Quabbin Reservoir Road Race, cat3

Quabbin Reservoir road race was day 2 of my double header for the weekend. Turtle Pond was my bigger focus since we had a team presence and it included a finish that favored me. The finish at Quabbin is a stair step 400’ ascent with 7-8% gradient in the last 200m or so. Not so good for me. Also, I didn’t have any teammates to work for. I really sort of neglected this one and didn’t know much about the course going into it. I knew that there were several ~400-500’ climbs at moderate grade, but I didn’t really know which were the steep ones, how long they were, or when they were coming. I felt like I was racing it blind. My only plan was to push the pace at the front and jump on any opportunities that might arise.

The forecast was threatening with rain in the upper 40’s, but it looked like it would probably stay dry for our race. I went with warmers and no jacket. A lot of people did the same. It ended up raining as soon as we started and continued to rain for the first 45 minutes or so.

The neutral start is all downhill for 10 or 15 minutes or with next to no pedaling. I nearly froze to death and wasn’t the only one. People were shivering so badly that their handlebars and bikes were shaking on the descent. I’ve never been so happy to get to a hill.

I hadn’t lined up very aggressively and started somewhere mid pack. Right next to long lost cousin Steve Robbins actually. I was a little worried that I would have trouble making it forwards in the group, but it ended up being easy enough. Someone must’ve attacked on the gradual climb coming into Belchertown because we strung out thin. Instead of settling in I maintained my momentum and moved pretty much straight to the front.

Things are a little more hazy than usual for me at this one. I was trying to stay as far forward as I could, hoping to end up in a split or a break or something. The course is nearly all uphill or downhill, and I didn’t feel strong enough to attack going up, and attacking while going downhill was useless.

Going into Pelham was long, but not too hard. Again I froze to death on the long descent. After that there were a pair of back to back hills, through Shutesbury I think. Those hurt the worst of any in the race. We were super strung out, people we being gapped all over the place, and had we been going just a tad faster I probably would have been popped.

Despite feeling like my legs were going to be ripped off on these climbs, somehow I managed to stay intact near the front. On both climbs it looked like we were in a front group of 20 or 30 or so, with big gaps opening up and everyone behind left to chase. I don’t often find myself in this position climbing, and hoped that someone with more gas left than me would drive us away. Unfortunately the nature of the course allowed for people to chase back on pretty successfully with the long descents.

I had been somewhat familiar with the first half of the course having at least driven over those roads in the past. The second half was a totally different story. I had never seen most of these roads in my life. Over and over again we’d climb at a pace close to my maximum effort, and just as I thought I was going to blow we’d crest the top. This was exhausting mentally and I felt like I was in some sort of torture machine. Somewhere along here I ran into Guido (The Happy German!) who appears to be back and have abandoned his old crazy tactics of seeing how long he can solo for.

Small attacks got up the road here and there, but they all blended together to me and I wasn’t really sure where they were getting away despite being at the front with all the action. Nothing got up the road too far though.

Norton had warned us before the race about a rough section of road that was 4 miles long. Indeed it was rough, especially compared to the silky smooth other parts of the course. Somehow I ended up further back in the field here than at any other point in the race. It was like a game of dodgeball trying to avoid cracks while navigating the twisty road at high descent speeds. Fortunately we didn’t go too crazy through here and I was aerobic enough to make decent decisions. Only one time did I nail a crack. The sound of my carbon wheel hitting it was irritating to say the least, but it looks like no damage was done.

After that I knew we were getting towards the end of the race, but I had no idea what was coming. There were two guys up the road and I was pretty much glued to the front waiting for the right opportunity. It didn’t seem like they were going anywhere and being a lone rider I shouldn’t have cared. There was a teammate at the front announcing that he was blocking and not going to chase. For some reason this irked me and I decided I should try and bring it back. So stupid.

After a decent pull the break had just barely come back, and Leo attacked hard bringing someone else with him. This must’ve looked serious because all of the sudden everyone cared and we surged ahead at a ferocious pace.

We quickly came to a steep and short descent on a rough narrow road and went into some residential neighborhood. It was like having a half mile of a criterium course come up out of nowhere. We flew through this section, sprinted out of the turns, and ended up back on route 9.

I knew once we got back on Rt 9 that we weren’t far from the finish. What I didn’t know was that we would immediately be going into a climb. I was hurting more than I should have been after stupidly pulling back the break.

