Quabbin RR 2017

[PJ McQuade]

Just adding my notes from the Cat 3 race. Training rides beyond 2 hrs. have be scarce for me this season so I knew this race would hit hard. And that it did! I've done the Cat 3 at Quabbin multiple times, some years in better form than this time around, but I will say that while the winning time was maybe slower than other years, the climbing was far more aggressive this time around. As noted, the opening 25 miles were tame. This probably made the second half of the race hurt even more. We had a strong group of very talented rising juniors in our field who were armed with climbing legs, small frames, and lots of energy. Our team plan was to let attacks go, ignore any breaks, and basically sit back until mile 40. We were disciplined enough to do this, the problem is most of us were pretty spent when we got to this point in the race from all the hard digs put in on the climbs. But Tyler still had plenty of life left in his legs and attacked solo off the front a few miles before Rt. 9. Josh and Mark tried to keep things subdued on the front; I did the same for a bit on Rt. 9. At some point someone bridged up to Tyler. When we hit 9 Mark and I thought Tyler was gone, but after a few more rollers he came into view. The catch was sort of inevitable now. Courageous move though! Me, Mark and Josh were still in tact (with under 30 others) as we hit the park entrance. Now I started feeling the lack of long, strenuous training rides. Actually I felt it miles and miles ago and was already in survival mode! Knowing I was on borrowed time, I thought I'd shake things up at the bottom of the climb. This only worked for a few hundred meters though and I was pulled back in. With an empty match book all I could do was sit in and hope the young bloods showed mercy in the final few kilometers (Yeah right!) I was dispatched before the scenic lookout with about 1k to go and rolled in with a few other popped riders. Mark stayed with the group but things broke up again in the last pitch to the finish. I'm not entirely sure when Josh disappeared. The top ten was pretty much dominated by juniors. Man, where's the 35+ category these days!? Glad we had some strong results in the other races - great work Dave M., Dave DZ, and Sharon.

Fun fact: the kid who won our race set the KOM for the Quabbin finishing climb. And he was in a group. So yeah, it was a hard day out there!

[peterkuhn]

Great reports all! Would have loved to be there but we were sick all weekend.