Wells Ave A/B Race - 4/26/09

Originally I had planned on racing at Quabbin on Sunday, but when they combined the 3’s with the p12’s I took the easy way out and went to Wells Ave instead. I wasn’t feeling super hot after Turtle Pond and marshalling in the hot sun all day anyways.

My plan for the day was to chase down primes and just have a fun workout/race. I lined up in the back for the start. Maybe 50 people started the race, but I think a lot of people showed up late bring us up to ~75? Hard to say for sure. I love how easy it easy to move around at Wells, with a moderate effort I could move all the way up from the back to the front third going up the turn 2 hill. Refreshing after feeling trapped at Turtle Pond all day.

Early on I worked a fair amount and went for the first 3 primes. Normalized power was high for me for the first 20 minutes or so of the race, around 320W or something like that. This was especially high considering that my average for the entire race would end up being ~265W. On prime laps I kept finding myself out in no-man’s land. If I was a little further back, it seemed like someone would always take a half lap flyer. If I was in the front three wheels, a leadout train would come cruising around us at a nasty speed differential. My timing was all off and I just didn’t want to commit to any moves.

Somewhere around 10 laps Chui was off the front with someone else and 2 or 3 IF guys bridged up to him. I don’t know where I was or how I missed this, but they went up the road and disappeared. There was some talk in the field about a break being up the road, but the general coconscious seemed to be that there was not one. “Out of sight, out of mind” seemed to hold true on this day.

I tried hopping on a few moves throughout the race, but all those efforts were eaten up super quickly. Even if we had been allowed a half lap or so to organize ourselves I doubt I would have had the legs to keep up. Too much work for me.

In the second half of the race I got real lazy and started sitting in a whole lot. With 10 to go I had finished 2 water bottles and was hurting for more. The NEBC elite women were up front killing themselves in this last part of the race and it seemed like everyone was content to let them do their thing, myself included. I think the heat was making a lot of people lazy. I felt like I had one match left and I wanted to save it for the finish.

Somewhere in the last couple of races the breakaway lapped us. I think it was either 5 or 6 people. I didn’t even know we had been lapped.

With three to go I started sneaking up the inside every chance I got. By the time the bell lap rang I was probably 25 wheels back or so. Coming over the turn 2 hill we really got stretched out, and there may have even been a split in there. This gave me the opportunity to get up into the top 15 or so. Coming around turn 4 I was sitting comfortably behind a wall of racers and it looked like I would have no where to go. Sure enough, after being on the straight for 50-100m, a gigantic hole opened in the middle for me to sprint down. Unfortunately my legs had no spring whatsoever and I rolled in with a ~15s 750W sprint or something. That was good enough for 9th in the bunch sprint. A real sprint would have gotten me into the top 5, but I just didn’t have it today. In the end it didn’t matter anyways seeing as we had been lapped. Either way it was a fun race and a good clean finish. Got another 20 miles in after the race to give me 75 total on a hot day.

Turtle Pond - Cat3

This was my first year doing Turtle Pond. My impression of the historical course was that it had one hill that was significant enough to do some selection and that only the strong men survived. The course description for 2009 said that a second significant hill had been added, but that the finish had been changed to a flattish road. The cat3’s did 5 laps of the 11.4 mile loop. I took this to mean that the race would be harder (bad for me) but that the finish would be a fast sprint (good for me). My training is currently focused on this type of race, gaining strength to survive climbs so that I can contend a bunch sprint.

The week leading up to this race was rough for me. I picked up pink eye at Battenkill (nasty) and training was next to impossible. I need to be more cautious when spending a weekend using porta-potties with no hand sanitizers. Not sure if it was the pink eye or the antibiotics, but every time I got out for a ride my heart rate soared, I was soaked in sweat, and I had an overall hollowness feeling. By Friday I was feeling a bit stronger but I did not feel confident going into the race. My TSB was by far the highest it’s been this season, but with the illness I don’t think that my form was really that good.

