The course: a group ride with a big hill in the middle and end.
The squad: AJ, Cal, Rob and me.
The weather: Just lovely.
We had heard that 545's Billy H, kona qualifier, known hammer, and squeaky bike haver, was going to go for a break right off the bat. He did this, but with everyone on fresh legs they were more than happy to chase him after every attack. Nonetheless this was awesome and animated the race much more than the procession I was expecting. 545 had a couple mechanicals and suffered for it, but kudos to them for mixing it up.
No major wrecks from where I could see, although a CRCA rider in a baggy t-shirt-like jersey messed up a drink so bad he just about wobbled everyone into a pileup.
We soldier up the climb the first time, a front group of maybe 15 riders break away, then we hit the back of the 50+ field. For some reason I thought this was the cat 3 field. I have a good imagination. Lots of slowing down. Nobody seemed interested in pushing hard enough to stay away, so most of the field stayed together.
Halfway through lap two, a few guys creep off the front. A couple more bridge. A non-Billy 545 rider is in there so 545 gets to work crapping up the chase. The main pack seems pretty fragmented at this point from my limited perspective, so I did kind of a stupid thing and helped to bring back this breakaway. It was a bad idea. We catch the break no sooner than the base of the final ascent.
It's here at the base of the final and decisive climb that none other than the baggy-jersey CRCA rider goes on the attack. A bunch of us chew away at the climb behind him, but nobody's making any moves to get up with him, I guess 'cause he had a baggy-ass jersey and nobody took him seriously (spoiler: they are now lol).
I learned a new word, which is 'pre-cramping'. It's when your muscles feel eight months pregnant with lactic acid.
We hit the flat, I'm second wheel of the group, baggy guy is still up the road. Pre-cramping hasn't yet turned into cramping, but then we hit the final ramp, I get swamped, can't hold it, start doing that grotesque upper-body-torquing thing to try making my upper body perform the functions of legs that don't work.
The guy who was killing me last season in CX is right up ahead, so of course I manage to get him at the line for 9th or 10th. But the results are messed up so I'm listed as a DNF until it's fixed. Baggy jersey guy crushed it, so now we're all his sons and have to wear baggy jerseys too. Chris D (2nd) is changing his jerseys up like a stealth fighter. I have no idea who to mark anymore.
Wait, are you saying that 545 INTERFERED with the chase when they had someone in the break?
That's a new development we'll have to keep an eye on, hopefully it doesn't spread to the Master's races where we can typically rely on them to lead the chase against themselves.
All I know is I'm kicking myself for not being able to do the cat 5, doing some armchair quarterbacking I think I could have done quite well (for me). I did get an orange jersey on zwift yesterday though lol
I'll keep mine short in hopes that Rees posts ups.
Anyways the 3s were mostly NY guys it seemed like because I recognized less than half the jerseys. Race starts out in typical cat 3 fashion, hammer the hills then ease up on the flats. Not too far in a break got formed up the road. I continued my usual tail gunning figuring the odds were it would get caught quickly. Towards the bottom of the course, the break was now on the edge of sight and riders were starting to launch bridging attempts which the whole field was covering. I got to the front and started helping cover and block. I hadn't seen Rees or Jason in a while so I was assuming (rightly so) that one of them was in the break. Jason was the one in the break with Scott Smith and 1 or 2 other juniors.
Things settled down as we approached the finishing climb for the 1st lap. I stayed in a good position to hit the hill hard. Then the rail road tracks came followed up by potholes. My wheel was eaten and slid out the back of the pack to a chorus of "nice the good guy is gone" (screw you Andrew Muir) and "yes!!".
Neutral service quickly changed out my front wheel but the pack was already around the turn and starting up the hill before I was moving again.Turns out the pack had a faster time going up the hill the first time than the finish because the were trying to make it so I couldn't catch them. Fast forward 10ish minutes and lots of weaving through cars and motorcycles and I catch back on to the group near the end of Wales/Monson road.
That was most of my match box but luckily nobody got away on the hill. Suddenly we also caught the break. So everyone is together and all is calm for most of the lap. About 8 miles to go, Rees rolls off the front and nobody chases. Soon after 2 others roll off the front and again nobody chases. They group up and stay away. Rees proceeds to drop them both on the hill and roll across the finish line with time to spare.
