Witches Cup

My first downtown criterium, and one of the bigger events I’ve done this year. 69 starters in the cat 4/5 race, lots of cash primes, and the strongest p123 fields I’ve seen to date. The forecast called for a perfect weather, and it turned out to be just that. The course is a triangular-shaped loop that circles Salem Commons. It is nice and wide, but there were a ton of potholes and cracks in the pavement, most of which were marked with orange spraypaint. The back stretch was the worst part. I was warming up and pedaling super soft, going maybe 14mph or so, when a rider passes me five feet to my left. Out of nowhere, the rider’s front wheel falls into one of these maneater potholes and BAM! He goes right over the handlebars and is laid out on the pavement. This is right in the middle of a straightaway pre-race, no turns or other riders in his way to force the crash, felt like a pretty ominous sign.

My legs were incredibely tight in the morning, maybe not enough stretching after my recovery rides on Monday and Tuesday. Took a few minutes out of my work day to go outside and stretch out. It seemed to help a bit. Got about 20 minutes of warmup with three, 1-minute high-cadence intervals, before the race. Heart rate seemed high, easily going up to 140-150 at low perceived efforts. If I was pedaling hard enough to keep up with everyone passing me, surely I would have been in the 160-170 range. I wonder if they warm up at higher intensity than me. Sitting at the starting line I tried to relax, heart rate still 110-120, must be nerves.

I got a really bad start. At the line I was positioned in the back third, but when the gun went off I just couldn’t click in my second pedal. EVERYONE passed me, and I had to sprint to catch on the back. This pretty much set the tone for my first four laps. There were a lot of riders in the race that were in no where near good enough shape. People starting dropping out after lap one. I’d be on a wheel, the rider would lose his ground, and I would move around. Between moving around dropped riders and dodging potholes I was expanding a lot of energy. Four laps into the race I was questioning if I’d even be able to make it 45 mintues.

Luckily, as I moved my way up things got a whole lot smoother and I was able to get in a groove, staying out of the wind. As I got more comfortable I was able to identify a section in the course where the pace eased up and I could move up relatively easily. By the mid-way point I was riding comfortably in the front third and felt very good. A few NEBC riders were doing a really good job of leading out for the primes. I was told afterwards that NEBC got 3 out of the 4 primes. Unfortunately I can’t say I had any significant part in that, I’m pretty sure I would have blown up with any big prime efforts.

The plan for the race was to stay in the front 10 wheels within 4 laps to go, no matter how much energy expenditure is required. No interest in conserving in the mid-back of the pack only to sprint by 10 people or so and take 20^th like at Fall River. Therefore, the real race is jockeying for position in the last four laps. This is tough with a strong field because everyone has this same plan. People were burning matches all over the place to move up. There was lots of bumping, moving up the outside in the wind, and just overall very aggressive riding. With 2 to go I was severely anaerobic and started riding poorly, letting big gaps form in front of me, sprinting too hard, then braking. With 1 to go I had slipped to the back, and as the pace went crazy I sat up and spun in to the finish, crossing the line 40^th out of 69 starters.

Mike Rowell made a great break going into turn 2, and stuck it out for a great win, so congrats to him!