Dave and I met up briefly before the race to talk a little strategy. It was just the two of us racing for NEBC today. CB and Pedro’s both looked to have a lot of racers, and we looked to them to control the race. Dave would look for a break, I was looking to contend the bunch sprint. I would try to help slow things down a bit if he were able to get into a break, assuming that I could get to the front without too much effort. Oscar showed up about 5 minutes before the race giving us 3 racers.

I lined up about 2/3rd’s of the way to the back, and pretty much stayed in that general area for the majority of the race. We rolled out, and the first time up Oak Hill was neutral. I think the pace was generally the same as any other lap, just with no attacks. Seems like this is pretty standard for neutral starts, they aren’t necessarily easy, just no attacks. It was a little bit of a shock to my legs because I hadn’t warmed up much, but it wasn’t too bad. I was definitely breathing over the top though.

Attacks ensued shortly after going live. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on from the comfort of my lazy man’s position, but it looked like CB, Pedro’s, and Leo were up there driving the pace. I saw Dave get into a few moves as well. Most of the moves hung out there for a little bit, but nothing lasted too long. There were a couple little rollers in between the two climbs, but nothing was too stressful. I thought that our pace was overall pretty quick over these parts as attacks were chased down. A few tight turns through East Concord did slow us up pretty significantly and may have worked in favor of a breakaway.

The second climb came after a sharp 90 degree right hander onto Hot Hole Pond Road. I think that we may have approached this climb a little cautiously with no one having done it before. I could see the heads at the front of the field turning and looking up as they went around the turn. Sure enough, there was a wall just sitting there waiting for us right after the turn. I expected the pace to go ballistic over it, but surprisingly we slowed way down and it almost felt leisurely. The remainder of Hot Hole Pond was a bit of a roller coast ride with steep winding narrow roads and a fast descent followed by a steep but short riser. It was so twisty that it was virtually impossible to follow the yellow line rule.

The course turns onto School Street for a fast downhill run to the finish. The finish line itself was actually located on top of a very gentle rise, but we would carry a ton of speed into it on the finishing lap. A sharp 90 degree turn back onto Oak Hill Road led past the official feed zone to start lap 2.

Our second lap on Oak Hill Road was our first time up where we weren’t neutralized. I expected the pace to be much harder the second time around, and I saved as much energy as I could for it. Surprisingly, we really didn’t seem to be drilling it hard at all. Not to say that I wasn’t working hard, but it truly felt like more of a 90% effort than all out. I guess that I’m just used to have to go all out on every hill of a road race. A couple of attacks may have gone up the road on the climb but they were brought back pretty quickly on the rolling descent.

The remainder of the second lap was pretty uneventful. I stuck to my plan of saving energy to survive the climbs and moved around a little bit in the middle of the field. The second climb was again very gentle and I fought off the temptation to hammer it to gain position. 58 miles still seems like a long race to me.

On the third lap I took a feed bottle (thanks Erica) anticipating that I would have hydration issues soon. I was in the 9AM wave, but it was still approaching 80 degrees by 11AM which is a pretty massive heat wave for New England in April. I was already struggling a bit with it and it was a battle to stay focused.

Coming down the “roller coaster” section of Hot Hole Road there was a Cadillac Escalade parked in our lane. There was another car parked in the oncoming lane and only a relatively small gap in between. We were pretty much flying down this hill like on the preceding laps, and I didn’t see it coming. I locked up my rear tire and nearly smashed into the racer in front of me as brakes were screeching. Scary stuff. Some time shortly after this Leo and a CB rider attacked and formed what would become the winning move.

On the start of the fourth lap I started to get a little overconfident. I’d never felt anywhere near this good in a road race. We came through the feed zone and I noticed Oscar miss a feed from Erica about 3 wheels up from me. I snagged the bottle and stuffed it in my jersey so I could give it to him later. Once again we climbed Oak Hill Road and the pace was moderate. However, as we came to the top I realized that some people in front of me were blowing up and that a pretty significant gap had opened. I was on the inside and unable to react to it as we came over the top. Someone must have been attacking on the front because the field went to single file up ahead. I was freaking out, knowing that I had been taking a risk by riding pretty far back in the field. As soon as I could move to the outside, I jumped to try and close down the gap. I pulled until I began to fatigue, then flicked my elbow for someone to come around. No one came. I flicked again, and after a slight pause a line of riders came charging up the side. We were going up a little riser and I couldn’t match the speed differential. Just like that I was dropped and my day was over. Everyone else that was behind me was able to get back on. I did try to chase back on solo but that was pretty much impossible after blowing up. It’s amazing how quickly a stupid mental error can end a race.

