Bischoff Bier Coaster and Criteriums.
The Scenario: Dansenberger Criterium Points race brought to you by Ramstein Air Force Base
The Course: 1.4km course with a hill similar to Greentree Crit in STL coming up to the start/finish line.
The length: 30 laps, or 42km.
Do to time, every year when they do this criterium they put the open(ages 20-29 and whoever else wants to be in the open) with the Seniors (30-39). The Seniors are undoubtedly the strongest field in the USAFE Flyte1.com Cycling Series. Many of the top guys in the Senior division were there including Tom Essek, who would go on to win the Senior division.
In German division racing, you start out as a class C. To go to class B you must first win five races in the C class. One of the fellow racers, James Sharp, who's a cat 1 in the states compares it this way. Class C is similar to a cat 3/4 race, Class B are your 1/2's, and Class A are your elite 1's (think Brad Huff during his Mercy days), and domestic pros. The senior division has five guys that are class B. Pretty tough dudes. I knew that if I hung with them for the first fourth of the race, I would be well in contention to be beating the others in the Open cat.
When the race started, it started hard. There was no feeling out the group today. I believe that the reason behind this is that there was rain the entire day, and the top 10 seniors wanted to shell out the sketchy people so as to not have to worry about wrecks on the technical course. So when we started, we started hard. Within the first five laps I had already lapped one of the guys in the open category. By the seventh lap, the lead group was myself, and 8 other guys. The 8 guys were all in the Senior category. I had the open win if I kept riding smart and hard. It was off to go lap people.
By the way, in a points race crit here in Germany, you don't get pulled off. You actually also get counted for how many laps you do.
I ended lapping everyone in the open multiple times. I even lapped the guy who got second place twice, so that was pretty cool. I did the 42km race in 1:05.27 minutes, and boy was I feeling it when all was said and done. I sure do miss those nice little 30min plus laps cat 5 crits back in the states. The trophy is sweet, and once the promoter puts pictures up on the series website I'll post a couple of pics from the crit plus the podium pic.
The funny thing, is that on Friday night, I knew that things were looking good for me. My buddy 1st Sergeant Retired Boyd Tracy and I wanted to eat at an Italian restaraunt, and the one we found had a big Bischoff Bier sign at the entrance. I got a couple of coasters for Dan back in STL, and then at the race, guess which beer co. was there as the sponsor. That's right Bischoff Bier. It almost seemed like the crew back in STL were looking out for me.
The Course: 1.4km course with a hill similar to Greentree Crit in STL coming up to the start/finish line.
The length: 30 laps, or 42km.
Do to time, every year when they do this criterium they put the open(ages 20-29 and whoever else wants to be in the open) with the Seniors (30-39). The Seniors are undoubtedly the strongest field in the USAFE Flyte1.com Cycling Series. Many of the top guys in the Senior division were there including Tom Essek, who would go on to win the Senior division.
In German division racing, you start out as a class C. To go to class B you must first win five races in the C class. One of the fellow racers, James Sharp, who's a cat 1 in the states compares it this way. Class C is similar to a cat 3/4 race, Class B are your 1/2's, and Class A are your elite 1's (think Brad Huff during his Mercy days), and domestic pros. The senior division has five guys that are class B. Pretty tough dudes. I knew that if I hung with them for the first fourth of the race, I would be well in contention to be beating the others in the Open cat.
When the race started, it started hard. There was no feeling out the group today. I believe that the reason behind this is that there was rain the entire day, and the top 10 seniors wanted to shell out the sketchy people so as to not have to worry about wrecks on the technical course. So when we started, we started hard. Within the first five laps I had already lapped one of the guys in the open category. By the seventh lap, the lead group was myself, and 8 other guys. The 8 guys were all in the Senior category. I had the open win if I kept riding smart and hard. It was off to go lap people.
By the way, in a points race crit here in Germany, you don't get pulled off. You actually also get counted for how many laps you do.
I ended lapping everyone in the open multiple times. I even lapped the guy who got second place twice, so that was pretty cool. I did the 42km race in 1:05.27 minutes, and boy was I feeling it when all was said and done. I sure do miss those nice little 30min plus laps cat 5 crits back in the states. The trophy is sweet, and once the promoter puts pictures up on the series website I'll post a couple of pics from the crit plus the podium pic.
The funny thing, is that on Friday night, I knew that things were looking good for me. My buddy 1st Sergeant Retired Boyd Tracy and I wanted to eat at an Italian restaraunt, and the one we found had a big Bischoff Bier sign at the entrance. I got a couple of coasters for Dan back in STL, and then at the race, guess which beer co. was there as the sponsor. That's right Bischoff Bier. It almost seemed like the crew back in STL were looking out for me.
posted by SPC Deal at 3:27 AM
2 Comments:
That's funny... I wonder if I can get them to sponsor a crit over here?!?!
Good racin'
Awesome race, Shawn - congrats.
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