Longsjo - Fitchburg Crit.

[swawersik]

Having raced very mediocrely at Leominster, I was itching to redeem myself. The course was great: a long gradual uphill through the start/finish to a 180 degree turn around a roundabout, then a long, initially steep downhill that flattened out as you neared two 90 degree turns that came in quick succession. It's a course that rewards power, but still requires some ability to turn. Instead of primes, there was a points competition, with sprints at 16, 11, and 6 laps to go.

One guy rolled off the front in the first lap or two, and hung about 5-8 sec. in front of the pack until the first sprint. The breakaway guy won it, and I came across third. There was a big gap behind me, so if figured I'd keep rolling and bridged to the breakaway guy. I had no illusions about going the distance from that far out, but I hoped we could at least stick it out long enough to pick up some points at the next sprint. It was not to be, as we lasted only 3 laps, but it did earn me my first ever callout from Dick Ring and Richard Fries. They mangled my name...

I sat in and recovered during the next sprint (it was only two laps later), after which the race slowed to parade pace. After seeing a couple of sketchy line choices going into the two turns in the middle of the pack, and having to sprint hard coming out of them, I put in a pseudo attack on th downhill to get myself on the front for the turns. I railed them both, and to my surprise, I had a decent gap coming out, with one guy on my wheel. We started to work together going through the uphill, but we were closed down by the time we hit the 180. Unfortunately, however, that effort served as the springboard for a group of 4 riders to roll away on the downhill.

Nobody really responded at first, and the breakaway quickly established a healthy gap. Eventually, a few people (me included) tried to get a chase going, and we did catch one guy who fell out of the break, but only a few guys contributed with any real commitment. A special call-out of shame goes to NEBC and M3 Racing, who each had three riders in the field and none in the break, but with the exception of one NEBC, they contributed what I would call "extremely sparingly" to the chase.

Frustrated by the lack of chase, I tried a couple of times to bridge to the break, but the pack would just close me down, then not come through. So with two to go, I resigned to setting up for the field sprint. I was pretty tired at this point, and lost a couple of places when things surged, but still managed to stay within the first 15 wheels. Given the long uphill of the final stretch, I didn't worry about this too much, as I figured a bunch of guys would go too early and blow. That did play out, but not quite as much as I hoped, and I finished 14th of 33 (10th in the field sprint). And I tied for 5th in the points competition, so that's something.

I was pretty wrecked afterwards: after sitting in the shade for about 10 minutes, and occasionally dry heaving, I went back to my car and changed. Then I went to try to find a coke or some Gatorade in an effort to rehydrate and get some simple sugars in me. As I was walking down the sidewalk, a voice behind me said "You must be tired - you look terrible." I turned around to find a skinny old guy with a partial complement of teeth and clothes that looked like he may well have spent several nights under a bridge. I told him that, yes, I was pretty wiped...

[Robd2]

Big kudos, way to be agressive out there.

I turned around to find a skinny old guy with a partial complement of teeth and clothes that looked like he may well have spent several nights under a bridge. I told him that, yes, I was pretty wiped...

Welcome to the burg....

[pace21]

Jumped in the 3's day of, and with a 9th placed finish on Friday in the 3/4 field and knowing that I could have had 5th had I had the stones to sprint along the barrier, I had high hopes to finish in the money (yes they paid to 8th and I got 9th on Friday ). It was a straight 3 race though with more horsepower on the line than Friday so we'll see. Things went off well, a little sketchiness but almost exclusively from the KMS kids, some surges in pace but no difficulty in the first half of the race. They call for a $20 prime so I move up on the back stretch just to get some position in case there is a move, but on the home stretch I ended up with a nice lead out so I went for it and scored the 20. Bad timing of course, because the very next lap was called as a points prime, and the very next lap after that was another $20 prime. My HR didn't settle for at least 5 minutes. Fast forward, some late moves that didn't stick, so line up for a sprint finish. 15th or 20th position on the back stretch, so I pull a semi-sprint into the last 2 turns, moving up to 12th or so. Kick it for all it's worth on the uphill drag (ouch) pass maybe 5 or so and get passed by a couple. Top 10 with a $20 prime, I'll take it

[PJ McQuade]

Nice Stefan and Chris, sounds like you guys are ready to rip for crit season.

[Bruce]

Congrats to Peter Goguen, Patrick and the CF team for winning the P1:3 race