Purgatory 2018

[djming]

The "fun" began when they combined the two masters fields so instead of 50+ was now a combined 40/50+ (with separate scoring and payouts). Also, the start time got bumped from 8AM to 1PM. At least the forecast temps were quite reasonable.

Given the extra time, combined with GLV being short on volunteers, I decided to start the day by marshaling in the early wave so took up position at the right turn onto Uxbridge Rd. "Only" one real close call when someone decided they were going to ignore the guy in an orange vest with a large orange flag in the middle of the road waving (and yelling) for him to stop. Field approaching taking the right turn wide. I very nearly jumped on his hood when finally he slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt. Yup, handicap placard hanging from the rear view mirror and no way did the guy look to be under 80. Probably never did hear (or see..) me

Okay, my relief crew came right on schedule so time to get ready.

Early in lap one nobody's doing much, which just led to a considerable cluster the first time down Mendon Rd. 45+mph over a bumpy, twisty road with 60 guys; surely this can't last. Surely I'm correct and sure enough the pace slowly starts to heat up. Then Lackey #1 just goes ballistic. Despite a PR on the climb, I'm in trouble of getting dropped. Trying to catch back on but now attacks are coming. Onto match #3 and I just barely gain back contact. Match #4 and I'm back to the mid-pack of the reduced field. Suddenly things slightly ease up and we're getting close to the right turn onto Uxbridge to head towards the descent so I put in a little dig and go to the front and lead the field into the descent (now THAT"S much less nerve wracking). Hard up Barnett, then a CVC guy goes. Erik Nedeau jumps and I follow and we have a bit of a gap. Start to work, but within 1/2 mile we're brought back. And as a reward, the pace begins to really go hard again on Manchaug. But now I'm feeling okay and able to match it all so sit in. Lackey #2 is not as ballistic but I still have go burn another to catch back on but this time much easier. Pretty much a repeat into Lackey #3 but after 3rd time up someone goes and dangles a bit when Tim Ahearn and Colm McMahon get away to join. And with Tim A driving that train, that was the last we saw of the podium.
Lackey #4 I have a much easier time maintaining and now the (further reduced) main field is content to just wait things out. I'm feeling better than expected. Final Lackey and I'm actually still able to go hard at the bottom and begin moving up. Looking around and I'm with all the top 50+ guys. Hmm, just maybe... and then Rob Lyons puts in a blistering attack just after halfway up and I match that for, oh, maybe 10 pedal strokes. Desperately trying to hold on to JDZ's wheel when he pulls away with a half dozen 50+ guys (including Lyons who takes the field sprint with Erik Nedeau). That group gaps another group that I'm now working to hang with but a couple guys come around me just at the line and I'm 10th in the 50+ (and I think 19th or 20th overall but they don't have an official combined result).

I end up with personal PRs, 2nds and 3rds on most if not all the various segments. NP of almost 85% for the duration (and that with a whole bunch of 0-50W sections). And for that just barely a top 10. But hey, at least I didn't end up crashing on my head into a ditch this year, so there's that!

[jraguin]

Really nice job Dave. I geeked a bit and saw Miles' time up Lackey that 1st time up with 4 laps to go. Holy crap! 3 seconds faster than my faster time ever up Lackey and that was when I won at the finish of only a 4 lap race. Incredible that you were able to get back in it and fight it out to the end.

[eboos]

Cat 4

The race started uneventfully, aside from some brake checking during the roll out which would have been a stupid time for a crash. While still in a neutral start, some people started firing up the hill on Central Turnpike and that made me laugh. Once the race was on, the pace was pretty decent. The pack stayed together fairly well. However right about the 8 mile mark, near the feed zone I think, the guy to the right of me suddenly swerved wildly left and put their pedal right into the spokes of my front wheel. I stayed upright and tried to continue but I heard a clanking sound and I could see that my wheel was warped. I had a broken spoke. Got a wheel from neutral support and continued, but it was too late to catch the pack.

I catch Chris Huesman on Manchaug Road, and on Uxbridge Road on lap two I pass #205. Then for some dumb reason I take a wrong turn and a couple of Cat 5s pass me. I get back on course and pass #205 again (lol, must have been catching a draft from the 5's). From then on, this was the loneliest race I have ever ran. For 2.5 laps I do not see anyone else. No one to chase, nothing. I am in an individual time trial the whole time. Each time I pass the finish line I think "just pull in, its not a big deal, you had a mechanical" but I keep pushing on. On the last lap I didn't think I had anything left in me for Lackey Hill, but somehow I still managed my 3rd best time. Two riders passed me going up the hill and I thought that all this work was going to be for nothing, but it turned out that they didn't have any numbers pinned because they missed the start due to the schedule change. 56/68. I honestly thought that I would have caught more people.

