Nutmeg Classic Crit

[swawersik]

I drove the 1 hour + to just south of Hartford for the Nutmeg Crits. They offered two races back to back for me (4, then 4/5) and I always love this course: it's a dedicated loop in a park, with a little elevation gain each lap. It's nice and wide, and all the corners are pretty straightforward, so the racing is usually quite fast and favors my power profile. The last part of the lap consists of a short uphill turn leading into a ~200m flat section, a sweeping downhill left turn that could be taken FAST, and a very slightly downhill LONG sprint to the line. In warm up, I thought about whether one could attack just after the uphill and hold it to the line. It seemed like a long way, but worth thinking about.

Cat4:
The race started out mellow, but that lasted about a lap. From then on, it was a series of attacks, followed by the inevitable surges, then more attacks. I tried getting into one of the early breaks, mostly as a leg tester. The test results said "crappy," and it became clear pretty quickly that breaks weren't going to stick anyway, so I made a point of letting other people pull back attacks as much as possible. Even with sitting in, my normalized power for the race was ~290W, so this race was no joke. Fast forward to 4 laps to go: My legs had come around, but after a series of surges, I found myself further back than I wanted, and pinned in the middle of the pack to boot. I must be getting more experienced at this crit thing, though, because I stayed patient and picked my way through gaps as they appeared (somehow, James Brown singing "Get Up Offa That Thing" was running through my head at this point). By the last lap, I was about 10-15 wheels back as we went up the little hill. Since I was a little further back for a sprint than would be ideal, I started to think about jumping off the front. Before I could go, though, two other guys did the same thing from a little further ahead of me. I followed, but was a couple bike lengths back. By the downhill turn, I was closing on them, but not there yet, so I opened my sprint a little earlier than I normally would. This ended up being the highest 1 min average power I've ever recorded, and I was in agony by the end, but I managed to catch one of them. Unfortunately, I ran out of real estate to get the other, and ended up 2nd.

Cat4/5:
I was wrecked from the effort at the end of the first race, and was still breathing hard as I lined up for the second race ten minutes later. Luckly, the lack of any technical turns meant that I could sit near the back of the field and recover. Unluckily, this race contained a collection of the squirreliest riders I've seen in a LONG time*. Honestly, the pack was much twitchier than at Myles Standish, though thankfully the course didn't contain any 30 mph+ downhills, so the carnage was less. About halfway through, I ended up at a dead stop and unclipped avoiding a crash, so I took a free lap (I probably could have caught back on, but why spend the energy?). While I was coming around, a second, larger crash happened on the fast downhill turn. I considered DNF'ing, but figured I could use the rest of the workout, so I stepped back into my role as mayor of of the back third. With 2-3 laps to go, I briefly had thoughts of moving up to try for a result, but another pointless crash caused by sketchy riding put me off of that idea, and I ended up rolling across the line as packfill. Finishing THAT race with all my skin was victory enough.

Between the fact that I never want to race against cat 5s again and the recognition that I've been flirting with sandbagger status for several weeks now, I went home and promtly submitted my 4-->3 upgrade request.

*The worst were the juniors, mostly with M3 racing. While I think it's great that M3 is bringing so many juniors into racing, they need to do a better job of teaching those kids pack skills.

[Len_E]

Great job Stefan. Nice strategery at the end opening up a little early and leaving it all out there. Nice to know you have another gear in that engine.

[pace21]

Podium, baby! Nicely done. 2014 is shaping up to be your year.

[JeremyC]

Even your race reports are getting better. Now they have theme songs. Welcome to the 3s, I'm psyched to have another crit partner as they've been dwindling.

[PJ McQuade]

Niiice! I'm glad Jeremy will have another crit partner too

[Jacob]

Congrats! That is great.

[mfwestbe]

Stefan - that's great! Although, as I'm just getting to the 4's, I'm disappointed it will be that much longer before racing together again

[rusto]

Well done Stefan! Now I can remember this race for something more than the fact that you had to drive me to the hospital when I did it.

[cbusick]

Nice job Stefan! You've been tearing up the crits this season.

[jraguin]

Great job! Welcome to the 3s!

[swawersik]

Well done Stefan! Now I can remember this race for something more than the fact that you had to drive me to the hospital when I did it.

Thanks to that experience, I was able to direct one of the Greenline guys there after the 4/5 race.

[Smudger]

Congrats. I'd say welcome to the 3s but that would sound like I was actually riding/racing

[KTeves]

Well done Stephan - again! I echo what Mike W. said. I'll be moving up to the 4's and am disappointed I wont be able to race with you and learn from the crit-master.

[Robd2]

Well done Stephan, welcome to the 3's. Very well deserved.

[ahamilton]

Seems like you podium in every crit these days. Nice work. Better update your other post with the totals for the year.

[Mkidd3]

BOYAH!! Congrats man!! VERY WELL DESERVED!!