I made it up the first straight section, we turned, and there was more climbing. I moved to the far right so I wouldn’t ruin anyone else’s day by letting a gap open. I backed off my pace ever so slightly thinking that was it, but then so did the rest of the field. Still attached. There was a brief moment of downhill and I thought that was it. Around another turn and I can see we’re headed up again. Oh boy. Again I settled in to a pace that seemed manageable to me, but this time the field wanted to go faster.

A gap opened and before long I was about 100m back. I think it was Gary Birkamshaw that came around me that I latched on to. Soon Steve Robbins joined too. We grew to a chase group of four and were making just a little progress catching back up at the top of the climb and the descent after.

The course turns back into the park immediately after the descent and there’s a sign saying 5k to go. No one seemed to want to work on the descent, and I drilled myself at the very bottom and couldn’t grab a wheel when the others pulled through. It didn’t matter though, I wasn’t going to do anything special on this finish anyways. I rode a comfortable tempo to the finish and ended up 54^th on the day out of ~80 starters.

Looking at the profile after the race there was no way I should have gotten shelled on that climb. It wasn’t steep, and it was half the elevation of most climbs. Sure my legs were tired but they certainly weren’t cramping or anything so attrition wasn’t the cause. I have to blame this one on poorly managed efforts. Next time I will go down having failed at a glorious attack or maybe I'll just give it a go and see how I fair at an uphill sprint. See you at Sterling.

Turtle Pond Circuit Race, cat 3

Turtle Pond was the first of a double header weekend of road races with Quabbin Reservoir following on Sunday. Turtle Pond is one of the few New England road races featuring a fast flat finish that suits the sprinters. The course includes a moderate hill on Oak Hill Road but the Hot Hole Road climb was taken out this year. It seemed to bother some of the climbers that this was left out, but the climb isn’t really long enough to bother the most sprinters anyways. From a selection point of view I would have liked to see it in the race to hit the anaerobic muscles a bit.However, last year a fisherman was back his boat into the pond and nearly took out our field. It felt a lot safer having it removed. Cat 3’s did 5 laps totaling 57 miles.

Most of the New England teams were well represented and none were significantly overpowering.Svelte had the most racers with 6.Cambridge, Threshold, Quad, CLNoonan, CCB, NEBC all had 3 or 4 guys. Half of the 51 starters were riding for a team. For NEBC it was Keith, Joe, and myself.

It was a nice day weather-wise, 50-60F and sunny, and I think most people were highly motivated to race. As soon as we crested Oak Hill and went live the attacks begun. The first few were highly unlikely to succeed being on the rolling downhill. As the course started to flatten out the moves started getting more distance.

Keith got in a move that went through the successive 90 degree turns. We were already really strung out and you could feel the tension in the bunch. Keith’s group got caught shortly after the second 90 degree turn and the field seemed especially gassed from sprinting out of the turns. Being a criterium guy I like the turns so this was obviously my time to counter. I went hard for about a minute before flicking my elbow for help. I had dragged 3 guys with me, two of which were Sunapee and I’m not sure about the third, maybe CLNoonan. After rotating through just once I was pretty gassed. I think I attacked too hard and the hills weren’t letting me recover. I skipped a pull to recover.

After just a few minutes of being up the road I noticed riders coming up behind me. We were approaching Hot Hill Road which I didn’t realize had been taken out of the race. I thought these riders were part of the peloton, so I soft pedaled to get some shelter before the climb. It turned out that this was only a small group of three or so, and that the peloton was a little way back yet. Oops. By the time I realized this I couldn’t grab a wheel.

Luckily Keith was in perfect position as I came back, and I think he countered along with Leo and another rider or two. We had Joe sitting up there as well to encourage some splits. The perfect mix of riders was up the road and we immediately went into shutdown mode. Svelte, Cambridge, Quad, CLNoonan, Threshold, NEBC were all represented.

It was pretty much game over after that and we started crawling around the loop. By the time we finished lap 1 the break was 2 minutes up.Initially there were probably 14 in the break, but I think it was whittled down to 12 by the end. A CLNoonan rider came back after a lap or so, which led me to believe that they needed to chase. And they did chase, however afterwards I realized that they had a second rider in the move so they probably didn’t need to.

Laps 2 and 3 were easy going and the lead stretched out to 4 minutes.By the 4^th lap the riders without teams were really groaning. There were some good efforts made to bring back the break, but they were too sporadic to make much of a dent. Bridge attempts were useless with so many teammates left in the pack. Conversation in the peloton turned to whether it was worth sprinting for the finish or not. It seemed that with a few riders having come back from the break we could potentially be sprinting for 10^th place, so why not. We were here to race after all.