I spun for the rest of the lap to watch the finish. Another 3 racers had bridged up to Leo and the CB rider, and they finished about 15 seconds ahead of the main field. Dave got 8th in the bunch sprint to finish 13th on the day.

Tour of the Battenkill - Cat 3 Blue

For the first season of my cycling career, I spent countless hours over the winter riding the trainer in preparation. When I say “countless” I mean 6 hours per week on average, so nowhere near what a lot of racers do. Still, six hours per week on the trainer took more commitment than twelve hours per week outside once the weather turns good. During those six hours each week the race that I had in mind was Battenkill. Of course I would use that fitness as a good jump start for the other early season races that I would do, but Battenkill was definitely the race that fueled my winter training motivation.

Last year I loved the race, but I got shelled so fast in the cat 4 field it was embarrassing. For this season I stepped up my training focus and it was much more specific for this type of race. Hills will probably never be my strong suit, but my goal is to at least improve enough to be more competitive in the hilly road races. The Battenkill Cat3 Blue field would be my first test of the season.

Equipment selection requires more attention for this race than most due to the steep hills, unpaved sections, and the overall length of the race. When we pre-rode the course three weeks ago I thought the dirt was very well packed, so I went with my usual carbon X-Lite’s with 23c Vittoria Evo’s tubulars inflated to 120 psi. I considered taking the 25c @ 90psi route, but I think that approach may have been a little overkill. More important was to maintain a good position on the road and avoid the nasty gravel patches. Low gear was a 40x26 which was fine. I loaded up the wheel truck with my clincher training wheels and carried no extra tubes, patch kits, or pumps. If I flatted in the group I’d get a wheel from the truck. The odds of me flatting outside the lead group were much less, and if I flatted then I’d call it a day.

I traveled with Shannon who was in the Women’s cat3-4 race that went off an hour before mine, and I was there with plenty of time to warm up and get ready. Traveling on Friday prevented me from being able to do any openers, and I did feel tight that morning. I warmed up for about 45 minutes and got a good look at the approach to the finish. I got to the start line plenty early and was able to start on the front row. 94 racers were confirmed on Bikereg.

We rolled out neutral through the center of town and I was lucky enough to be on the front row. I stayed there for the first couple of miles down rt. 313 mostly soft pedaling before other racers started coming around to jockey for position. Pedro’s controlled the early race somewhat and kept the pace high enough to prevent anyone from rolling off with ease. About a mile before the left turn onto Eagleville Road serious swarming began and I got a little boxed in and was about 30 wheels back by the time we went through the covered bridge.

The pace picked up once off of the major road and we cruised along as racers jockeyed for position. It was smooth and fast. Obviously there’s no yellow line on many of these roads, but we were instructed to allow enough space for a car to pass by. That’s not much space on these narrow back country roads. A handful of riders took some serious liberties with the yellow line rule to gain position, and one nearly got taken out by an oncoming truck.

Dirt section #1 on Roberson Road was easy enough and the road was smooth within the packed down automobile tire tracks. No problems there. I had floated back slightly and was right around the middle of the field as we approached the Perry Hill Road climb. Cramer was right in front of me so I felt OK about my position. The climb up Perry Hill was hard, but not crazy. A few people were drifting back and I picked up a few spots. Coming over the top I was breathing hard, but not yet too deep into the red.

The descent was fast down to dirt section #2, the infamous Juniper Hill Road. Initially I picked up a few positions, but I fumbled with my gearing slightly and got pushed way wide on the 180° hairpin turn onto the dirt and I gave those positions back. It didn’t seem too devastating at the time but in hindsight it may have cost me pretty significantly.

