Minuteman Road Club

The tough winter apparently took a toll on the usual Blue Hills course, so the race was changed a few weeks ago into a crit held at Wompatuck State Park. Another crit? Fine by me.

Never having done the Tuesday night training crit on this course (known as "Wompy" or "The Womp"), I wasn't sure what to expect. All the course descriptions were pretty accurate: some moderate elevation change, only one corner that required any real attention (so not a ton of sprinting out of corners), and relatively smooth pavement. Tailor-made for my skillset.

Repping MRC for the Cat4A race were me, Jacob, Chris B, Ken, and Nolan - quite a solid group. Our prerace discussion focussed on the fact that we were one of 4 significant sized teams in our race: Blue Hills, Greenline, M3, and us. Blue Hills had, like, 10 guys in the race, but what sometimes happens with the host club is that a bunch of guys with questionable fitness will race just because they're there, so I figured that we were on pretty even terms. Bikeworks was a bit of a wildcard - only three guys, but three capable guys. We agreed that any break with a combination of Greenline, Blue Hills, or M3 had to be paid attention to. In the likely event that it came down to a sprint, Jacob and I agreed that we'd try to have me lead him out.

I sat in the top 10 wheels for most of the first half of the race, covering breaks but trying to limit the heavy lifting for myself. A couple of times I found myself in combinations of 3-7 guys with a gap off the front, but nobody was really committed (it was just too early). At one point, I was in a bridging group when we came into the one real turn, and I found myself leaned pretty far over and sampling the forest duff at the outside of the turn. It wasn't a really technical turn, I'd realized, but there definitely was a speed limit through it.

Blue Hills used their number advantage well, throwing person after person off the front, and making for a fairly aggressive race (277W normalized, 240W average for you watt-nerds), but everyone in MRC did a nice job of sharing the load of controlling breaks, so MRC had someone in almost everything that happened. Nolan, especially, rode the best (road) race I've seen from him yet, doing a nice job of making efforts without overcooking himself. I'm not sure I could say the same for myself, and at around 8 to go, I began to realize that I was a little tired. Especially in non-sprinty/turny races, there's usually a place I've heard referred to as "the pocket." Usually found in the middle of the road (how far back dependes on how many speed changes the course dictates per lap), you can sit in this spot without doing a ton of work and just recover. I spent from 8 to go until around 4 to go as the mayor of the pocket.

Somewhere around 7 to go, somebody went over the speed limit on "the turn" and went down, and each time through for the rest of the race, we were neutralized through that section to avoid first the couple of people helping the guy, then the ambulance that showed up. As we got closer to the bell lap, it became clear to me that this situation would complicate holding position, as it led to a lull that caused swamping if you weren't paying attention.

On 4 to go, I decided it was time to move out of the pocket. The plus of the neutral corner was that moving up was really easy: I just squeezed into a few gaps while people were coasting and with 3 to go was back at the front. I rolled by Jacob with 2 to go, he grabbed my wheel, and it looked like we were in business.

Despite me making a bit of a mistake on the back side of the course that put us further back than I'd have liked, Jacob stuck to my wheel like stink on a gorilla. I made a move up the right side in the final half lap to correct my error, and despite worrying briefly that the door would shut on us, with 500m to go, I was in the first 5 wheels, with Jacob behind me. My goal was to drop Jacob off about halfway up the little rise to the finish line, but I probably kicked in my final leadout effort a little early, as I died slightly when we hit the rise. I think this might have boxed Jacob in a little, as he came off my wheel pretty late, but still crossed the line in 5th (with me right behind him in 6th).

Could we have done better with a little more leadout practise? I'm pretty sure. But I'll take it anyway.

The only downside of the race for us was that Ken got taken out by some numpty with around 4 to go. He was pretty scraped up, but seemed mostly pissed that he didn't get a result. Don't worry Ken, it may not show on paper, but your teammates definitely noticed the great work you did pulling back breaks today. Thanks.

Solid work from the 5's today too, but I'll let them tell their tales.

I was in the Masters 40+ with Jeremy, Rich, and Len.

Not really much of a story to tell. Overall, it was pretty tame and the course is pretty non-descript so I can't think of anything memorable. My goal was to stay near the front the whole race. Overall, I would say I achieved my goal. With a thin road, it often meant shooting up the outside or up the inside as the entire middle was full of riders. Since the pace was rarely that hot, it meant the road was full most of the time. I tried to remind myself to move to the outside and move up when I could. Sometimes when the pace was hotter, I tried to ride a wheel up the outside. Jeremy gave me a good amount of "encouragement", yelling at me a couple of times to move up which I did. It is amazing what a teammate yelling at you will do for you. Seriously, thanks Jeremy!