The pace up Oak Hill had been very gentlemanly on lap 4, but on the last lap a lot of racers seemed to let out their frustration there and the pace was hot. I had taken the fourth lap to rest for the final lap, so I was mid pack when we began accelerating up the hill. On the steeper upper half a lot guys were going backwards and it was important to avoid ending up behind a split. This didn’t mean accelerating around the sag climbers, instead just keeping a nice steady pace and paying attention. Coming over the top of the climb ~4 guys had gone clear and I was in a second group of 10 or so. The front 4 sat up pretty quickly and so did our group when we caught them. I wanted to push the pace for a few minutes to cause some separation, but by the time I got to the front I think we were mostly groupo compacto. I still took a long pull just for the heck of it.

Coming through the two 90 degree turns I was third wheel behind a pair of Svelte guys. The guy on the front had a quick chat with his teammate on second wheel, and shortly after the guy on front slowly pulled away. Very sneaky move.Being third wheel it was my responsibility to get on it, and I brought up most of the field in doing so.

We were bunching up thick in the last few miles and maintaining position was key. Svelte and Cambridge had a large presence and seemed to be trying to set up for the sprint. A few solo flyers went off but nothing was strong enough to stick.

Coming over the last little kicker on School Street there were some attacks and we got really strung out. Between Cambridge and Svelte there was a pro-style leadout train of 5 or 6, and they were keeping a really good pace coming down the hill. It took a lot of energy to move up if you were out in the wind. McKittrick was at the tail of the train and it looked like the sprint was being set up for him. I wasn’t sure if there was a Svelte sprinter in there or not. For the rest of us, it was a battle for McKittrick’s wheel. We shuffled around a bit, but by the time we hit the last flat section I was fortunate enough to have his wheel.

The course kicks right at the 200m to go sign. Nothing steep, maybe 2 or 3% grade. My plan was to kick hard and early as we went into that little hill and hope that my momentum would carry me to the line. Unfortunately there was a moment of hesitation as we realized that there were cars stopped in the right lane right at the finish. We had the entire road from ~400m out and Fortini was quick to capitalize on that, sprinting hard on the far left.He carried his speed up the hill perfectly and took the sprint. I followed his move in second.McKittrick hesitated just a moment longer than me but still crossed in third. I hate it when 2.5 hours of racing ends like that. It’s like Wells Ave disappointment times ten.

Keith rode in the break strong and ended up finishing 7^th. After 50 miles of being in the break his legs found a whole new meaning of pain and he didn’t have much of anything for the final sprint. With 12 people up the road I was 14^thfor the day. I was happy that Keith got into the break and that I was able to sprint well at the end of a road race. Getting in the break of the day continues to elude me this season and once again I almost found myself in it. Hopefully that day is coming soon.

Rick Newhouse Criterium, cat 3/4

This weekend the race schedule has us back to Ninigret for the Rick Newhouse. This one offered a ¾ field, and I was pretty pumped to not race against the p12’s for a change. The only race I’d done this season without the 1’s and 2’s was Battenkill, and the top20 there are practically 2’s anyways.

Unfortunately the weather was not so exciting. Temperatures in the 40’s with rain were being forecasted all week. Attendance was low as a result. Our field had only 28 pre-reg and 30 or 35 tops on the start line. On race day the weather ended up being not so bad. It was chilly, maybe 45F, and the rain never got harder than a mist. I’ll take that over 80’s and sun this time of year.

With the chilly racing conditions and the combined field, I got more warmup in than usual. I didn’t want to get caught behind an early split or miss an early break. There didn’t seem to be many 3’s in the field so I figured the right mix could get away pretty easily. I planned to watch out for the Horst and Cambridge Bicycles teams. Svelte ended up showing doing a day-of reg. No one else from NEBC was racing and I was on my own.

The race was on pretty much from the start. I think it was the Horst guys taking turns attacking that made it fast. I had lined up at the back, but once I saw Horst being so aggressive I moved to the front. No problems in a 30 man field. I didn’t hop in any of the earliest moves, but I wanted to stay close enough that I could pick and chose the right one.

It seemed unlikely to me that a break would stick in the first 5 or 10 minutes, but by the third lap Glowa (Svelte) and one other were in a move. Eric Marro from BOB attacked in a bridge attempt, and I followed along with the bodybuilder turned cyclist Ken Thoman (YEAH KENNY). It took us a lap or so to reach the Glowa group, and within a half lap or doing so the field was reeling us in.

Just as we were caught Gary Aspnes (Horst) countered and Glowa went again. I was on Glowa’s wheel at the time (he was first wheel in our break and I was second wheel) and I let him go. I’ll replay this decision in my head over and over all week. Certainly I was under pressure at that point and responding would have been difficult, but I do think I had the reserves to go again just like he did. I just thought the field was too responsive at the time and that it would have been for nothing, even though a marked man was in the move. This was a mistake.