We moved across the dirt road to the steep Juniper Hill Road climb at a decent speed as I think Leo was on front. Still, I was able to recover pretty well from the Perry Hill Road effort when we came to the climb. The pace up the climb was hard, but I was just holding on. The surface was a lot looser than it was when I pre-rode the course 3 weeks ago and it was difficult to hold a straight line. With about a quarter of the climb to go, two of the riders in front of me must have bumped wheels or something and were forced to walk. I got by without losing momentum but there was now a gap opened in front of me. I was already floored and could not close up the space. As we came over the top of the climb I made one last hard push to close the gap but came up short. Those few positions that I lost on the descent may have made all the difference.

Descending the back side on Juniper, two or three guys came around me and we started to chase like crazy. Chasing on a dirt descent is very difficult because you can’t rotate through consistently with the loose stuff in the middle of the road. Also, the three of us were still suffering from being popped, and initially we lost ground. A few more racers caught on making us six or so, and once we reached the pavement we started a quick paceline. The field was just dangling in front of us like a carrot, not more than 20 seconds up.

Once we got on Rich Road we passed the wheel truck back and I figured for sure we would catch back on. The field was not more than 10 seconds up at this point. I was working my butt off nearly getting dropped every time I took a pull. The peloton was about 30 or 40 riders, and it looked like the guys on the back weren’t even pedaling. With the group so close in front of us, some of the chasers started attacking and attempting to bridge the last little bit. A few attempts got close, but no one was quite making it, and the legs in our group were really taking a beating.

Through feed zone #1 the field was still in sight, but I was really starting to blow up. Knowing that I couldn’t continue on like this for much longer, I took a big pull as we headed up one of the first hills on CR 64. Once again I came up just short but this time I was blown up badly and my six mile chase came to an end. I don’t know if anyone else in that chase group made it back on.

It didn’t take long after dropping out of the pace group to get picked up by some more chasers. First I tagged on with two, and we grew to five, and then eight. I think some masters 30+ racers joined in the mix, but it was hard to tell. Initially we were riding pretty effectively with the 8 of us trading ~30-second pulls. As we came out of Salem on CR 30 one of the racers tried to organize us into a constantly rotating paceline. This basically shattered our group as a couple of guys pulled through much harder than the others. Riders started skipping pulls and before long 2 guys were off the front and 2 guys were off the back. I stayed in the larger group of 4 but I was really hurting.

The course turned onto Joe Bean Road which is the longest paved climb of the day. This was also the last descent in the first four editions of the race. The climb is steeper at the beginning than at the top, and it really shattered our group. I fell back only staying in front of one racer and climbed steadily at threshold pace. My legs felt unusually tired, never having had any chance to recover. Descending down direct section #4 (Ferguson Road) I was all alone and I rode at a comfortable tempo pace. There were a handful of riders who were on the side of the road probably with flats.

The run-in to Greenwich along SR 29 is rolling but more downhill than uphill. The pavement is smoother here than any other part of the course and provided a nice break. After riding alone for 20 minutes or so, a chase group of about 6-8 riders overtook me at a pretty large speed differential. I was able to hop on with these guys and we moved along nicely. They were just taking pulls as they felt comfortable. This was much nicer than the previous chase group.

As we entered Greenwich a little drizzle of rain was coming down and the roads were slick. I think some turn marshals may have been missing here and there was a little bit of hesitation in our group as to which way we go. I went up to the front to lead since I had pre-rode the course and knew the way. I think a couple of the people in our group were nervous around the corners and it looked like we may have lost a few through town.

The right hand turn up Burton Road leads directly up a hill, and our chase group quickly came down to three. We weren’t crushing the pace, but mostly just riding around threshold on the hills and tempo otherwise. I picked up a water bottle from Erica in the feed (thanks!) and we kept plugging along. The three of us seemed to be a pretty good match.

