Auburn Road Race, cat3
Auburn seems to be one of the flatter and less selective road races on the New England schedule. It’s an 11.4 mile loop with a steep power climb at the beginning of each lap and a longer punchy three-step climb towards the end of each lap. The finish is a long false flat of nearly 2km coming after this three-step climb. The cat3 field did 5 laps for ~57 miles total.
Despite being a perfect day, sunny and in the 70’s, there were only 29 starters in the cat3 field. We (NEBC) had the largest team in the race with 5, so we were looking to formulate a break. A field of 29 is the smallest I’d seen all season, and it was kind of nice to be able to move to the front more easily.
The first lap came and went without any major action. We hammered up the first power climb and a Green Line Velo rider eventually snuck off the front. He hung out there solo until the climbs at the back side of the course. We kept a decent tempo in the field but not hard enough to cause any trouble.
On the second lap Alex (NEBC) attacked over the power climb but the field was ready. We were strung out for quite a while after, but the elastic never quite snapped. Once we slowed down, we were absolutely crawling on the flat section that followed. A Bikereg and Landry’s rider attacked with no response from the field, and I was at the front so I bridged up and joined them. We worked the gap up to maybe 45 seconds or so, and a fourth rider from Nor’East tried to bridge. He never made it, and once our group hit the hills on the back of the course I couldn’t keep the pace and eventually floated back to the field. I got picked up just before the last of the three steep pitches and nearly got dropped. Keith (NEBC) gave me a boost as I struggled to hold the wheel in front of me. Having that nano-break was a miracle and I barely survived.
On the third and fourth laps both Keith and Scott went up the road. Keith went off in a group of four or five that looked promising, but there was confusion on one of the 90-degree turns and his breakaway mates made a wrong turn. Oops. Scott got way out of site with Mark Theeman (Green Line), and I thought they might be able to stay away. On a longer straightaway they were just barely still in sight, and I timed their gap to be right around 1 minute. These breaks gave me a lot of opportunity to sit in and block the chasing rotation.
As we got to the climb at the end of the fourth lap I got swarmed pretty heavily by racers looking to add to the chasing effort. Initially I didn’t think much of it and allowed myself to float backwards in order to rest up a bit for the hill. We went over the first two punchy climbs and I realized I was at the back with a bunch of other big looking guys that were breathing hard. The pace picked up over the false flat before the last little riser as attacks ensued. It was too late to try and move up here. As we crested the final steep climb I could see a gap opened up about 4 wheels up and a split was forming. I overtook a few guys that were being dropped, but I could only match the speed of the main field and wasn’t able to latch on.
There were about 6 or 8 of us dangling just 20 meters or so off the back over the long false flat. I hoped that the main field would ease up like on previous laps and that we would be able to rejoin, but it didn’t happen. I finished out the last lap, got passed by the King’s (that was impressive), and ended the day 23rd.
On the last lap Dave got in a break of three that stayed away to the finish. Alex attacked up the last climb and managed to catch Dave right at the line. They initially finished 3-4, but a DSQ to 2nd place moved them up to 2-3. A very good day for us!
Great Falls Criterium, cat3
Back in February when I was looking over my racing schedule for 2009, one thing that stood out was that there was not a single cat3 criterium on my schedule until June. All of my races were either cat 3 road races or a p123 crit (Chris Hinds). Road races generally don’t suit me very well, so I knew it would make for a tough start to my season, especially considering I had just upgraded.
The Great Falls Crit was my first cat 3 crit of the season, finally! My confidence was pretty shaken going into it because of all these road races, and I really didn’t know what to expect. I had never seen this course before, and I was extra nervous when I saw that it had a good sized hill. Short (<1>
Lately I’ve been having trouble clipping into my pedals. I used to be smooth as silk at this, but my cleats feel scuffed as of late and I think this makes me clumsy. With the start line on a gentle incline, and a couple of people killing it right from the gun, I nearly got dropped as I stumbled around to clip in. We hammered for lap one but settled in nicely after that.
Early on in the race I dropped my wheel into a nasty little crack on turn 3. The crack was about a third of the way through the turn and was in the general direction of the turn. When my rear wheel fell into it there was a cracking sound and my rear wheel jump violently. I was lucky to stay up and was lucky not to get a flat or have wheel damage. I stayed toward the back for a lap or two paranoid about having some sort of mechanical problem.
Around 6 or 7 laps in a $20 prime #1 was called. Keith jumped early with another rider and outsprinted him to take it.
10 laps in Dave attacked hard over the hill and got a good gap. I saw Eric power up to the front to slow things down so I joined him. Soon after we were joined by Alex. For three laps or so we were able to stay up there without much of a fight from the other racers. As Dave’s gap started to get large, the announcer was commenting on how the field was slowing down. This put a spark in the chase and a few Base36 guys started to get organized.
We sat about 4 or 5 wheels back, and allowed a little chase group to rotate through. Initially the chase was hard, but when it came time for those guys to take their 2nd and 3rd pulls I think it may have gotten a little more difficult. During this time Dave was able to eat up prime #2. With 5 to go, one of the Base36 guys put in a pretty massive effort and dragged us around for an entire lap.
As Dave was finally reeled in, the field let out a sigh of relief. A rider without a team thanked the Base36 team for providing the chase effort. Just as all this happened, Alex attacked and again NEBC was up the road.
Alex’s counter-attack created all sorts of panic. The pace got really spikey as a bunch of unorganized chases were attempted. On each lap I would work my way to the front going up the climb only to be swarmed on the back side by furious chases. Alex ate up prime #3 during this time.
With one lap to go on the top of the hill a spectator told us that the gap was 15 seconds. I figured that as long as Alex didn’t blow up he should be able to hold us off to the finish. Coming up the hill I felt strong and was able to get on the fast moving wheels. This was a million times easier than trying to hold a wheel up a long climb in a road race. I settled in five wheels back as the pace stayed hot over the false flat at the top.
Coming down the descent after turn 3 I was holding my position in fifth wheel. This was exactly the position I wanted to be in according to my pre-race plan. I had a brief lack of concentration as I realized that things were playing out perfectly for me. Just as I had this brain fart, the racer two wheels up attacked and the guy in front of me responded. I was sure this move would happen, but in my lack of concentration I hesitated and responded way too late to the attack. I tried to chase down the pair of attackers but they just dangled in front of me, just 10 meters up.
As we came around the last turn I was third wheel, but my legs were on fire and I knew they would be no good for sprinting. I never did get back on the wheel in front of me either. It seemed like the entire race came around me on the inside, and I think that the racer that had held my wheel won the group sprint and took 2nd place. Alex held off the bunch to take the win by a solid 30 meters.
I finished in 10th place, so I guess the entire field didn’t pass me on the finishing straight. I’m annoyed with myself for losing focus and letting that attack get away. It was a move that I was expecting and I still got caught off-guard. By just chasing it down I basically gave the sprint away too. I think that I’ve been so far out of contention all season that I was just a little shocked to find myself in that position.
This was an awesome day for NEBC, winning all 3 primes as well as the race. With 2 podiums on Saturday, it made for a fantastic weekend of results.
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