[ehrlinger]

Welcome to Purgatory. Never ending torment. At least now I know what to expect when I am more race ready.

[Derinm1]

I was in the cat 4 field and early agreed on a plan to bring Peter to the base of the final climb towards the front and for me to go give everything I have on an all-out attack at the base of the final climb. with that In mind I raced conservatively which was difficult considering the mad dash out of every corner. The first lap was fairly calm with the descent actually being fairly ok. Of course as soon as we made the right turn onto the finishing climb the pace ramped up and I used it as a time to catapult myself towards the front of the bunch. The second lap and third laps followed a similar pattern and thought I was able to keep my position towards the front. The fourth lap started with a relaxed pace with no one really wanting to work and I passed off the turn at the front. One guy decided to try his hand at a long-range attack (from 3 or 4 miles out) and with all of us shrugging our shoulders he was able to move away a little. Soon some guys form 545 came to the front to do the chasing and going into the right turn into the kickers we had just about caught the guy who had gone off earlier. This is when major attack #2 came. One guy who looked fairly menacing decided to go completely crazy on a ridiculous move on the earlier slopes with him up attacking and myself towards the front and peter a few wheels behind me I thought, you aren't gonna get a better chance, so I chased after him and put in a dig to distance myself from the bunch as I hit the second kicker caught attack #2 and looked back to judge whether or not to back off before the false flats and duke it out in a sprint but with a fair gap I decided to try and drive it home. Just as a passed the cones onto the final false leading to the finish to guys bridged up and caught my wheel and soon sprinted past me and took 1st and 2nd with me about a bikes distance behind for 3rd.

All in all my first podium, and a good day. I was looking at the strava segment for the final climb and we tore it up. I was 3rd on it 2 seconds off the Kom 1 second behind the 1st and second guys and we were the fastest on the day so that was pretty cool ( we only raced 44 miles though so I shouldn't be too excited about it...)

[rraymond]

This was my first race as a 2 but luckily they shorted the race and combined it with the 3s. I had a bad day and didn't have the legs.

It was hard straight from the gun. Even the neutral roll out was fast. The first 2 laps were brutal. On the downhill section on the 2nd lap one of my bottles decided to jump ship. Then on the 3rd lap my chain bounced off the rings and got hooked up around my pedal. SRAM/Look to the rescue. They got it back on then paced me back up towards the field flying through the turns as I peered through their windshield trying to look for potholes and cracks. I got back within sight of the field before they pulled over to help someone else. Caught back on before the field zone and where Mrs. Tinkov handed me a bottle (thank you!).

Got gaped with a 5 others over the top of Lackey. Tucker and I were the only ones who would pull so we traded off. I was trying to get him back to the main field figuring he had a good shot of getting on the podium for the 3s.

After that the race settled down with a large break established up the road. AJ Camelio was double fisting the bottle hand offs to Tucker and I. That was freaking brutal. Glad I didn't get dropped and regretting the upgrade if this is what the races will be like from here on out.

Tucker ended up being 3rd overall in the MA state championship!!!!! Dave also was 3rd in his age group for MA!! Congrats to both of you and Peter/Derin in the cat 4 race!

[Briana]

Cat 4

The race started uneventfully, aside from some brake checking during the roll out which would have been a stupid time for a crash. While still in a neutral start, some people started firing up the hill on Central Turnpike and that made me laugh. Once the race was on, the pace was pretty decent. The pack stayed together fairly well. However right about the 8 mile mark, near the feed zone I think, the guy to the right of me suddenly swerved wildly left and put their pedal right into the spokes of my front wheel. I stayed upright and tried to continue but I heard a clanking sound and I could see that my wheel was warped. I had a broken spoke. Got a wheel from neutral support and continued, but it was too late to catch the pack.

I catch Chris Huesman on Manchaug Road, and on Uxbridge Road on lap two I pass #205. Then for some dumb reason I take a wrong turn and a couple of Cat 5s pass me. I get back on course and pass #205 again (lol, must have been catching a draft from the 5's). From then on, this was the loneliest race I have ever ran. For 2.5 laps I do not see anyone else. No one to chase, nothing. I am in an individual time trial the whole time. Each time I pass the finish line I think "just pull in, its not a big deal, you had a mechanical" but I keep pushing on. On the last lap I didn't think I had anything left in me for Lackey Hill, but somehow I still managed my 3rd best time. Two riders passed me going up the hill and I thought that all this work was going to be for nothing, but it turned out that they didn't have any numbers pinned because they missed the start due to the schedule change. 56/68. I honestly thought that I would have caught more people.