The only thing that happened of note is that Jeremy when off into a break with some CCB guy with about 6 to go. He was out there for a full lap or so, Rich and I tried to block as best as we could, but we got swarmed and the pack eventually caught them. Kudos to Jeremy again for giving it a shot.

Fast forward to near the end. With about a lap to go, I thought about taking a flyer as the pace was pretty tame. But instead hung in. But then I made some mistakes when the acceleration happened. I was left a bit flat footed and too far back, and then I didn't sprint hard enough as I was thinking it was too far out to actually sprint. But the sprint I should have done was to get on someone's wheel. Instead I was left too far back of anyone's wheel and was just fighting the wind with no draft. A few guys passed me and I finished up 15th or so (I think right with Len).

I believe Brian Campbell of 545 won it with a perfectly timed vicious attack that no one could hold on to. I watched him accelerate away from the rest of us with probably 400 to go.

I will let Jeremy tell his own story which for a preview, involves some yelling words that were not of encouragement!

Congrats 4s and 5s! Good racing today!

John

It was a fun race until it wasn't. Len rich and john road we'll and MRC had a nice showing at the front. I went off the front early with Chandler Delinks for a lap hoping he would pull me around. He didn't but it was early so who am I to question him. Len and rich were all over the front. 6 to go and James Nash CCB was 100m off the front I was bored to tears so I attacked and bridged up. We had a solid lap off the front, we're close to getting caught but then stretched it out for another lap. It was fun cause my wife an kids were there, which is very rare. I had more to give but Nash seemed inclined to get caught which we did with 3 to go. I recovered well and got on Johns wheel and asked him "politely" to go to the front. Last lap I got ridden into the dirt by a dangerous move from some Rancourt DB. He knows he's a DB because I told him and promised him a visit after the race. But I was still fine and moving up the right with a qtr lap to go plenty of gas in the tank to mix it up. So here's the problem, the race was too easy and everyone was in it to win it. So swarming occurs and people swerve to the right and I'm skidding off the road at high speed, slide between 2 trees and miraculously make it out alive and stroll in dead last, my second in 2 weeks. Oh well, I'm going to continue my all or nothing assault or the rest of the season.

Nice showing by MRC.
I participated.

-Chris

Given my history of riding two races in a day (crashed at least once every time), I decided to give it a shot and ride the 40+ and 10 minutes later the 50+. I was already signed up for the 50+ so joining the 40+ when I saw the fellas warming up wasn't a hard decision.
The 40+ race was dicey. I found it much more anxious and unstable than a typical masters race. However, a pretty strong group of riders kept things fairly boring throughout. The only real pressure, as John mentioned, came when Jim Nash, a 55+ racer and serious threat got a gap with about 6 to go. After encouragement to close it down from Jeremy led to nothing, Jeremy took off after him. I had followed a bunch of attacking wheels early on and covered an attack by Rich and didn't have the kick to chase down Nash. Jeremy made contact and the two held us off for a lap and a half or so. With a lap to go I was close to Rich and saw John moving up on the outside. I stayed inside but couldn't get through traffic as the too-early sprints begin. These early efforts further destabilized things and I decided to stay out of the mix. To my surprise with about 50 meters to go the middle opened up and I jumped on a wheel and found my way up to John but not enough pavement left for a top 10.
The 50+ race was even slower and less engaged than the 40+. We convinced to Rich hang around for this race and it was great to have him in there. Just a much better feel for the race when I can see and chat-up a teammate and Rich has a great nose for the point of the spear. The lack of action in the race was offset by a short bout of rain with 4 to go. The corners and sides of the road got pretty slick with the rain, pavement and moss mix. I kept reminding myself that this was a squirrelly group, stay in front, stay of the inside around corners and don't risk anything. That said, Rich and I found ourselves pretty far back in the pack coming into the last lap. Rich started to move up, I jumped on his wheel and as the last lap started I pulled over to the inside for the last small climb and got to mid-pack. We headed in a nice straight stretch and I had clear sailing on the inside up to the front. I started to sprint in in a flash another old man swerves in front of me. It's either hit him at 30 mph or touch the brakes. I hit the brakes, the rear wheel disappears under me and I'm sliding along the pavement. Amazingly, my bike was relatively intact except for brake pads rubbing and handlebars out-of-joint. I hopped back on and finished the race and spent the next 30 minutes in the ambulance having tar and moss scraped out of my bloody leg and hip. Frankly, I'm pretty lucky, could have been worse given the conditions and the instability.

