Fall River Criterium, cat3

Fall River Criterium, I think this may go down as a race that few people love but few people dislike. It’s a great closed course: 4 turns, semi-technical, a fast downhill, and a moderate uphill to a long flat finishing straightaway. The fastest strong man will win a sprint. Weaker sprinters will be too gassed from the hill.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to get very excited about racing in an industrial park. Especially when the entrance has an arrangement of toilet bowls set up artistically with letters on them spelling “Industrial Park.” I was going to snap a photo on my way out, but we ended up leaving in another direction so no photo.

That being said, I was really looking forward to a good competitive crit with the 3’s. It seems that these are a rarity compared to p123 and 4/5 races. Mostly because I don’t want to travel to southern CT, so it’s my own fault.

Boy did I feel lousy the morning of the race. Dehydrated, shaky, high pulse, hungry. Not at all ideal. Possibly the result of being at the tail end of a high volume training week. Or maybe the previous night’s wine was a big stronger than I’m used to. Or maybe both. Who knows. The 3’s didn’t start until 1pm so I had a lot of time to eat up, relax, and get ready.

Actually, the morning flew by and I didn’t even get to the venue until 12:30, 30 minutes before the start. So much for a warmup, and my legs felt like rocks. I also just glued a new tubular the morning before. It took me a week of prep and I was anal about every last detail but I still hate riding things untested. Especially after reading a story like Jonny Bold’s at masters nats. You want to make sure everything is perfect when you’re running tubular.

So per usual I rush the reg, kit up, Erica makes me Gatorade and pins me up, and I’m on the line. But it’s all good because I have a sweet new s/s skinsuit formally worn by NEBC legend Todd Rowell. His sweat, tears, and chamois creams have surely saturated the lycra threads with empowering upper category awesomeness. Actually I was just happy to have a kit without any holes and working zippers that fits me right (it seems I’m a medium now) but either way it was cool.

The whistle blows and we’re off. We had 30 pre-reg’d but it looked more like 50 on the line to me. Lots of tired masters were doubling up for the day. I took an outside line on the first several turns, thinking if I were to roll my tubular it would be good form to only crash myself. We hit some turns fast early on and by mid race I was pretty confident that it was going to stick.

An early break of two got up the road, I think Wheelworks and some younger guy in mostly black with yellow lettering, something “.nl”. Kind of cool looking in a Livestrong sort of way. They dangled about 10 seconds up on a relaxed field until the first prime, which was probably a third or more of the way into the race.

After they came back a few much shorter lived moves went off. I was trying to stay within striking distance of the front, waiting for the right move to go with.

Nothing seemed to be a winner though. Green Line Velo (GLV) only had 3 guys in the race, including a seemingly unbeatable Sam Rosenholtz, and I suspected they were banking on a sprint finish, similar to Norwell. I decided I would only attack if one of them were in the move, or if the going got really hard making the race too hard to control.

With about 8 to go it was announced that there would be back to back to back primes. The first two were $25 and the last was $50. I stuck to the front hoping that I could snag one with minimal effort, but all three ending up being won on mini-breaks. GLV did get off the front for one but I ignored it thinking it was a pure prime effort.

By the end of the third prime I was chomping at the bit to attack. I was hoping that these 3 primes would really lift the pace and launch a winning move. Tom Stevens (Gearworks) countered when the final mini-break came back, but he was alone. And the pace still didn’t feel too hard somehow. I passed again on attacking in order to contest the bunch sprint. There were only 5 to go so attacking would mean playing all your cards.

Paul Curley also came out of hiding around this point, moving very near the front. I didn’t even know he was in the race. If all else failed he would be a good wheel to follow to the finish.

The pace seemed to back off significantly after the Stevens move. I found myself on the front barely pedaling for nearly a lap. I couldn’t believe no one wanted to come around but I didn’t really care, soft pedaling is soft pedaling.

That all changed with 2 to go. We came out of the turn 2 downhill and there was a full on rush to the front. There was a tailwind on the section which made it extra fast. Mike Norton seemed to be starting something off for his Cyclonauts team and took over the pacemaking. I was swarmed on either side and lost all sort of position, and the pace was too hot up the hill to get it back there. We came through for the bell lap and I was lost in the middle of the pack.

I needed to get move up. I was under very little stress and in great condition to contest the sprint. On the downhill I went to the outside and picked up a few spots. The bigger opportunity was between turns 2 and 3 where the road is wide and the tailwind helps. Just as I went to sprint up the side a few others did as well, which I believe was a Cambridge Bicycles (CB) duo. I got to within 10 wheels of the front before making a scary fast lefthander up the hill for the final time.

This point of the race is tricky. It’s roughly 600m out, but it’s slow with the uphill and headwind on the finishing straight. At 10 wheels back, I could potentially be in a very good position, but it’s risky. If someone in front of me cracks and a gap opens, I lose. If the pace eases off and I get swarmed, I lose. I think you have to sit in and if the pace feels too easy for a half a second you move up. Before the top of the hill too.

Stephen Pierce (CB) was on the front setting the pace up the hill. I know he’s super strong when the road tilts up but I didn’t feel under pressure. I came around the outside and moved into third wheel as we approached the top of the hill.

It was an awesome position but I burnt a serious match in doing so and I knew it. Any anaerobic juice I may have had was now gone. I needed the pace to back off for just a few seconds to re-energize. We did ease off shortly after making the final turn when Pierce called it a day. The Wheelworks rider (I think it was WW) behind him had no interest in going hard, and I can’t blame him. If I had anything at all good left in my legs for the sprint I would have gone then, albeit being a long 300m into the wind. But I stayed tucked away, hoping I could ride wheels to the finish.

And that’s exactly when Rosenholtz went, to the narrow ride side that was only wide enough for one racer. Boy is he fast. His acceleration was too fast for WW to get on his wheel and I had no room to maneuver being passed on both sides. Not that I could have grabbed his wheel either. It turned into an awkwardly long in the saddle sprint of trying to hold wheels.

For a moment, at about 100m to go, things were looking OK. Somehow I was still in about 5^th place but I was about to move back fast. My legs were toast. I got passed by so many people in those last 100m it’s a wonder I didn’t get crashed into. I ended up in 14^th.

I probably spent more work being towards the front than I should have if I were planning on sprinting for the finish. That’s the problem when you race with no plan and just try to do it all. You don’t do any one thing really well, and unless you’re silly strong for your category, you need to do one thing really well in order to win. I did get a good workout though, and it was a good experience before GMSR.