Dirt Section #5 starts with Mountain Road, and is the beginning of the longest un-paved section in the race. It starts with climbing at a moderate grade, but with the soft, loose dirt it felt steeper than it really is. I was in my 40x23 riding just below threshold most of the climb. As Mountain Road flattens out, the dirt seemed to get extra soft. To make matters worse, the road had a high spot in the middle and was off-camber to both the right and left. Initially our group started off riding in the right-side tire track, but a soft patch of dirt sent him drifting down the right side of the road and into some extra loose dirt. He had to unclip and catch back on. This may have been the single best reason to ride with tires larger than 23c today, but it was avoidable by riding in the middle of the road.

As we continued along direct section #6 (Becker Road) we were getting much better at dealing with the dirt. It was a good thing because the descent down Becker Road was extremely fast and over more of the loose stuff. I led the white-knuckle descent and we overtook a few other racers. I stayed to the middle of the road and avoided the off-camber problems. By the time we got to Meeting House Road I had to wait for the other two members of my group. They weren’t too interested in crushing the descent.

Meeting House Road (dirt section #7) was largely uneventful. We charged over the steep rises to try and keep our momentum, but kept the pace within reason. It was still really nice having this group to work with and we continued to pick off racers. I think we were passing a lot of the citizens racers at this point, as well as 30+ and other cat3 racers. A few people hopped on for a pull, but they quickly fell off.

As we approached Stage Road (final dirt section #8) I was thinking that it would be a 5-6 minute climb. When I pre-rode the course it was right around 7-8 minutes, but I wasn’t doing it at race pace. I hadn’t counted on hard pacelining for 2 hours before that though. That changed everything. I also hadn’t done a very good job of eating. My legs were cramping and totally thrashed. My pace was somewhere right around threshold, but I lost contact with the other two guys from my chase group. Overtaking riders from other fields helped my motivation a bunch, and I kept up a reasonable power output for late in the race.

My two former chase-mates were in sight on the final descent before the final run-in to the finish. I was fighting for every position possible, and floored it until I caught the first of the two. After catching the first, we tried to work together but we were both gassed. We made up a little bit of time, but not enough to catch the second escapee. I led going around the final corner to the finish, and popped out of the saddle to launch a monstrous sprint to the finish. Upon doing so my legs said “no way buddy” and pretty much completely seized up. The other racer came around me and just held me off to the finish. I didn’t have a shot at giving a real sprint. My legs were completely trashed.

Official results aren’t up yet, but the results at cyclingnews.com have me down as 46th place which is about what I would have guessed. My finish time was right around 3 hours exactly (I didn’t have a computer), which is about 15 minutes down from the winner. Unlike last year, I felt as if I could have hung with the lead group for a while longer if my positioning was just a bit better. I was pretty pleased to finish somewhere in the middle in my first road race as a 3. I’m looking forward to Turtle Pond and Jiminy Peak in the upcoming.

Wells Ave A/B Race - 4/12/09

The weather forecast for Easter Sunday was cold and windy, but with plenty of sunshine. I didn’t really want to do a solo 3-4 hour endurance ride in that weather, so I rolled down to Wells Ave in the morning. It was frosty out, just 35°F when I left my house at 9AM. I planned to race whatever race started at 10AM, whether the B’s or a combined field. There really weren’t many people at the race prior to 10AM (again, it was Easter Sunday), so they ended up combining fields. I think a bunch of riders came down late expecting to do a pure A race.

We had a ton of NEBC riders in the race, some of which I know, some I did not. As the race went on we picked up even more. It had to of been around 15 people that we had in the field. I’m not sure how many total people ended up racing though. There were probably about 50 that actually started, and we may have picked up another 25 or something. Hard to say, but it ended up being a good sized field.

The Pedro’s team lined up at the front for the start and set a fast pace for the first two laps. I had started on the back, and their quick pace caused some separations. There was a pretty significant range of abilities in the field. After two laps of closing down gaps I did my best to stay near the front for the rest of the race. I figured a split was likely to happen and I didn’t want to fall on the wrong side of it.

There were a lot of attacks in the first half of the race, but none of them amounted to anything. Just like on Saturday, there was a strong headwind coming up the finish straight. You could barely notice it when you were sitting in, but trying to pull into it was not easy. I got in a couple of early moves with riders that looked good, but each time we would die out when we turned onto the front straight. I didn’t have any luck going for early primes because there were almost always a couple of people floating off the front.