The rest of the pack stays bunched up together on the first part of the hill. I'm 3-5 wheels back and jump along the flat section. I get passed by Scott Smith who seems to have godly 60 second power. Then one other person also passes me so I end up 6th.
I think that puts me solidly in the lead of the VT cup but I've thought that for a few other races so maybe I'm just bad at math after anaerobic efforts. Didn't see the Velotooler guy at the race but hopefully I can get the jersey before the start of Quabbin.
After two rounds of "my knee is almost better, I think it's good enough to race... Oh crap now my knee hurts again" I finally decided to skip a weekend despite not having any knee pain on Saturday. I instead opted to do my best impression of the more famous Busick and pretend to be a photographer.
Items of note from the day:
It seems that Derin (one of our new juniors) will be the real deal some day. He got the KOM on a ~6 minute segment of the course by 38 seconds called Janarcy TT while chasing back after a double flat
Dave Mingori is really good at hiding behind wheels when you're trying to take pictures of him
Chris Gibson has a pretty legendary sufferface, nay, sufferwholebody that I only have blurry pictures of.
I got an awesome shot of Rees celebrating at the line, but that is also blurry
Getting good photos of bike races is really hard and Katie Busick is damn good ad what she does
My Fiance got 2nd in the 1-2-3 field and cements her already unquestionable status as the better cyclist in our household
peterkuhn wrote: ↑Mon Apr 23, 2018 4:53 pm
"nice the good guy is gone" *loses to the other good guy*
Ha, I was just thinking that reading Robbie's report. As the saying goes, careful what you wish for.
50+ was frustrating, and more or less uneventful (except for one very key element alluded to in Peter's initial report).
No other MRC guys in the field. My allergies decided that morning they were going to remind me just how much I had missed them since last spring. Rob Lyons from Finkraft decided to make this his 50+ debut and apparently everyone was keying on him. Arc en Ciel had 6 guys in the field so I assumed (incorrectly it turns out) they would be trying to mix things up. Well, not entirely incorrect as immediately on Rt.20 an Arc guy goes. Gets a gap and Lyons puts in a big dig to chase. That woke everyone up and we absolutely hammered the initial part of Rt. 20. But then it all let up as we came back together.
This would set the tone for nearly the entire first loop. As we approached Wales common, where I knew my personal chearing section would be both Lyons and Eric Weinrich put in a dig at the start of the grind climb. Screw it, it's early but I go all in to pull up with those two. I've got one other NY guy with me. Weinrich goes again, at which point NY guy sits up. I stay glued to Lyons' wheel but he doesn't go. I go around him to bridge which does nothing except bring on coughing fit #1. Now 4-5 others, including JDZ, catch up but the rest of the field, while strung out, is pretty close in tow. That's that, so I roll up thru Wales in 5th wheel, waiving to Alice.
After that, nobody really tries anything, or the efforts that go are really half-hearted. Fast forward thru Stafford and as we near the 2nd RR tracks (the ones of Robbie's near demise) Pat Cunningham rolls off the front. Dave Potter jumps as well. It appears the field ready to react when there's a near crash over said potholes after the tracks. Those two now have a gap and I'm not in any position to jump, having just barely avoided hitting the deck. No big deal, as I'm sure that we'll drill the hill, string things out to a manageable gap and chase down over Wales Rd. Make the right turn to start the climb and yup, right on cue Lyons hits the front HARD. Yabroudy close behind, with all the top guys right there and I'm very comfortable in maybe 7th wheel. Find out after it's a PR on the bottom part of the climb. Then an official pulls alongside and tells us to move over. No other explanation. Queries of "is there a crash" and "are we neutralized" are simply answered with "no". So then why are you making us go so slow?? Finally after we get thru the flat section of the climb we figure out the 4's are catching us. So we are neutral after all. I'm looking around but don't see Cunningham or Potter with us. DAMN, they got away. Okay, we'll be able to start back up soon. No such luck. The 4's were splintered into multiple small groups and they were neutralizing us to get all these mini-groups past us. We covered the next 4 miles at barely any effort. Well over 3 minutes slower than last year. Now our field has swelled back to 30 and everyone's recovered. Then Lyons decided to turn around, and so does Weinrich. What? Just drop out now?
So we keep rolling along until they finally whistle us to start (re)racing but nobody overly enthused about it, and I think most of the guys didn't even realize two were still up the road (in fact the guy who won the group sprint thought he won overall). The two off end up winning by almost 2 minutes.