Aspnes and Glowa were joined shortly by an Arc En Ceil racer that made a very impressive bridge. I was not in position to follow this bridge move. The three of them opened up a 30 second margin very quickly, but the Arc En Ceil racer dropped out after the first prime.

Cambridge was absent from the break. With 4 guys pre-reg’d I figured they’d be sure to control the race, so I wasn’t too worried about the two-man break. After taking a few laps to recover CB was nowhere to be seen. Looking around the field I could only spot 2 or 3 of them. Looking at the results, there were only 2. They wouldn’t be able to control the race like I had expected, but I didn’t realize that at the time.

After letting the break dangle for 5 or 10 minutes I started to make my contributions to bring it back. I didn’t have any teammates in the field, and didn’t want to drag the entire field back, but the only people that appeared to be concerned were other individual racers. There were no strong teams willing to do anything about it. I made several pulls but we were barely putting a dent into the break. They remained ~30 seconds out (the length of the front straight) no matter what we did.

Many laps went by that we tried to bring the break back. CB came to the front to work together and I hoped for the best, but it was too late by then. After what seemed like no time at all I heard someone yell “9 laps to go!” At that point the break had been away for about 20 minutes. I knew that we wouldn’t be able to bring them back unless disaster struck, so I went back to rest up.

I wasn’t the only one that let up. In just the next few laps the gap stretched out to over a minute. The bell rang for a field prime and some fresh legs that hadn’t been helping manage the break showed themselves. There was zero cooperation in the field.

With 5 to go we were a half lap behind the 2 leaders. They looked comfortable and rock solid while we were bunched up every lap riding into the head wind. Knowing that we wouldn’t catch them I wanted to do nothing but sit in and rest for the final laps, but when I saw Spaits (CB) take a flyer I got back to the front. I did not want to miss another move, especially this late in the race.

Several attacks went off in the final laps but nothing stuck. We would go from easy to hard but the hard attacks never lasted long. It might have been the wind and cold rain. I was wet and my shoes water logged. I doubt anyone was comfortable

A few attacks looked like they were creating splits in the field, and I sat in jumping from split to split. I didn’t want to create any moves, just make sure I didn’t miss a successful move. In hindsight I recognize this as being a pretty gutless approach. I just didn’t have the confidence in my ability to go hard for 5 minutes. Battenkill will do that to you. A lot of people seemed to feel the same way and that this may have been why nothing stuck.

As we came up the front straight with two to go, I told myself to sneak in behind a good wheel as rest as much as humanly possible. Boy did I screw that one up. The pace eased way off because of the headwind. I felt a swarming coming on and didn’t want to give up my 4^th wheel position. I felt like I was soft pedaling, but it wasn’t long before I was towing around the field. No one would come around me. Usually at that point in the race you feel like you’re going easy but you’re actually putting out threshold power. Unless you’re freakishly strong relative to your field it’s the wrong position to be in.

For the next lap and a half I sat first wheel out in the wind. I hugged one side or the other of the track so I could watch for attacks. I was surprised that nothing came until a half lap to go when Mashburn (Svelte) went hard on the back straight. We had been going slow enough that everyone in the field could respond. I’m not sure if Mashburn got a gap or not, but our pace was finally fast.

We were strung out through the final two turns of the race and I was third wheel behind Tommy Goguen. I knew from earlier in the race that he was super strong, the trouble was that he’s a tiny junior and I’m 6-1. Minimal drafting benefit at this critical point in the race. Obviously this wasn’t the ideal wheel to be on but it’s where I ended up in the chaos of the attack. (by the way, he has a sweet Maietta frame)

On the final turn a train of riders came around on the outside, we were sprinting for 3^rd place. Tommy made a move to the left side where Mashburn was heading backwards quickly. I saw a lane between the two and attacked it with full gas, quickly spinning out my gear with at least 200m to go into the headwind. This would have been a nice move with 50m to go, but not from that far out. Just after overtaking Tommy I had to ease off and shift into a harder gear.

I surged again and my legs started to fail, no doubt due to all the wasted energy on the last 2 laps. I could feel Tommy overtaking me but there was nothing I could do to hold him off. There were several racers to my right also fighting for position. I tried to keep as much power on the pedals as I could in what felt like the longest sprint of my life. I threw my bike at the line and sat up to see 5 or 10 racers immediately to my right. At the time I couldn’t even guess what place I had finished in.