The bell for the half-way 2-place prime came up pretty quickly. No one was off the front, and I w as five wheels back. I think Alain Ferry ended up on the front pulling for most of that lap. A racer wearing all black attacked hard up the left side on the back straight and no one responded. He opened a big gap and held it to the line. The rest of us sprinted for 2nd. Coming around turn 4 Mike Rowell sprinted up the left side with a few riders on his wheel. It was early, and the headwind was strong, but their speed was good. I was 2 wheels back from Alain, and there was space on the inside, so I took it. I stayed against the right curb and in the saddle, trying to be as aerodynamic as possible. I was pedaling pretty much as hard as I could for in the saddle and my legs were really blowing up. For a second I considered giving up, but I was still alongside the MKR train and no one was on my wheel. With 200m to the line two racers opened up their sprints. It was still too early for me, and I kept plugging away with my head down. The pair really started blowing up about 50 meters before the line, and I came out of the saddle with my best sprint. I managed to bring back the slower of the two, but the faster finished a half bike length in front of me.

That long 30-second sprint was a maximal effort, and shortly after Skip Foley went crushing around us with a counter attack. I was going so much slower than everyone around turn 1 and up the back hill that I was afraid I would cause a crash. There was nothing I could do though, my legs were trashed. Luckily, things were so stretched out that by the time we made it to the downhill back straight I was still being overtaken and found a wheel. The next 3 or 4 laps were intense as the stronger riders tried to force a separation. I moved up to maybe the front half or third trying to avoid being left behind a split, but I was on the rivet the entire time. I spent a lot of the following laps trying to recover.

With 6 laps to go I was feeling better and I was within 5-10 wheels of the front. My legs were pretty shot but I was still motivated to work. I had just finished chasing a move, and I probably should have rested for a minute or two, but I was determined to stay in the rotation. Coming over the hill on turn 2 the pace flipped suddenly to ultra hard. I pedaled harder, and harder, and harder, and I was barely holding the wheel in front of me. In fact, I was practically sprinting all-out in the saddle. I think Alain Ferry was on the front again this time really making us suffer. This caused a serious split and only one rider was behind me. As we turned onto the finishing straight I blew. I flipped my elbow to let the lone rider behind me know I was pulling off. Shortly after a chase group of five riders or so charged ahead to bridge to the split. I tried catching a wheel but again popped. My legs were fried.

There were 5 laps to go and a split of 15 racers or so were up the road. NEBC had Brian and Peter in the split, both strong riders. I spent the next lap recovering, and took notice of who was left behind. Roy and Dave were still there, as were a couple of Pedro’s guys who were on the front. There were a couple other motivated looking individual riders there as well.

The correct team play would have been to block at the front and let Brian and Peter duke it out in their group of 15. However, Wells Ave is a training race, and soft pedaling at the front can hardly be considered training, so I took some pulls at the front despite having teammates in the split. I worked my butt off for those few laps and the split was caught just as we came around for the bell lap.

I was about 10 wheels back when we caught the split, so that put me about 25 wheels back when it all came together and I was unable to get out of the middle. Dave drew a gap on the back straight while trying to give a leadout, and committed to it once he realized no one was on his wheel. The pace behind him was fast, but not insanely fast as no one wanted to pull ahead. The sprint up the final straightaway was unusually slow with the stiff headwind. I didn’t have legs to come around anyone and pretty much just hopped from wheel to wheel all the way to the finish. I might have been 15th or 20th across the line, but well back of the front. I’m not sure who finished at the front, but I think Brian managed to stay ahead in 4th place.

Another fun race at Wells and it capped off a good weekend of racing. My legs are pretty much toast today. Next weekend I’m headed out to New York for Battenkill. We pre-rode the course the other weekend and I think it’s going to be a ton of fun.