We hit the final climb a good 20-25 strong so I go to the front and try to set a solid pace thru the middle of the climb, which brings on coughing fit #3. Try to hold my position but keep getting passed.
Last edited by djming on Mon Apr 23, 2018 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I was the only one in the field and this race was wacko, After the neutral start the race director took a wrong turn so the entire group headed back in the direction we came, so that was fun. the first 10ish miles devolved into a "lets ditch all the weak guys" effort which soon established a pretty good sized group, but as soon as I hit a good rhythm I fell into a pothole and blew both of my tires and was left cursing my ass off until neutral service pulled up and got me rolling again. Then it immediately became a desperate chase to get back to the leading group. I burnt alot of matches but with some help from neutral service I was back in the lead group (or so I thought). The moment I got back some guy t-boned me (I have no clue how that was possible) he faceplanted and I barely got away on two wheels.
The next 20ish miles were smooth and the pace was high but not enough to hurt, around mile 30 I heard guys talking about organizing a move to push up the pace to chase back a break which had some 454 guys. At this point I realized 454s jackassery in blocking our group and we pushed up the tempo. I did my best to help excite the guys around me into chasing but save my legs so I could turn on the hurt on the climbs but had to take a couple pulls to keep things moving. 454 kept pushing towards the front and we kept trying to beat them back. In the end we weren't able to catch the leading group but I was able to drop the rest of the group on the final drag and placed tenth just behind someone who had pulled an early attack on the climb. Overall so-so day the chase back was fun, but the rest was eh.
side note
was checking road results and the times were completely off for some reason, I supposedly did 3 hours 9 minutes and was 7 or so minutes behind 9th place (which made no sense I was on the guys wheel??). I went over the data and the race itself showed a time for me of give or take 2 hours 25 minutes so I don't know whats up with that, the rest of the cat 5 field was also screwed up so I contacted the race director and told him the issue. So that issue is pending
Going into the race I knew that I didn't want the final climb to be the determining factor. Before the race I talked to the other teammates and it sounded like the general plan was to wait until the final climb, with Jason considering going for an early move as well. While talking to Robbie he gave me 2 pieces of advice:
1) Don't attack on or before a downhill.
2) Don't go for it if I am by myself.
I am always at the very back of a race after a neutral start, not that it matters, I am just always amazed at how people feel the need to fill in any little gap that opens up during the neutral start. Anyways I hang out at the back for the first 5 miles of the race and then start working my way up in the group. When I finally make it near the front I put in my first attack to try and get in an early break, but the guys at the front didn't want to let any one up the road. Over the next 25 minutes I attacked 5 more times, the 5th attack got a gap and I was able to bridge up to guys that had countered one of my moves. I pulled 2 other guys up to them and tried to get us organized, but it was pre-destined to fail, as 3 of the 4 other guys decided that they didn't need to take pulls. Once the group caught us I decided to rest my legs a little and hang out at the back of the pack, but it wasn't long before I got bored and decided to try and get in a move again, but no gaps opened up so I moved to the back of the group once more. I think it was during this time that Jason got in his break away (around mile 14 to 15 ish???) but I didn't even know that there was a break up the road, let alone that a teammate was in it! Not knowing that I had a team mate in the break I decided to give one more attack to see if get anything going. I moved towards the front and the entire right side opened up, as everyone was trying keep themselves shaded from the wind. I went for it, only a few riders followed and there was actually daylight between us and the rest of the group, but the gap didn't really grow and we got brought back in. This time, I didn't want to end up at the very back of the pack, I wasn't 100 percent sure where the climb started, but I knew that I wanted to be near the front of the group when it did. A few guys at the front were trying to organize a pace line, not a hard pace, just a sustainable pace. Which I didn't understand why they wanted to do that kind of work, into a headwind, with everyone else getting a free-ride (again, I still did not know that there was a break up the road). I could tell that the climb was getting closer as other riders were getting more aggressive with positioning and I slowly started moving backwards. With the climb in sight I found myself behind Robbie right as he hits a massive pothole giving him a flat tire. Robbie puts his hand in the air to signal a flat and then I hear sounds of glee and excitement coming from other racers, not a very sportsman-like attitude, but in a way it is a huge complement to how Robbie always races strong and smart.