Final results were posted and I was 8^th , 6^th in the bunch sprint. Andrew Tucker of Quad Cycles won the bunch sprint which is impressive given the amount of effort he put into bringing the break back. It looks like Glowa beat out Aspnes for the win.

Time gaps are included in the results and I was 0.3s behind Tucker. That’s less than 15 feet at 35mph. Tommy finished 5^th (3rd in the bunch sprint), 0.1s behind Tucker. 13^th place was only 0.4s behind me. What a tight race. I’m now kicking myself in the butt for a) missing the winning move sort of 2008 Flanders–Hincapie style and b) wasting energy at the end of the race and losing by 15 feet. It seems like I always blow the first bunch sprint of the season that I have a real shot at. ’08 Cyclonauts Criterium, ’09 Great Falls Criterium. At least I got this one out of my system in mid-April.

Tour of the Battenkill, cat 3 Green

Saturday was the 2010 Tour of the Battenkill. This year’s edition brought in over 2,000 people at $75+ a pop from all over North America. Unfortunately the weather was sunny skies, 50’s, although a bit windy. I was really hoping for a disastrous 40F rainstorm hurricane. Maybe next year.

Unlike most New England races, when you show up at Battenkill you’re bound to see a lot of unfamiliar kits. This year was no different. The familiar New England kits might have made up 20% of the racers. New York area teams with semi-familiar kits probably made up another 30 or 40%. Nearly half the people at the race were rocking team kits I’d never seen or heard of before.

I arrived at the venue 3 hours before my start time. That sounds like a long time, but for some reason it didn’t really seem it. It might be because I’m one of the world’s slowest people when it comes to kitting up. It could also be because I spent way too much time tweeting about every last move I made. Getting lunch at Subway also didn’t help the cause. The guy in front of me ordered twenty (yes 20) sandwiches. 2 hours just wouldn’t have been enough.

Two weeks ago we recon’d the course. It was 20 degrees over night, and stayed in the 30’s for our entire ride. The dirt was as smooth and hard as the tarmac. Not very helpful for getting to know the course conditions. Also, like last year proved, the dirt conditions are very sensitive to the weather and can change quickly. It was in the 30’s 2 weeks ago, 90 the weekend before the race, and it rained all week leading up to the race. This made for a lot of equipment selection debate, possibly more than the norm for this race.

Gearing-wise, I made no changes at all. 53/40, 11/26. I don’t even think I used the 26 in our recon ride. Wheel/tire selection was a bit more difficult. My choices were Edge 68’s or Open Pro Powertap wheels. I was hesitant to use the Edge wheels for fear of wrecking them, but the Open Pros are a full 1.5 lbs heavier. A 1500g aluminum wheelset would have been a great option, but that’s not something I have in my quiver. Being a big race, I went with the Edge hoops with the usual 23mm tires. Had the dirt sectors been loose like last year, I might have made more of an effort to find something else. I didn’t change anything else on my bike, which means I didn’t change one single thing for this race. Chris Hinds, Battenkill, whatev, it’s all the same. Actually, I did carry a third bottle in my back pocket since I had no one to feed me. Didn’t do that at Chris Hinds.

Keith and I were it for the NEBC show in the 3’s. Our team is pretty small this year after Dave, Alex, and Brian upgraded, so this will probably be a reoccurring theme in races to come.

Last year I got caught behind a big split on Juniper Swamp Road that left me in a chase group early on. I had intentions of hitting that climb in good position, but we got swarmed on the turn just before the covered bridge and I couldn’t move up on the back roads. For those of us that don’t have superman cat3 legs, the key is to get aggressive just before this turn and go over the bridge in the front 10 or so. This year, I pretty much nailed that strategy and was rewarded by having a much nicer approach to Juniper Swamp.

I was loving being at the front on the early narrow roads. We were slowing way down for every turn and hammering coming out. Being at the back of the 100-man field must’ve been miserable. The squealing brakes and yelling pretty much confirmed this.

Dirt Section #1 starts off with a short steep downhill and is pretty fast and easy. I was about third wheel, and yet somehow we manage to absolutely clobber a nasty pothole. The guy in front of me lost his water bottle and I lost mine as well. Great. Maybe I should have swapped out the carbon bottle cages, but they’ve rarely let me down. Whatever. I was happy about my decision to pack a third bottle at that point. Time to man up and do the race on 2 bottles.

