2014 Concord Criterium

[Jacob]

Cat. 4 race with Nolan

This one started out pretty fast and was dynamic throughout. Nolan went out hard early and mixed it up at the front. The field was surprisingly strung out after only one lap. I covered a B2C2 guy in a break early on, but didn't commit much because it felt too early. The winner from Wednesday in Beverly was there with a few teammates. He went out for the second prime with 5 laps to go. I followed his wheel. I didn't try to contest the prime. We had a gap after the corner and I suggested to him that we work, but he declined. I eventually figured out that he was trying to help his teammate get a result. Steve Zimei put the hammer down on the climb with 3 to go and pulled the field for basically a full lap. Another guy went out on his own with 2 to go and we caught him on the final lap. I was in the first 5 wheels on the final turns and was trying hard to gain places there, but only passed maybe one or two. The stretch to the finish is wide, straight, and flat and I lost some places there. I finished 8th and I was a gasping mess this time. I'll need to attack from further out to have a reasonable chance of success here.

[jmagro]

I guess I'll throw in a report as well. I raced the 1/2 race, it seemed to me we had a little over 30 starters. I don't know who is fast or not here, and hadn't raced for 2 months, so I decided to sit in early and get a feel for the course/ race. We started off decently fast, averaged a little over 28mph for the first few laps. Lots of attacks, but nothing really got more than a few seconds off the front. Initially, I had trouble with the downhill technical section, but did figure out a line that got me through there with minimal to no braking about 6 laps in. Not having to chase from the bottom of that hill through the start/finish made the race a lot easier. With 14 laps to go there was a group of 4 off the front about 5 seconds after a prime. All the major teams were there so I bridged across up the hill and down the backstretch. No one in the group wanted to work together, which was maddening as we were holding on to a 7 second or so gap even with zero cooperation. One by one the field started catching us, until with 5 to go what was left of the race was all together again. A few guys squirreled off the front in the last 2 laps to sweep the podium. My thought was if I could get through the traffic circle at the top of the hill with good position on the last lap, I could hold it through the technical half of the course. I went through that turn 5th wheel, but didn't have the legs to continue following moves heading to the finish and fell back again. Ended 19th I believe, in the group sprinting for 4th. Despite the poor result, I was happy with how I stacked up with the competition here and am looking forward to getting my hands dirty again the next few weeks!

[JeremyC]

Jacob another top 10. One more should be your last in the 4s

Joe are you doing Salem on Wednesday? If so let's meet up.

[jmagro]

Didn't even realize there was a race on Wednesday until you mentioned it. Not used to looking for all these mid-week races! At this point i've missed pre-reg, and I'm planning to race the New England RR Championship in CT this Saturday so I think I'm out for Witches Brew. Are you going to Tokeneke?

[Mkidd3]

Well done boys!!

Joe, we need to get you in a kit soon.

[jmagro]

I saw two of you out when I was riding by Groton around 2pm on Sunday. Kits look sharp! I'm going to try and get to the meeting tomorrow night. Are there any extras around this late in the year?

[jraguin]

Joe, I'll bring some of the inventory to the club meeting. What sizes are you?

[jmagro]

Bibs medium. Jersey medium or small depending on the cut. Thanks!

[NCgaron]

Joe that would have been my dad and I. Do you live in the Groton area?

[jraguin]

Bibs medium. Jersey medium or small depending on the cut. Thanks!

Joe: email me at jraguin AT gmail DOT com. I will email you the costs of the stuff and where to send the check.