Criterium Race

It was the Southern Cross Cycle Club point score up at Sutherland Cycle Track last Sunday so decided to ride up and have a race. Race start was 8am so left home at 6:15am as it is a pretty solid 35km ride up to Sutherland, weather was fortunately really good, a little cold but no wind and a clear sky. Arrived up at Sutherland about 7:40am and registered myself in A Grade Opens. There wasn't a very big turn out on the day but still some good competition arrived to race.
A Grade had to do 12 laps on track 3 which is about 1.4km a lap and it is a fairly hard course. Only 6 riders lined up for the A Grade start so I didn't look like anyone would be getting much rest when they pulled off the front.

Started just after 8am and we were off. Everyone started easy to form the pack but it wasn't long until pace lining started and the race was on. The pace set was really fast trying to wear out people from the start, it wasn't until about lap 5 people started struggling.
On lap 6 we were heading down the back straight which was all downhill, the pack was not all that tight and as we went down through the dip and up the hill I was placed 2nd wheel and noticed a rider from behind making an attack as I saw his shadow coming up. I reacted straight away and was able to hop on his wheel leaving the rest of the pack behind. We got up to the top straight and looked back and the rest of the riders were about 300m behind so we decided to go together the rest of the race. We put more and more distance into the pack behind as we worked extremely well together. It was now the last lap and caught B Grade who started 30sec behind us. We were not able to get around on the back straight as they were taking up the whole track, it wasn't until the climb we weaved our way past them. I had positioned myself well, I was sitting behind his wheel and with 150m to go I attacked. He had nothing, no reaction and I was able to take 1st in A Grade comfortably.

Very happy with that race, could not have gone any better. Also stoked to get 1st in A Grade as well. Look forward to going up again this weekend to race as prize money is up for grabs but will probably bring out more people and stiffer competition.