Purgatory Road Race 6/7

[jraguin]

First wave of racers so I will post first. Masters 45+ with Rich and Smudger. An absolutely stacked field of 60 with the McCormacks & Tobi Schultze of Clif Bar/Pactimo, Paul Richard of CCB, Stephen Badger of Bethel Cycle, Todd Bowden of Aetna-Expo, and strong representation from Momentum Barracuda, Horst Engineering, CCC/Keltic, Cyclonauts, and 10 guys from 545. I actually was really looking forward to mixing it up today and honestly wasn't intimidated at all which showed I had a good mindset coming into the race.

5 laps of Purgatory, 55 miles. Relatively tame first lap. Some attacks but all covered and nothing sticking. Second lap, again tame, but the pace definitely picks up on Lackey. Smudger looks good and soon after this I see Rich for the first time. 3rd lap, the pace picks up a bunch. Lots of attacks. Third time up Lackey is hard but not too bad, but like with every time up Lackey, these guys don't sit up at the top. They drill it on the false flat then flat going over the top which hurts. On one of the risers on Central Turnpike, a 5 man break gets off and includes Rich & Jerry DeZutter & 1 of the McCormacks. Smudger and I see it and don't chase. Coming up Lackey Road the 4th time, the break isn't far up, and a few guys including Badger and Paul Miller jump up to the break. The pace is hard and I think the break is coming back to us anyway so I don't jump. Probably a bad move because now there is a gap and the break is now too big for us to let go (~9-10 guys). I start pushing hard to catch the break with another guy (towing the field). Smudger pulls through. But no one else does. Smudger and I start rotating off the lead yelling at others, when 3 guys attack to get up to the break and Smudger and I are too gassed to get on their wheels. We hit the descent on Mendon and we are flying but thankfully the break doesn't seem to be working hard. Just after the descent, we catch the break. I am pretty tired at this point and realize that certainly wasn't going to help my finish and try to recover.

Fast forward to the finish. I left myself a bit too far back, probably 12-15th wheel onto Lackey and just don't have the power due to earlier matches burnt. I get passed by a few guys and pass a few guys. I finish 13th. Overall I have to be happy with the result, but still not the top 10 I was looking for. Rich rode a good race: besides getting in the best break, he also tried a solo break on the last lap on Manchaug which didn't work but props to him for trying. Smudger did well especially considering he did a TT yesterday. Fun race.

[JeremyC]

Somewhere in our 4th lap, a 5 man break gets off and includes Rich Batten & Jerry DeZutter & 1 of the McCormacks. Smudger and I see it and don't chase. Coming up Lackey Road the 4th time, the break isn't far up, and a few guys including Badger and Paul Miller jump up to the break. The pace is hard and I think the break is coming back to us anyway so I don't jump. Probably a bad move because now there is a gap and the break is now too big for us to let go (~9-10 guys). I start pushing hard to catch the break with another guy (towing the field). Smudger pulls through. But no one else does. Smudger and I start rotating off the lead yelling at others, when 3 guys attack to get up to the break and Smudger and I are too gassed to get on their wheels..

Please tell me you left out some details and Rich was no longer in the break

[jraguin]

Critique our tactics if you want: My view was if a teammate is in a break of 5-6, I am not chasing the break. But in a break of 10? I call that more a split in the field than a break and MRC's odds of a podium aren't great, so I am chasing the break. In this case, I was really shooting for a top 10.

[cbusick]

i35+ 1-4.
I was completely intimidated going into this race with the stacked field road-results.com was displaying. It predicted me at 23/28
and it’s not like CAT 4, where half the guys have asterisks next to their names, or their points come from hill climbs and they really can’t race. This was my first race since upgrading to CAT 3, so I knew the days of having a reasonable chance of finishing in the top 10% were over.

Ultimately I made the same mistake that I made at the Fat Tire Classic MTB race (my first race in CAT 1 MTB). I gave the field too much respect.
Yes the top 1/3 of this group is insanely strong. But the bottom 1/3 weren't that impressive.