Perry Hill Road was awesome. We were basically soft pedaling, going so slowly that we packed together like sardines. It was nearly impossible to move up. Enough people passed on virtual yellow line that the officials’ car gave us a warning. There were a few super sweet (and risky) moves up the road shoulder. I wouldn’t have been brave enough to try it, but it was pretty slick. Sort of like the pro’s riding the sidewalks at the Ronde. Getting over the Perry Hill wall was no problems although I did give up 10 positions or so getting caught behind sag climbers.

I hit Juniper Swamp Road in 20 or 30^th. It seemed like we were absolutely crawling up it and I had to do some creative maneuvering on the shoulder to pass the sag climbers. In my recon I sprinted over it in my 21T, and was definitely in my 23 during the race. I would have been so much happier if I could have just hammered over it in the front. Shorter, harder climbs suit me better. The last 30 seconds of the climb were torture. It felt like I was doing slow motion squats and the lactic acid poured on. All I wanted to do was just blast over the top but I couldn’t.

Over the top I was in 30^th, but I bled a whole lot of positions on the descent. I was dizzy from the effort and didn’t trust myself to hold the wheel in front of me tightly. The 68mm rims didn’t help either. Gusts of wind were tossing me around like a rag doll. Keith came by and yelled at me to move up, but I still must’ve been 50^th by the time we got to Rich Road.

The next several miles hurt. It didn’t feel like we were going super fast, but I definitely wasn’t getting good recovery. I nearly got popped going through the first feed zone. Crosswinds were blasting the left side of the peloton here, and of course that’s exactly where I was. I was working my butt off on a flat section and noticed the guys to my right weren’t even pedaling. Here I was hanging by a thread and these guys aren’t doing a thing. Boy I felt stupid. I quickly gave up a few spots to get to the protected right side. Life was good after that.

Finally on 64&30 I got a chance to recover. I couldn’t believe how hard I felt like I was working on the feed zone road. Not a good omen for things to come. There was a two man break about 20 seconds up on SR30, but they might have just been going for a head start on Joe Bean Rd. Not a bad idea really. I should have been working my way into a solid sag climbing position, but I didn’t. Instead I was practically tail gunning it in 50^th or so trying to recover. Riding like this makes you lazy. Keith was smart and had made it to the top 20.

The turn to Joe Bean comes and immediately I started regretting I wasn’t in a better position. We strung out after the turn only to bunch up on the first kicker. I was sort of expecting this and let a gap open to coast about half way up the kicker before having to brake. We were absolutely crawling during the initial shuffling as the leaders were probably just figuring out who would dictate the pace. Shortly after we accelerated into a hard but smooth pace and strung out in a long line. I never really got into a good grove and was fumbling around with my arm warmers as I overheated. On the second to last kicker I was hanging by a thread, and realized that the group I was latched onto had been gapped. This realization killed all motivation and I cracked. There were a handful of us to drop here, but the field was still huge.

It wasn’t a total meltdown, and after a minute or so of easing up I was ready to chase hard. That’s probably a sign that I didn’t dig as deep as I could have and I'm not proud of that effort. It’s tough chasing on those dirt roads after Joe Bean, especially with the headwind. We quickly formed a chase group of 4 and picked up rider after rider, but we never would catch the bunch. One of the wheelcars stayed with us all the way until Mountain Road giving me hope that we were close.

Chasing is never fun, especially for the first 10 or 20 minutes or so after being dropped. Odds are you’re charged with lactic acid but you also want to go hard while the field is still within reach. You’re also probably trying to chase with a group of people that you’ve never ridden with before. One of the guys in our chase group seemed to attack every time he pulled through. I really don’t know if he was trying to attack us or if he thought he was just pulling through strong. Either way it was ridiculously annoying and after having to chase him down a few times I got fed up. I dropped back to ride my own pace but that was a bad idea. The windy run into Greenwich was brutal for going it alone. The pace car passed me to follow the group, and a line of cars formed behind the pace car. After 5 or 10 minutes of riding solo I decided I needed to catch the group, and was able to draft the backed up traffic to my advantage. Caught back on after digging deep for just a few minutes.

Our group grew bigger and bigger and around Greenwich we were 10 strong and finally moving smoothly. This was short lived though, as once we turned onto Burton Road to go by the second feed zone people stopped rotating. I was out of water and getting thirsty, took a neutral feed, then managed to stick the bottle between my number and jersey. That fell out after about 30 seconds and I was back to no water. Two dropped bottles in one day, nice.

As we continued across the next several miles of dirt roads I was at the front more and more often. Fatigue was setting in for some, but my legs were feeling great. On Becker Road I accidently rolled away going up some hill. I wasn’t getting much help anyways so I decided to go it alone.

