Tuesday marked the start of the Midweek Mayhem criterium races. They'll switch to cyclocross races in the fall but, for the next four months, it'll be crits at the UofC. This week's race was a chilly one. As I rode home from work, the sun was out and the winds were light. At the start of the race, all that had changed. The wind made the only interesting corner on the course much more interesting. On the northern straight, the road bends slightly to the left before making a 135° turn to the right. With a tail wind, I entered that corner at over 40 km/h on each lap.
The first time I did this race, it lived up to the Mayhem name with four crashes and one ambulance ride. The B race had none of that this week. The race was uneventful for me. I started near the back and the pack quickly strung out due to the high speeds and wind. Like usual, the weak were dropped off the back and left to form their own little chase groups. I rode almost the whole race with three other riders. We took turns pulling for a lap and just enjoyed ourselves. The only excitement was when we got lapped by the leaders while going through the only tricky corner. That broke us apart and I rode the last few laps with just one of the riders I had been riding with previously. Still, it was enjoyable and good training. I ended up covering 19.3 km in 34:30 for an average speed of 33.6 km/h. The tail wind pushed me over 40 km/h on each straight but the opposite straight meant a 30 - 33 km/h push into the wind.
Here's a map of the course with my speed zones. Orange is over 40 km/h and green is under 30 km/h.
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