First time up Lackey, which Jeremy had me dreading after his description of a 35+ race he was in, started off nice and steady.
I was about 2/3 of the way back and thinking, oh good, they are taking it easy first time up. Then I saw Pare stand and sprint across a gap.
No worries, there are 15 guys here with me, one of them will close that down. But the gap grew. Then I started thinking, ok, these guys are being cagey, they could close
the gap at any time, but are choosing not to for some strategic reason that due to my lack of experience I just can't see right now.
NOPE. They were simply unable to close it down. I tried several times to bridge with various guys, but they fizzled and I wound up on the front with no help. Colm from 545 was active at the
front with me, but I couldn't tell if he was blocking or trying to help. I thought I had a chance when I pulled through near the bottom of Mendon, if just someone would work with me. But nope, as I was starting to fade after getting soooo close, 3 guys jumped me and made the bridge. I couldn't respond to them.

Still we had 10 or so guys going into lackey the 2nd time. Shouldn't be so bad, but when we got to the top there were only 5. WTF. I though they must have just quit, and then was worried the guys with me would quit, since I needed the miles but didn’t know how long I could go alone without getting pulled.

They didn’t quit, and we did a reasonable paceline for 33 miles trying to hold off the 45+ group that started 5 miles back.
We didn’t. The winner of the 45+ went by us on the second steep part of lackey, and we finished mixed in with the 45+ sprint.
I didn’t want to interfere with their sprint, and came in 3rd out of my group, 12th overall.

Beat the race predictor anyway.

[cbusick]

Katie posted some pics of today's race on facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 338&type=3

And a lot more on smugmug at:
http://katiebusick.smugmug.com/

If you are MRC and want a pic, let me know.

[JeremyC]

I am going to critique your tactics because my mission is to have the best amateur race team in New England. Before I do, a few caveats:

1. You're still my boy so don't take this personal
2. I wasn't there so I'm sure it wasn't a simple decision
3. I've been drinking

With that said, NEVER CHASE DOWN A TEAMMATE. 9 people out of 45+ still constitutes a breakaway. Rich Batten trains hard, is really fast, and deserves his teammates support. In fact, the last time I saw Rich I urged him to go in a breakaway because that suits his abilities. So let me break down the tactics because it goes beyond just Rich's chances:

1. Rich is in the break, he has a 1 and 9 chance of winning (vs. 1 and 50)
2. Other people in the main group want to catch them, let them do the work
3. If they do, YOU are fresh to go on the offensive at the catch
4. If they don't, Rich has a chance to win and you are still fresh for a possible 10th place.
5. If YOU chase, you will use valuable energy and most likely NOT come in the top 10.
6. We are not paid for this, and we don't have a race director to overrule normal race tactics, so do the right thing and give the diesel his chance.

I really want and hope our team understands this stuff gets paid forward. I will sacrifice myself everytime to help a teammate that is stronger or in a more tactical position. You will get rewarded, either by the race playing out, or in a future race. If I'm wrong about that then I'll go back to playing golf, a true individual sport.

Yours truly, the Captain.

[scottc]

I am going to critique your tactics because my mission is to have the best amateur race team in New England. Before I do, a few caveats:

1. You're still my boy so don't take this personal
2. I wasn't there so I'm sure it wasn't a simple decision
3. I've been drinking

With that said, NEVER CHASE DOWN A TEAMMATE. 9 people out of 45+ still constitutes a breakaway. Rich Batten trains hard, is really fast, and deserves his teammates support. In fact, the last time I saw Rich I urged him to go in a breakaway because that suits his abilities. So let me break down the tactics because it goes beyond just Rich's chances:

1. Rich is in the break, he has a 1 and 9 chance of winning (vs. 1 and 50)
2. Other people in the main group want to catch them, let them do the work
3. If they do, YOU are fresh to go on the offensive at the catch
4. If they don't, Rich has a chance to win and you are still fresh for a possible 10th place.
5. If YOU chase, you will use valuable energy and most likely NOT come in the top 10.
6. We are not paid for this, and we don't have a race director to overrule normal race tactics, so do the right thing and give the diesel his chance.

I really want and hope our team understands this stuff gets paid forward. I will sacrifice myself everytime to help a teammate that is stronger or in a more tactical position. You will get rewarded, either by the race playing out, or in a future race. If I'm wrong about that then I'll go back to playing golf, a true individual sport.

Yours truly, the Captain.