I overtook a lot of people from my field on Meeting House Rd. Those rollers are such a grind if you don’t try and carry your speed over them. There were several shattered souls absolutely crawling.

The paved descent off Meeting House Road was like a hurricane. Again, the deep wheels didn’t help. It felt like I was on a sailboat leaning into the wind. I thought I was descending pretty quickly, but someone that’d I passed just a minute or two before came screaming by me on a cross bike. We rode together until Stage Road.

Two of the guys that I’d ridden with back in Greenwich caught me about half way up Stage Road. They were really moving while I was just doing my thing around threshold. Latching on to them was intense and suddenly it didn’t feel like a TT anymore. We picked up a few more guys from our field and by the time we were over the hill, there were 6 of us.

Turnpike Road is a flat final ~3 miles of the race. I was in a group of 6, and I had mixed feelings about what to do. On one hand I wanted to keep the pace up and finish with a faster time. On the other hand I wanted to finish ahead of everyone in my group. No one wanted to pull through and I ended up just sitting on the front pulling at a moderately easy pace. Time to play cat and mouse games for 59^th place!

I hugged the side of the road so I could watch for attacks. 2k to go, nothing. 1k to go, nothing. I started to think I was the only one that even cared about racing. Maybe I was. Finally about 200m before the final turn, one dude comes up to me and says “shall we start this?” He digs hard until the turn and I grab his wheel. So much for a surprise attack. He sprints out of the turn kind of half heartedly and the Svelte guy in our group comes flying by. Now we’re talking, somebody that wants to race! It was a long way to sprint but I was in good position, so I jumped up to his wheel. As he started to fade with 100m to go and I used my momentum to ride by for a crowd appeasing 59^th.

Finishing time was 3:00:23, about 12 minutes back of the lead group. Keith held on until Stage Road and finished 41st.

Wells Ave A Race, 4/4

The big question going into this week’s edition of Wells Ave was if the A and B fields would be combined. It was Easter Sunday, but the forecast was incredible and there were no other races in the area. Last year the fields were combined on a cooler day, but this year separate fields were run. That was great because it gave me just enough time to find a gigantic cinnamon roll to devour before the race. Also, my family was in town for the holiday and it gave me time to tell them how the race works. I also scored some sweet pictures from them being there.

Before we started I thought it was a big turnout. I would have guessed 60 or 70. Looking at pics and vids from the race, it looks like it was much smaller. Who knows. There were certainly some big engines rev’ing at the front, as evident from our eventual 27.5 mph average speed. NEBC saw Todd and Roy come out of hiding. Chewy and Justin showed, as did a very fit looking Chuck and Jerry.

I really want to get into a break at Wells this spring. Just one time, even if I end up dropping. So far I may have been in a few small moves, but nothing that lasted more than a lap. I’m talking a solid 15+ break that has me on the rivet the whole time. The goal continues to evade me.

My legs were a bit fresher this week than in previous weeks with Chris Hinds being a relatively easy day. Even still, the pace kept up enough that I found it tough to maintain a spot at the front for very long. Every 5 laps or so I’d find myself at the front for a lap ready to respond, and every 10 laps I might actually go with something. That doesn’t seem like very good odds for getting in a successful break, but I don’t think my legs are good enough to be up there much more than that. Instead of making efforts on prime laps I was moving up and holding position to be ready for a counter. It never happened like I’d hoped though.

10 or 15 laps in there was a break of 8 or so up the road with no NEBC in it. Roy came up and took a long pull while I was on his wheel. He brought us within 10 seconds or so, and when he pulled off I jumped to try and bridge. For a second I thought I made it, but the wheel I made it to was dropping off. One short surge later and I found myself on another fading wheel so I called it quits.

At 10 to go we were still one big bunch. Tim (CCB) had been jumping on pretty much everything, and he said to me that nothing was going to stay away today. At the time it seemed like he might be right. A lap later I found Myerson’s wheel. I figured that, if he was still here with less than 10 to go I’d do everything I could to stay on his wheel.

For 3 laps or so I just hung out on his wheel, floating around. Finally, with about 5 to go on the start/finish, he made his way to the front and attacked hard. It was a full on finishing sprint effort to stay on his wheel, and looking at this picture, I was barely on it. He just kept motoring until half way down the back straight when he finally pulled off. I would have laughed out loud at the thought of trying to pull through if I weren’t breathing so hard. My legs were good for about 3 more pedal strokes before they quit. It wouldn’t have done much good anyways; everyone in the race was going to chase down that move. I got my 60 seconds of glory though.