We raced around in a circle. Nice course. I covered some attacks, but didn't work in any breaks because I felt too crummy. Basically played defense until the last lap. Stefan led me out, though I did offer to switch places with him -- he had none of it. We came around the bulk of the pack on the right side around 400 meters out. I refused to make the same mistake twice: I stayed on Stefan's wheel very patiently and he did his thing and brought me to the right place. Between Myles Standish and today, it clear that he's got a sweet spot right at that 1 minute race finishing effort. I went to sprint and my back wheel left the ground twice -- not efficient. I need to make an adjustment to my technique. In the end, the only person that I managed to pass was Stefan -- that's sad. 5th and 6th for the team is a good result though. I felt like hell at the finish, but was brought mostly back to life by a couple of Tylenol and a turkey sandwich.

Not to suggest that passing Stefan is somehow a trivial accomplishment; just saying that I would have liked to do a bit more than that to justify his sacrifice.

Interesting. I'd done the Wompy training race maybe 30 times and the cat 1-3 race on Tuesday night was usually strung out at 28mph.

Nice to see Jim Nash is still kicking. He and I raced together on what was an elite CCB 45+ team back then. With two national champs in Mark Hagen and Tyler Monroe, a former Russian Olympian Dmitry Buben, and Irish maters champ Tommy Mannion, Jim and I were asked to do a lot of work. hE always had a tremendous sense of humor about it! Great guy.

Reading your race reports on such a familiar course brought back lots of great memories...almost makes me want to renew my racing license!

One of my best moments on a bike was on one Tuesday night there--one of those moments that just transcends pain. Mark McCormack, who had won the USPro in Philly the year before, was riding in the pack when a group of riders including Skip Foley and Sam Morse had gotten a 1/2 mile gap and were out of sight. My coach at the time, Paul Curley, came up beside me and said there was no way Mark would let the break stay away cause the riders were too strong. Expect him to go at the top of the hill. I got myself to the outside and sure enough McCormack jumped from the other side. I gave it everything and jumped from the other side and managed to latch onto his wheel. 1100 watts easy! But the fun was just starting because as I looked over my shoulder there was Curley on my wheel (very clever using me like that), Curley was a feared sprinter and McCormack did not like towing him to the break...so he just gassed it. it took 5 mins to chase down the break and I never rode harder in my life. McCormack pulled the entire way, he never even turned around. We caught and the break stayed away, so I got to see some pretty incredible strategizing among some top sprinters. I could barely raise my hand to waive goodbye on that finishing straight, but it was still a pretty cool brush with cycling royalty!

Great story Bruce.

Glad to hear you're OK Len. Sounds like the rest of the team had some fun. When I first heard that Blue Hills was moving to Wompy I must admit I was a bit worried about mass pile-up finishes in some of the fields. I've seen some incredibly violent cat 4 finishes when the peloton had the whole road, so a narrow finish like Wompy could have been uglier than it was, although the 40+ sounded fairly ugly.

Mens 5A

We had 4 MRC riders in the 5A race including John Morrissey, KevinTeves and Robert Klinkhammer. I believe Marc Cedrone rolled in the 5B.

This was also my first time at wompy. Course was as advertised. We raced somewhere around 17 laps - 20mi - someone told me our average lap time was 3:12. This didn't seem too fast - I think the 4A was closer to 3 minute laps.

Anyways, I spent most of the race within the first 5 wheels, much of the time at the front, or second/third wheel back. This is largely because of my skittish tendencies and lack of comfort sitting in the middle of the pack. Kevin also spent a lot of time up front pushing the pace at times. The race had basically zero attacks, nothing spirited or lasting more than 10 seconds before sitting up and looking back.

Final lap had two crashes (neither of which I saw) and one involved a rider who was pretty sketchy all race - speeding up, slowing down, hitting breaks etc. Unfortunately, Kevin and Robert ended up getting slowed down by the crashes, but both managed to avoid any collisions. Speed picked up considerably as a few guys emerged from the middle and came to the front - one of which was our own John Morrissey. I felt like I was in a good position 5th wheel back as we separated a bit from the main group coming into the finish. As it turned out, the 4th wheel I was riding slipped off of the 3rd, maybe a 20 ft gap - when I pulled off, it was too late and too much to move into 3rd although I was continuing to accelerate and still had more in the legs - maybe a bit of a miss on timing, but I was still pleased to finish 4th. John came across in 2nd which is really phenomenal, putting his fitness and experience on full display. Winner was a track racer wearing a Stampede kit.

I thought this was a great race and was happy to do another crit. MRC was well represented and it was nice to get a chance to watch some of the team in 4.