Chris Hinds Criterium, Pro123

The beginning of this cycling season is very challenging for me. When I upgraded to 3 last year, criteriums didn’t feel especially challenging but road races were brutal. I only had success on the flattest road races on the calendar. The early part of 2009 includes a small amount of crits, and those are all pro123 fields with no pure cat3 field offered. That’s a big jump from racing cat4’s. The rest of the races include the hilly New England classics: Battenkill (close enough to NE), Turtle Pond, Quabbin, and Jiminy. Those races are hard for just about everyone.

Chris Hinds fell into the difficult p123 criterium category. The field wasn’t as stacked as Marblehead, but there were enough McCormacks, Keoughs, and other scary names to make the race tough for me. To makes things even more challenging, pouring rain started about 30 minutes before the start at 40°F. On the drive home my thermometer read as low as 37 and it looked like it was on the threshold of snow.

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a true early season race if I weren’t completely unprepared with my equipment. My 11-month old Cannondale six13 cracked a week ago, and I replaced it with a 2007 Scott CR1 frameset (same parts though). The CR1 didn’t come in until Thursday night, and I didn’t start swapping the parts over until Friday night, at 8 PM. It’s good advice to avoid changing any parts on your bike the night before a race, but how about building up the entire thing? I was scrambling Saturday morning making last minute tweaks. No time for a real breakfast so McDonald’s had to do.

Miraculously, it all came together and I was able to race. Not only that, I even got a good 30-minute warmup in. Ken and Tim were playing super domestique rolls and by the time we lined up I actually felt ready.

60 racers started. NEBC had 3 in the race including Jim and Landen. The pace on the first few laps was punchy as we slowed way down for many of the corners. Considering that the track was covered in water, traction was actually pretty decent. A lot of jockeying for position. I got sandwiched between riders and bumped hands with some older dude in a yellow kit going around a turn. His reaction was to swat me in the chest, real nice.

Once everyone started gaining confidence in traction things sped up and smoothened out. No more irate cyclists over the punchy pace. I stayed as near the front as I could without actually doing any real work, just hoping to make a split if one were to occur. Every few laps or so we would really string out, but the hard pace never lasted long enough for the elastic to snap. A strong headwind on the finishing straightaway really helped keep things together.

There was a nasty crash somewhere in the middle of the race on the straightaway. I don’t know what happened, but I imagine some wheels crossed due to the wind. We were packing in real tight here every lap as the pace slowed down and everyone tried to dodge the wind. I think a a Fuji rider ran into the fallen rider, went over his handlebars and broke his collarbone.

With somewhere around 10 laps to go the bunch was still together, and I found myself following a pair of McCormacks about 8-10 wheels back. An attack came on the front and gap opened between the two. I began to pull through, but stopped when I realized that my teammate Jim was in the split. I think a Kenda rider behind me was in the same situation. By the time someone in the field reacted, the split was a good 10 seconds up the road.

The pace got real hard in the last 10 laps as racers that didn’t end up in the split pushed the pace. I was at my max pretty much the entire time. The cold was really taking its toll on me. My legs felt like mush when I came out of the saddle. My feet and fingers were soaking wet and freezing cold. We were also way past the 45-50 minute crit length that I am used to.

At 4 or 5 to go another split of 6 racers or so went up the road. I was deep in my pain cave, and was somewhat oblivious as to what was happening in the race. I thought that the second split of 6 was the original split, and that it was coming back. No NEBC kits were in this group of six, and I figured that Jim must’ve fallen out. I took a hard pull up the front straightaway, but as we came to the end I could see the original split coming around onto the back straight. That was pretty crushing to my motivation but Jim was still there.

With a teammate up the road and my suffering at an all-time high, I settled in to ride it out the remaining few laps to the finish. I floated about 15 wheels back, and realized that I was at the very back of the race. I had no idea that anyone had been dropped, let alone half the field. There wasn’t much of a sprint in the main field (or what was left of it) with all 10 paying spots up the road, and I rolled across the finish mid-pack. With so many people dropping out that put me in 22/60 for the day. I went straight back to my car and shivered uncontrollably for a good half hour. Brutal race.

No power data to share. I'm using my race wheels for real races this year instead of that anchor I call a powertap.