Don't feel bad eboos. I flatted during the neutral start 2 years ago and was never able to catch back on after picking up a wheel from the support car. Rode solo for the entire race. My goal was not to finish last, I ended up 60th of 72. Much like yours it was still a good training ride.

[twetmore]

Well that was a spicy introduction to the 3's...

Before the race Robbie gave me a rundown comparing road racing in the 4's, 3's, and p123's. In the 4's races are hard 1/4 of the time, in the 3's races are hard 1/2 the time, and in the p123's races are hard from the gun. Truer words have never been spoken. As soon as the neutral rollout ended Daniel Nutso went off the front with another dude, who Velocio mistakenly thought was the 2018 KSR winner. As such they spent the first two laps chasing full gas. We averaged 25.4mph over these laps, and I would describe the pace up Lackey as 'wtf'.

Side note - At the top of Lackey I kept thinking 'okay, this is insane, there can't be any other 3's left' only to look around and see nothing but B2C2 baby blue and the only other rider in the 3's I knew to look out for [hence forth bandana-dude].

When we caught the escapees more attacks went and the race continued to be difficult. On the third time up Lackey I decided to lag climb because things came back together over the top anyway, which turned out to be a terrible idea and I was gapped. A small group wound up chasing the split. Nobody really wanted to work except for Robbie (least of all bandana-dude), so he did almost all of the work. I would have loved to contribute more, but my right calf chose this exact moment to seize up completely. Que pedaling the rest of the race without bending my ankle.

Eventually a break went and the pace eased up. On the final Lackey climb I latched onto bandana-dude's wheel and out sprinted him at the end. There was another 3 with us who I was unaware of and I wound up 2nd.

Fast forward to the awards ceremony after the category awards and I randomly hear my name. I hadn't been paying attention but was told to stand on the 3rd step of the podium. I asked the volunteer putting the medal around my neck what the heck this was for, and it turns out that I got 3rd in the MA state championship! Hooray for out of staters, U19, and U23 not counting!

[eboos]

I flatted during the neutral start 2 years ago

Sorry, but

[J.Brodie]

Looks like MRC had another successful day of racing!

I'll throw in a quick recap of the Cat 5 race...which for me was mostly uneventful...

One guy went off from the whistle but all 60-something of us were together down the first descent of Mendon Rd. With how bad the road surface was, and some people panic-breaking and swerving all over, the full width of road was in-use. Then coming up to a blind corner at somewhere around 47mph someone yelled "car up!". I don't think anyone went down because of it, but there were some sketchy moves made by about 1/2 the field to avoid becoming a permanent hood ornament. That was a pretty tense few seconds, and was the only time I saw oncoming traffic on that road for the rest of the race.

To the bottom of the hill and into the flats I ended up letting myself shift to the back of the group (big mistake), and ended up with a small group just behind the main pack. We could have worked together to catch back on, but these guys didn't seem to really want to. We were still just behind the field at the bottom of the first smaller climb. I didn't want to attempt a TT to catch back on and subsequently blow up, so I rode with this group for the rest of the race. I pretty much pulled them almost all over the course and when I did sit on the pace was really slow.

It was a fun course, and we caught a few other riders as they got popped off the back. I should have fought harder earlier in the race to stay closer to the front instead of letting myself drift back. I had plenty of gas to drill the flats and rollers and I think could have hung on to a faster group. Another lesson learned!

My last word on this is with course marshals. When you are in charge of directing racers around a corner, do not jump in the woods to take a leak just after the main field passes and you think you have time. Approaching the first time up Lackey I wasn't exactly sure where the turn was and when I did approach it I just saw an empty chair. I then saw the street sign and realized we almost rode right by it. I yelled out right turn as two other guys I was with rode right by. I'm not sure what they did, maybe looked back or tried to make a hard turn, but they both collided and went down. The kid marshalling that corner ran out when he heard me say right turn and apologized for not directing bike traffic, and just as he said sorry the other two guys collided. It looked rough, hopefully no-one was injured...

[peterkuhn]

Men's cat 4, again:

This race was a major landmark in my racing career with MRC, as it marked the first race in a team kit with pockets. Finally, no more pretending that i am comfortable and not bothered with stroopwafels crammed in between a skinsuit and my chest or back. No more stuffing slimy gel wrappers back up in my shorts. Ah.

The men's cat 4 squad has been dwindling lately as our erstwhile brethren have abandoned us so they can ride longer harder races and do comparatively worse in them (fact check: it turns out they are not actually doing worse. Sorry). So AJ and Derin and I along with Emmanuel, Erik and Brian H set out to restore cat 4 to its former glory. AJ came ready for battle, Derin came ready for some junior-gearing-friendly finishing topography, and I came ready to be a big baby with a cold that I got from a literal baby.

