Norwell Circuit Race

[JeremyC]

I lined up with Smudger, Jacob, and the Prez who had already posted a very impressive result in the harder 35+ race. This is a fairly easy 10 lap, 2.4 mile circuit with one 30 second hill to contend with. I knew the duration of the race meant full gas all the way. I was right about this, but with 85 guys it was still pretty easy to sit in. Thank god, because this was the plan, I was going to sit in and the crew was going to watch for breaks and then move me up to the front near the end for the up hill sprint. Normally I'd work for Chris who is a better sprinter than I, but with already 1 race under his belt the roles were flipped. The race itself was fairly straight forward, except for the neverbeforeseen "Sprint straight off the road into a rock wall" tactic which one racer employed. Hopefully he's OK but I caught a glimpse of him flying through the air about 10 feet off the ground into the woods, and then later ambulances. There were a few other crashes, mainly on the hill as people apparently have trouble turning and climbing at the same time (and possibly chewing gum, not sure). I stayed out of trouble near the front with the Prez, with Jacob and Smudger right behind me. Last lap heats up, while we had the whole road, it was a small road so 80 guys fighting for the front is a little hectic. Chris does a great job moving me up the right side in the last mile before doing something I've never seen him do, he got tired and pulled off. Which is fine since I went from 30th to 10th before the sprint. The only problem with 10th is there were also 10 guys next to me. All hell breaks loose up the hill but I find some clear sailing and pass a few guys for 7th place. Jacob and Smudger right behind in 11th and 20th respectively. Looking back my original assumption was probably right, id rather be first wheel and hold on for dear life then 10th as there is no draft on the sprint to speak of. Still very fun race and no one crashed. Chris can post his other result, which was impressive and he was solo.

[jraguin]

SWEETT!!! Nice results guys!

[Jacob]

Our three man lead out plan didn't quite come together, but good result by Jeremy anyways! I had Smudger's wheel and Jeremy had Chris' wheel -- but we needed a teleporter to get Chris onto my wheel as planned. I think that I maybe could have worked around to the front by sliding over to the far left side, but I failed to recognize that the plan needed adaptation quickly enough. I got a solid lead out from Smudger to the turn and I was very happy with my sprint from there. By the measure of road-results points, this was my best result ever by a wide margin. Looking back at those numbers, I've gotten my best result (by road-results points) of the year at Norwell for the past two years in a row. I guess it's a good race for me.

[pace21]

5th out of 50 in the 35+, full implosion (as planned) at the end of the Cat 3 race. Definitely a tale of 2 races. The Masters were super aggressive and attacky (is that a word?), while the 3's were a bit faster avg speed overall but way more steady (albeit 12 times sketchier). For the power weenies, the 35+ had me almost 50 Watts higher normalized power for the (almost) hour. That's a massive difference. In the end the 3's were 0.2mph faster.

I had a front row seat for the sprint-into-the-woods crash, it was totally surreal. We were on a downhill sweeping right turn, and with the whole road to work with someone went up the left side for a full on attack, but it's quite possible he just had too much going on at once to process it all. With timing the attack, the all out effort, the downhill allowing his speed to climb quickly, probably checking to see if anyone was reacting, he totally forgot to sweep right and went straight into the woods WHILE OUT OF THE SADDLE SPRINTING. It was an awful crash, and he missed a 2 foot diameter oak tree by the width of an 11 speed chain. I hope he's alright but it didn't look good.

[ahamilton]

Good results on that course. It's so easy to get pinched out on the final corner. Chris, bravo for the double. I did the 45+/35+ back-to-back double one year and made it even harder than it had to be because I decided I had enough time to do a warm-down lap between. I realized about halfway through that I had to hustle to get back to the start in time. Then I still had to get my 45+ race numbers off. Those safety pins are real slippery buggers when you're sweating like a pig and not in the calmest of states.

[swawersik]

Nice job guys. Sorry I couldn't be there to help (though you clearly didn't need me).

[PJ McQuade]

Two top tens on the day with Jacob right there, nice guys!