San Marcos Criterium
By Bryan Larsen
8/1/11 - Frustrations from past races often drive us to seek that redeemed result. We mentally encounter setbacks in our last races that motivate us towards our future goals. Sometimes races serve as mental rehabilitation after a week, month, or season of mistakes or bad luck, while other races only serve as a marker of our progress towards an end goal. For me, San Marcos Criterium served as both: progress and personal redemption. Jordan Itaya and myself cruised from the start but had plans set in stone: a break would be winning the race and we needed to be in it. Overly eager to redeem previous setbacks, I jumped into an early move that was 8+ riders strong. I jumped for the first 3 primes but quickly rolled back into the group to conserve my energy, considering only a quarter of the race was actually done and the break I was in would most likely not be the winning move.

Bryan Larsen (A Road Bike 4U) celebrates winning the San Marcos Criterium.
Photo © Scott Burnham

The early group that extended itself for the first 20 minutes of the race was eventually brought back into the fold, which allowed me time to recover before the next move. Finding slingshot attacks on the backside of the course highly effective, Jordan and I began trading off drilling it. After about 6 moves, I drilled it again and this time didn’t draw the normal sting of a chase. Rather, Orion Berryman (Swami’s) and Tyler Locke (Surf City Cyclery) and myself extended our lead out to 20-25 seconds. We were clear and free to ride. With one lap to go, our lead had diminished to about 10-15 seconds on a group of 3 chasers (including teammate Jordan Itaya) and therefore left no room for cat-n-mouse. On the riser with about 500m to go, I jumped knowing my powered pursuit sprint was going to have to pay off on the false flat to the line. It did. I rolled in, posting my arms and pointing to our team sponsor, A Road Bike 4U. It was even more gratifying to hear that my teammate, Jordan, also slotted himself near the front in 5th place. It then became more than just a marker of personal redemption but also a fantastic team effort and result.