I really like this course despite its offensive bias towards riders with better fitness than me, looking as it does like a drunk person trying to draw Missouri. When we got underway even the potholes along the turnpike (missouri's northern border) didn't seem so bad, probably because of the sweet pockets in my kit and how they held things in them. By the way, the pockets are awesome, but the kit also feels like my armpits are being slowly flossed with baling twine. Of all the skinsuits, unitards, catsuits, and sex-burglar attire I have worn in my time this is the first to do that. You want to stand around like this:

assosman.jpg (10.78 KiB) Viewed 5712 times

I didn't think there was going to be much appetite for a breakaway with this group so my plan was to sit near the front for the climbs and watch for one, otherwise sitting in and conserving what snap I could. Derin was feeling his oats and wanted to put in an attack up the final climb, which was fine with me. There was more to it than that but this was communicated to me on that fast winding downhill so I just nodded. I thought I'd see how he did and follow anyone going after him. There was one rider (stedman's) I knew to have a really good kick and another rider (northampton cycling club) who had put up strong results at KSR plus a couple others I had my eye on.

The first time up Lackey, decent pace! Someone thought they had a gap, but they didn't really. Fake news. That was kind of the end of that action for the rest of the race, laps two and three got progressively slower up the climb and it seemed we had a big group (fact check: like 30 guys) all the way until the final climb.

Last time up Missouri's western border, and the pace picks up a good bit, courtesy of a bigger rider thinking he'd like to get away before the steep stuff. He does get away on the flat, but not enough, and he's reeled in on the first 30s of Lackey. Another interesting thing that happens on Lackey is some guy tailgunning by the front of the group at full sprint, just rocketing up the thing with afterburners on. Waaay faster than you could follow, but maybe he forgot about the second steep bit after the turn? He gets swallowed up too.

Derin launches his attack before the second steep part and gets away, the Stedman's rider and the NCC rider move to cover. I and everyone else go after them. We hit the top and the road flattens, and I get lazy. Instead of pushing harder to stay with them, which I am currently convinced I could have done (fact check: hard to say. racebrain is real, but hindsight is very unreliable. maybe 50/50?), I take the wheel of another pursuer hoping he'll tow me back up to the stedman's and NCC guy, who are looking very much like they'll catch Derin.

I slip around the guy I'm behind and haul to the line for all I'm worth (fact check: about 500w and some gurning), but too late to catch the three in front. Here is a list of emotional responses by race results:

========================
10. Top ten! Woo!!

9. *forlornly* At least I got that last upgrade point

8. This provides a strong foundation from which to build greater fitness. I'm going to keep a positive attitude and make this about having fun

7. Getting 7th out of 70 means I'm top 10%, which is much more elite than top 10

6. Everyone ahead of me needs to cat up

5. Wide-angle podium! Woo!!

4. This entire race is a compendium of bad personal decisions underlined by sub-par power output in the decisive moment that I should have anticipated and adjusted for

3. Podium! Woo!!

2. Second place is basically winning, that other guy was just at the line like two inches before me. I basically won

1. I WON. VICTORY IS ALL. DO NOT TALK TO ME WITH WITH YOUR EXCUSES AND HOW YOUR CHAIN DROPPED AND YOU GOT CANCER. I AM THE KING - (out loud) "oh hey man, yeah great race! haha thanks I got lucky I guess"
========================

I have now lived several of these, and have enough points to cat up. Kinda want to win one though! And the cat 3 race sounds as much fun as doing target practice with your own feet. Thanks to AJ for the work and help, congrats to Derin in dominating all of his junior competition, and congrats to Tucker on being the state champ, twice removed.

[peterkuhn]

On the downhill section on the 2nd lap one of my bottles decided to jump ship.

arundel mandibles or dave-o cages will fix what ails you

[rraymond]

Peter, your race reports are pure gold. Please never stop racing so we can keep reading.

[AJ Camelio]

Very accurate reporting of the Cat 4s by Peter. The one thing he forgot to mention was that the only excitement we had for the first 3 and 3/4 laps of the race was an animated discussion in the peloton about whether Peter's socks -- one of which said "Fuck" and the other of which said "Yeah" -- were each on the correct foot or if in fact they actually said "Yeah Fuck."

[J.Brodie]

I love those socks! I have 3 pairs...DeFeet is the best...

[peterkuhn]

Very accurate reporting of the Cat 4s by Peter. The one thing he forgot to mention was that the only excitement we had for the first 3 and 3/4 laps of the race was an animated discussion in the peloton about whether Peter's socks -- one of which said "Fuck" and the other of which said "Yeah" -- were each on the correct foot or if in fact they actually said "Yeah Fuck."

doesn't seem like the internet knows either