Somewhere soon after that the winning break went. I was too busy trying to regain consciousness to see it go. With 2 or 3 to go I could see them dangling out there, not more than 15 seconds up, but no one was chasing.

On the last lap I was pretty much dead center in the bunch and just filling in holes as they opened and slowly moving forward. I saw teammate Chuck fly up the inside when a lane opened up and he looked strong. We were bunching up unusually wide on the back straight, giving me lots of room on the inside. I was 3 wheels from the front row on the fateful turn 4.

I don’t know what happened exactly, but two riders collided in the middle-ish part of the field and everyone started going down. The crash spread its way to the outside and suddenly there were very few racers around me. Those of us that got through the crash unhindered seemed to pause for a second, looking at each other wondering if it was OK to bother sprinting at this point.I think most of us sprinted for a few seconds then eased off just being thankful we weren’t tied up in that mess.

This next photo shows all that remained after the crash. It looks like only Myerson, Tim, Leo, McKrittck, myself, and Chris made it through OK. Everyone else either had to stop or went down. That’s not many people considering it was a 50-man field and only 6 people were up the road. No one likes it when things get that ugly.

Of NEBC, Chuck, Justin, Chewy, and Jerry all crashed. Chuck was hospitalized and we’re all wishing for a speedy recovery for him. He seems to be doing OK and can’t wait to get back on the bike. The others were banged up but able to get themselves home.

Chris Hinds Criterium

For the first time that I’ve ever seen, the Chris Hinds crit actually had good weather this year.In 07 it was so cold that the ink in our pen’s froze and we couldn’t sign the waviers. In 08 the sky was pitch black on the drive down and it was a wonder that we were able to race. 09 brought temps in the 30’s and pouring down rain. 2010? 70’s, sunburns, and summer embro.

I got up early to drive down with Ken who was doing the 4 race. Some year I will be able to sleep in for this event, but it just hasn’t happened yet. 6AM breakfast outside on the patio was a treat though.

The 4’s race came down to a bunch sprint. It looked like Ken just rode on the front for the last half lap and held on for fourth. Super strong sprinter. He’s the guy in the middle of this fuzzy photo. Now if only I could get him to switch to my team when he upgrades…

I busted out my new carbon wheels for the first time. Everyone says don’t work on your bike the night before a race. Good advice, and I take that to heart. Instead I prefer to wait until the morning of to do the work. Last week I cleaned my PT hub in the morning before Wells. On Saturday I had to redo my brake setup to work with the new edge wheels. I think they must be a millimeter or two thicker than my open pros.

For me it was the p123 field. No straight cat3 field at Chris Hinds. Many of the usual New England powerhouses were there. NEBC had Chewy, Jim, Peter, Dave, and myself.

The first couple of laps were a bit of a shock. I think I forgot how to steer my bike. My rhythm was all off and I was letting gaps open up on pretty much every turn. I apologize to all those poor souls that had to come around me. It was not pretty.

Once it started coming back to me how to corner in a bunch it was time to play. I’ve only raced a handful of p123 fields, and I don’t really know how strong am I right now, so when we started bunching up with 30 or 35 laps to go I thought I should go on the attack. Great idea. I was moving up the inside on the back straight just as the bunch was easing up and two racers attacked. I had no idea who either of them were, but neither were a teammate, and I was perfectly positioned, so I hopped on the move. After 30 seconds I looked back and we had a gap. Dang, that meant I had to pedal hard. We stayed away for 2 or 3 laps until someone obviously thought “geez we can’t let that cat3 go up the road it’s too dangerous” and we were brought back.

That little move actually felt pretty decent. I was super thankful that the field eased off when we came back and the counter attacks were minimal. It was rest time for a few laps after that and I think either Peter or Dave got in the next move. I started feeling a little bit like superman at this point and Chewy told me I should try and bridge if I felt good.

Ok, great idea. In fact, it was such a good idea that someone else tried bridging right then and there. I stomped on it, but that dude gapped me pretty badly and I was quickly out of the draft. Then someone else went flying by and I tried to go again but failed once more. Hmmm, that’s not good, I should have rested more.

Next thing I know everyone decides to bridge. The 50 or so peloton turned into 15 or 20 3-man bridge groups. All heck broke loose and I got dropped by one bridge group, then another, then another. It wasn’t long before 10 or 15 of us were popped. Man that sucked. Off the front to off the back in 10 minutes time. Should have known everyone had reserves. Oh well, next time.

Dave got in the break of the day but once the group started attacking each other he was popped with Kyle from Embrocation. The two of them fought like crazy, nearly rejoined the break a time or two, but ended up getting eaten by the peloton with about 3 to go.