As we start the climb someone asks me "Do you think that Jason can win out of that?" at this point I realize that there is a break up the road and that I have a teammate in it. Going up the climb for the first time was a relaxed pace and I was able to make my way up to the front of the group where I started blocking. At this point the gap was 40 seconds and if I could keep the main group unorganized there was a chance that the break would stick and we would end up with Jason on the podium, at first blocking was working really well. There were a few slow miles where only 2 guys did any work at the front and then every time that I pulled through, the pace would slow down again. Finally one of the guys asked me why I wasn't pulling, I answered honestly, saying that I had a teammate in the break. This really annoyed him, as he realized that all of his work had just gone to waste. After this more people realized what I was doing and there were enough of them that were willing to work that it made blocking extremely difficult. I had to spend a lot of time riding in the wind in order to stay close enough to the front to block, I was almost always in the top 4 during this time. I would have to chase down any attacks on the group, unless it was just one guy, I let that happen a few times, it is just one person and chasing them wouldn't have helped my cause. Also one guy was trying to ride me off the road in hopes of getting rid of me, just ride harder man, cycling isn't supposed to be a contact sport. Over all blocking was fun I had guys yelling things like "Watch MRC" or "Don't let MRC in", I spent a lot of time in the wind, but if it had actually worked Jason's group had stayed away it would have been super rewarding.
Once Jason's group got caught the pace slowed down substantially. I was on the front pushing about 150 Watts wondering when someone was going to pass me, but no one wanted to ride on front, so I decided that the only logical thing to do was to sprint with a small hill in front of my I stomp on the pedals for a short amount of time and look back and there are no gaps, so I ease up, thinking that I will get absorbed into the pack, but that doesn't happen so I repeat. Give another surge to see if anything happens, but again everyone follows the wheel in front of them and I ease up one more time, now we are about to make the turn onto the headwind section of the course and I am still on the very front. I am able to take the turn fairly fast and put in one more sprint, but everyone expects you to sprint out of a turn, so again, it doesn't stick. The pace slows down, but no one bothers to try and move to the front. Call me insane, but I decide to attack one more time, this time I made it much more snappy and the guy behind me didn't even bother trying to follow my wheel. There are 9 miles left in the race and I quickly settle into a pace that I think that I can sustain with enough energy left to open it up on the climb. I get as aero as possible and start time trialing. I am doing exactly what Robbie told me NOT to do, I am solo and is net down hill between me and the climb and to top it all off, there is a pretty solid head wind. I knew it was a long shot, but at this point I was going for it. After going solo for 3.1 miles two guys bridge up to me. We start working extremely well together, taking as short of pulls as possible and keeping our pace-line tight. By the time we hit the climb, the main group isn't in sight, we start climbing and I ride off the front without too much effort. I realize that this is it, my first road-race victory, I am so excited, I give out a roar at the finish line. (Well... as close to a roar as I can get). A side note, MRC has taken podium at every single one of the races on our team calendar this year. Let's keep it up guys!
Here is a shorter version of how my race went.
Hang out at the back.
Attack, attack, let counter attack go up the road, attack, attack, attack, attack and bridge up, get caught.
Rest.
Attack, attack.
Rest.
Attack.
Rest/Hangout near the front.
Realize that Jason is in the break.
Make my way to the front on the climb.
Do my best to block.
Almost get pushed off the road 3 separate times by one guy who doesn't like that I am blocking.
Jason and gang gets caught.
Attack, attack, attack, attack-this one sticks (9 miles left in the race)
Solo move into a headwind, with a down hill coming up.
Thinking "This is exactly what Robbie told me NOT to do"
2 guys bridge up, we are work well together, we are friends.
Make the turn for the final climb and the two guys don't even try to follow me, they are content with 2nd and 3rd.
I win!!
I am so freaking excited!
Hopefully it is not a one-hit wonder.
1) Rees nice to see you turn teammate after realizing your mistake (this is why you shouldn't tail gun) Also congrats on a GREAT victory
2) I'm psyched we downgraded 545 Velo to 454 Velo. They deserve it.
both Lyons and Eric Weinrich put in a dig at the start of the grind climb. Screw it, it's early but I go all in to pull up with those two. I've got one other NY guy with me. Weinrich goes again, at which point NY guy sits up. I stay glued to Lyons' wheel but he doesn't go. I go around him to bridge which does nothing except bring on coughing fit #1. Now 4-5 others, including JDZ, catch up but the rest of the field, while strung out, is pretty close in tow. That's that, so I roll up thru Wales in 5th wheel, waiving to Alice. 
