Race Report: Franz Bakery Criterium

The Franz Bakery Criterium was a brand new race this year.  Put on by Franz Bakery and Veloce Bicycles, this exciting race is unlike any other on the calendar.

This race was a mix of a criterium and a track "points race".  It rewarded prime sprinting (prizes) and finish sprinting (30points for 1st, 25points for 2nd, ... down to 1pt for 15th).  But the unique part was that, like a track race, it also awarded 2points (and $1) for 1st place on each lap.  This meant that consistent/early effort could rack up points and cash.

Course:  The course is hands-down one of the best and most fun crit courses in Portland!  This is no boring 4-corner criterium.  With a "figure-eight" layout, it has sweeping fast descending corners, some technical pavement sections, some punchy hills.  An excellent "all-rounder" course.

The Field:  Jan and I represented Sorella Forte.  At the start line, we sized up the other racers.  Ironclad was numerically (and alphabetically) advantaged - Anna, Anona, and Brianna.  Amy Campbell (RCB) has been a very strong crit racer this year and had a teammate, Bridgette.  We didn't know the wild-card Vanderkitten racer, Starla, but Vaderkitten racers are usually pretty strong!  Erin Playman came out to play as well.  All told, we had a field of ~15.

Strategy:  With strong competition from Anna, Brianna, Amy, and Brigitte, we figured if we tried an early breakaway it would be unlikely to succeed.  Instead we decided to let the stronger riders duke it out for a bit and go for points once they started tiring.

The Race:  Right from the start, Ironclad took control.  Anna and Brianna were taking turns attacking.  Anona did a good job blocking and confounding the chase.  After chasing Anna/Brianna down a few times, Anna got away and no one chased her.  A few of us put in some effort to chase her, but after a while Anna had racked up enough points that she had 1st place locked up.  At that point, it became like a standard criterium and the rest of us raced for 2nd place.

Prime:  They announced a field prime.  I knew from watching the men's races that if you were first around the last corner, you would usually win the sprint.  I drilled it up the hill, was first around the corner and held everyone off for the prime!  Wahoo!

Final Sprint:  The rest of the race was fairly uneventful - a few people tried getting away, but everything was chased down.  On the final lap, I was in decent, but not great position.  I timed my sprint very well and passed several who had gone to early on the final climb up to the finish.  I took 4th in the field sprint (5th overall).  Full results.

I forgot my computer, so no fancy data-bits for this race.  I won some sunglasses for the prime, and we all took home free bread from the bakery (Yum - I didn't know Franz made multi-grain bread)!  Kudos to Ironclad for a well-executed race!  This race is on my must-race list for next year! 

Photo courtesy Jim Long