Well I made it to the Crit feeling maybe 80% fit.
Everyone else looked pretty serious and it was really quick from the start! Was about 40 riders in the field total which is a lot more than we usually race with at club level. First few laps I sat about 3/4 of the way back, moving up when it looked like people were going to blow up, I never looked back so had no idea who was behind me. Moved up to the middle of the bunch as I didn't want to sit too far back with the elastic effect and risk people blowing in front of me and not being able to close the gap.
There was quite a strong headwind which you had to ride into, going up a slight uphill along the pit straight, it was important to be in the middle of the bunch here and get a good run out of the chicane leading up to it as well as a good wheel to follow to avoid having to put in too much effort to keep up.
Apart from that, there was a bit of a climb at the start/finish, but this never really troubled me, leave it in the big ring and just stand on the pedals to get over it, I was making a few spots up here each lap.
At about the half way mark it looked like a group of 6-8 was going to get away (all the other crits had been won from a break) so I made towards the front, got a good run up the hill but the guy at the front of the bunch squeezed me good and proper (I don't think it was intentional I just had a lot more speed than him), I had to grab a load of front brake to avoid hitting him. Got across to the lead group, but then it came back together half a lap later.
I did about half a lap on the front at about lap 14 or 15, including up the pit straight, which took a lot out of me, but couldn't really be avoided. Dropped towards the back of the bunch unintentionally after swinging off but was planning to use the next few laps to recover.
Next lap following someone into the chicane, which could be taken flat out without braking, the guy in front clips his inside pedal off the ground or kerb
and his back wheel flies in the air. How he didn't crash is beyond me, but I backed off a bit and went over the grass just in case. Ofc this meant that we dropped off the wheel in the group going up the pit straight, so into a killer headwind when I was trying to recover. I give a shake of the head to the rider next to me who I can see agrees with my feelings!
Two laps later I was starting to feel a little better, when a rider in front sticks his hand up, he's cooked on the pit straight too, but has started to let the bunch go. I'm blowing pretty hard and can't see myself getting over so roll up too, last time round I didn't get out the saddle up the climb so I know I'm pretty cooked. Turns out there is only one rider behind me, and of the 40 starters there are only maybe 20 left.
Average speed 40.8kmh over 22.2kmh, elevation 254m, average power 290w, max power 1206w according to Strava! I didn't have time to look at any of it as it was hurting too much and always showed big numbers so I didn't want to know! Looking at the data, every time we went over the climb I was doing 800w+ and coming onto the pit straight, similar for maybe 5-10 seconds! Big difference to road racing which is nowhere near as intense so frequently!
Good fun racing Crits though, its only the second one I have done and with a bigger field.
