, we both missed our clip-in and were quickly shuffled to the back of the group. Some of the other riders took questionable lines through the first corner, which made me immediately hesitant to ride close together in the group (I later saw two separate crashes where riders overshot corner two, hit the curb, and went into the grassy median).
Feeling a little nervous, I didn’t aggressively try to move up. This was a mistake, as the race started quite hard and large gaps began to open up. Clark was in a similar situation and was unfortunately caught behind a gap that he couldn’t close. For the rest of the race, he rode in smaller groups and eventually finished in 25th.
Going through corner three and into the narrow bumpy section, my saddle slipped such that it was angled severely downward (see photo below). This ended up really limiting my ability to sit comfortably and apply power. I struggled to maintain even tempo power, constantly having to push myself back on the saddle or ride standing. As I race more, I’m learning that many courses have sections of very bad pavement, and I should double-check that all the bolts on my bike are tightened.
My hesitancy at the start and saddle situation put me in a difficult position going into the rest of the race. Over the next few laps, I jumped between smaller groups of dropped riders and eventually made it back to the tail end of the peloton (now ~25 riders). At this point, I was really struggling to sit on the saddle and considered dropping out. When another gap opened up, I didn’t come around to bridge back on.
From this point onward, I rode a steady tempo with two other riders, slowly bleeding time to the peloton ahead. In the end, I rolled in for 20th place.
Being my first crit, I didn’t have many expectations. But, it was still disappointing to have my saddle slip on the first lap, making it a challenge just to finish the race. Overall, I’m glad this happened at a low-priority race. And with my saddle now securely torqued to the maximum, I feel better prepared for any course conditions, including the notoriously rough Copperoppolis RR in a few weeks.
