SuperWeek Report #1 Evanston Grand Prix

Today I raced the Evanston Grand Prix. I decided to do the Mens 4/5 race since that's where both Shawn, Matt(Teal), and Chris Padfield had registered, PLUS, this was Andrew Utz's last race in the Midwest and this was the field he was in also. The race was set in downtown Evanston and the course itself was a really fun layout. Sort of like an L shape, with two long straights that were mighty fast. Rain the night before left quite a bit of water on the course, especially in the corners so it made things a little hairy, especially in turn 3 where it was impossible to hit two large strips of water in the middle of the street and then a very slippery man-hole lid before the turn was over. oh, and sand(wtf?) in the left gutter. yikes.

The racing was fast with Chris, and a few other strong 4's leading, and not too soon after the start breaking from the field, which then broke into two evenly sized peleton's. I was near the back of the first peleton as it broke and was left in no-man's land for sometime fighting to catch up with the main group. 7 or so laps in the race was given the red-light(everyone had to stop and line up at the start/finish again), after a crash in turn 5.  this effectively rejoined the main-pack for the duration of the race. the break-away group was stopped about 50 yards ahead of us. 

after sitting around for some irritatingly long amount of time, we were off again with 6 laps to go. 6 laps! holy kripes, this was rediculous! I stuck with the group for a while but got nerves and fell off the rear at the end of lap 5. finished with the pack, but near the rear. 44 out of 75. bummer.

I wasn't in love with this race. This is only the 2nd Evanston Grand Prix so I know that its still got its kinks to work out but honestly, there is no need to stop the race completely if there is a crash. I know that the officials just wanted to play it safe, but it involved only about 4 or 5 riders and by time I had come by, they were all off the course or at least at the railing on the side.

Another thing I and some other riders weren't happy about was the fact that one of these riders who did go down, got to restart with the group that broke-away during the race, and not the main peleton.

During a crit you get a free lap which puts you in the approximate position that you were before the incident, which I understand HOWEVER I don't believe that it is fair to the other racers that you get to take your exact place again after a crash. Then again, I have never been in a race where you get stopped completely for a minor accident either. Downer is next.