Wompatuck Wednesday happened this week, no rain or heat waves to mess things up. Despite being low 90’s in
With Jess bailing on us, it was just Rich and I in the race. We were supposed to have matching jerseys for the race, but UPS messed up and couldn’t get our orders delivered on time. At least we’ll have them for next time.
For the first time we actually made the start of a Womp race. Normally we either don’t leave early enough to beat traffic, or have a stupid problem like flatting during warmup. We lined up in the middle of a field that looked to be about 30 (and eventually grew to ~50), and rolled out at a leisurely pace.
My legs were tired today, and I just sat on the back for the first 9 of 25 laps trying to loosen up a bit. Rich hung out there too and we had some good conversation time. After nine laps of doing nothing that even closely resembled racing, we went up to the front to make a tiring and pointless effort.
There were two Bicycle Link riders up the road that had been there for a few laps with a nice little gap of maybe 10 seconds or something. I went off the front and bridged up to that and brought Rich and another rider with me. That was a lot of work, took 660W for 30 seconds and we averaged 31mph. I was tired once we got there, and after catching my breath for a minute and pulling through for one pull I decided break efforts weren’t going to be my thing today. I dropped back to the Pelican to hang out some more.
Not a whole lot else happened for me until the last laps. I didn’t have any interest in trying to get in a breakaway, and it seemed to be hard enough work for today to sit in.
With maybe eight to go a pair of Bicycle Link riders went off the front again. I’m not sure if this was the same pair that was off earlier because there must’ve been 10 or 15 BL guys in the race, but they looked good and grew a sizeable gap pretty quickly. After two or three laps of staying away, a few riders tried to bridge up to their break. I think a racer or two may have even made contact, but all the bridge attempts eventually came back.
Four laps to go and the duo was still off the front with a good margin. I made my way towards the front willing to make some efforts to bring it back together. A team of four or five Bicycle Link guys were at the front that weren’t really riding super slow, but were effective in making it difficult for anyone to take serious pulls. When I got to the front to pull I just slowly rolled off the front and was unsuccessful in closing down the gap. At this point we crossed the line and there were only 2 laps to go. I was sure the break was going to make it now.
After taking a somewhat serious pull I got some shelter in the pelican. My legs felt weak and were cramping slightly. As we approached the one to go sign, I was swarmed on both sides as racers jockeyed for position. I fell back way further than I would have liked. Rich was in a good spot but on the other side of the road and at least five wheels up. Ideally I would have liked to be with him but I couldn’t get there.
Coming up the little rise on the last lap I made a move up the right side to gain position. I might have been able to get with 5 wheels of the front but a blown up rider took my lane. As we made the left hand turn at the top the pace of the pelican went full speed and we strung out single file. I’m not sure who was pulling up there but the pace went to 30+ mph for the remainder of the race. I sprinted around a couple more riders to grab tenth wheel, Rich was maybe five wheels in front of me.
The pace was so high that I began questioning whether or not it was sustainable to the finish. Racers within the single file line were letting gaps open in front of them as they blew up. On the back straight I came around a rider who wasn’t holding his wheel. I saw Rich started to let a gap open in front of him, but he was smart and dug deep to close it.
By the time we got past the sharp left-hander our group of eight had broken away from the pelican, but whoever was leading it out was blowing up. Our group of eight started making slalom turns, at least four of them, as the strong leadout guy was trying to pull off the front and no one else would pull through. We were zig-zagging back and forth from each extreme side of the road. I considered for a brief moment attacking up the side, but I was afraid of tangling up with all the movement and I really don’t think I had the legs to do it anyways.
As we came by the start line our group went haywire. Some of the group was blowing up, and a few sprinted on. I think Rich was first wheel at this point and he was moving fast. I came off of my saddle to try accelerating around the riders that were on their way back, but there wasn’t much left in my legs. I kept the pedals turning at about 500W which was enough to maintain ground but not nearly enough to contest the field sprint.
The two breakaway riders just managed to hold off the sprint, taking first and second. Rich was in third with 50m to go, but just got nipped by a Tony Cycles racer who probably had the most ideal position in the field sprint. Rich ended up 4th. I passed a rider or two just before line (although they might have given up) and finished 6th.
Hopefully next time we’ll have our full Womp team there with new kits. Jess, Big Time, make it happen!
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