Knowing I had family commitments Thu evening, I did my Thu race earlier than usual. All that really means is that I'm climbing up the cobbles and coasting through the rollers rather than climbing the rollers and coasting down the cobbles as the earlier race goes in the opposite direction.
If you recall I'd been attacking on the cobbles in the D races, but just trying to hold on since moving back into C and Thursday was no different. One of the things I've found is that I tend to accelerate too hard through the middle of the cobbles, pass everyone, then let off the gas and get passed and feel like I'm pushing excessively hard to keep contact immediately after the cobbles. So I made a conscious effort to be a bit smoother with the power and not surge through the pack. Goal was to stay in the draft, but move to a position near the front of the pack.
That seemed to help as I kept contact with the lead group a bit more easily as we left the cobbles. We kept a solid, but not brutal pace and I was able to hang on even during the slight surge on the penultimate lap. A few riders went off the front on the last lap, but I was pretty sure they were going to DQ, not that I had any real hope of chasing them down. That left us with ~10 in the main group and the pace slowed down ever so slightly allowing me to hang on the back.
I was in a similar position earlier in the week (Mon or Tue), but lost the group a half mile out from the finish. But not today. I was able to hang on and prepare for the final few hundred meters. For me, there isn't enough road after the final turn when the finish banner first comes into view to bring the power up and catch anyone -- I hoped that at least some of the pack weren't keenly aware of the finish dynamics. As we came through the next-to-last turn I brought the power up from the back of the pack, I'd guess that was about 350M out. As we came through the last turn I was finally moving through the pack and out into the lead with one other rider challenging hard. Having that other rider right next to me kept me going the last little bit and I beat him by ~.05 seconds for my first win since returning to C. Just a couple seconds off a course PB as well. All in all, a good short race.
The only depressing thing is the realization of how far I still have to go. The time/distance on these crit city races is similar to the ITTs I was racing once a week in 2018. In 2018 I was putting out 280-290W for those 10mile ITTs, now I'm in the 230 range. Still a long way to go...
being able to steer around a sticky rider , being able to cause your own sticky draft , being able to choose racing line, being able to make sure no one can draft and to being able to cut corners sounds like a massive advantage to me 
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