Well said Cratty. Please only play golf on recovery days. Nice work out there guys. Looking forward to reading more from the rest of the team.

[daniel8128]

Cat 5 Men's

Pre-race I was pretty confident that we had the strongest team in the field between myself, winslow, and tyler. Not 3 miles in there was a small break, kid from 545 went off the front, I bridged the gap hoping to neutralize the break. As it would happen, only 4 guys bridged and quickly tried to form a real break. Semi-organized we made our way down the big descent...I dropped my fellow riders, and just thought for a second that maybe this would be it. Only stayed away until the stair-stepper by the pond. Nothing happened in the 2nd lap until the end. Same guy from 545 makes a small acceleration up the gutter not too far from lackey hill. we had plenty of fire-power behind us so I let him go...big mistake, he punched up the climb, the false flat, the downhill. Still able to see him just after the finish where the dirt lot is, I thought we would reel him in. the damn group did not want to chase. MRC at the front trying to work while the rest of the guys just sat up. I'm thinking the whole time that they are racing for scraps at this point. So it's me, winslow, tyler doing probably all the work to bring it back. we hit the big descent again and this time I just let it rip, top out around 47mph, absolutely bombing the corners and hammer full speed into Burnett hill. Up the hill full speed, down past the church and still can't see the 545 guy. By this time the group was way back, winslow and tyler stopped working for the group(super smart move for the 5s). In a nutshell I just solo'd off and finished 2nd, little bit of a reprieve on lackey with the lead I had. tyler, winslow wait till lackey hill and hit the climb real hard, dropping whoever they had with them and finished 5th, 3rd! I predicted a sweep for this race and honestly I still think I was spot on. This core is strong and it's young(with the exception of myself), I see this being a force as we move up through the 4s and god-will really soon, the 3s. People talk about GLV being this power house...I feel like there is going to be some serious competition real soon! I proud to have these two guys riding with me, covering breaks, acting like a team, working together. Decide, commit, succeed. Avg speed was as competitive as the other categories. I know for a fact we have more serious engines in our cat 5 group. I heard someone today joke that we might actually have a "real race team" soon, got news for you, soon is now. I'm looking forward to cat'ing up and joining the camaraderie in the 4s and 3s.

[Smudger]

Cratty there was fire power bridging to the break with 10+ up the road. John also makes it sound like we were pulling the group over. We were just trying not to let those guys bridging get away.

Anyway onto my race. I dont have a good relationship with Lackey Rd and was very much on the fence. Signed up day of because we were in the 1st wave of races and would miss the mid day heat. Unlike John I thought the 2nd time up Lackey was the toughest but I was surprisingly sitting well in the group. Had to bridge a small gap with Rich past the finish on the 3rd lap with John in tow. All going well. Final lap was tame once the break was caught. Not sure if I hadn't eaten enough or the exertion from yesterday was starting to tell but I was drifting back and seeing riders I hadn't seen all race as we approached Lackey for the last time. The race was away from me but I passed a few and just missed getting onto a group over the top with Rich in it. Good day racing which I never thought I would say about Purgatory.

Props to Rich for putting it out there. If McCormack had been willing to work in his break they would have stayed away but I'll let him tell the rest of the story.

Good finish John

Great to see the 5 "team" out there

[djming]

Dan summed up the 5's pretty nicely. I would say that with the numbers we had (and Dan commented on this to me in the neutral area) as a team we should all have been much closer to the front right away. Much of that was in how the field was lined up though. So that was my mistake as I never even saw that Dan was ahead attempting to form a break.
We had discussed prior after each time up Lackey pushing the pace thru the finish area and back onto Central Tpk. So after Lackey #1, upon seeing Dan and Tyler at the front, figured it was my turn and pushed it on that section. MRC absolutely pushing the chase but as Dan alluded despite the field coming back together nobody else willing to go to the front and Tyler, Winslow, Dan continued on the front up Central Tpk.
Main field together, Dan does his thing on lap 3 and Tyler & Winslow controlling things. Mark D and Todd J also still there so awesome presence for us. I moved up with Tyler and a brief discussion and I keep the pace just high enough to discourage an attack but not so high that we risk bring back Dan. Tyler and I back it off slightly to see if anyone else willing to pull thru (not really..) Approaching the Y camp on Manchaug and I felt good, but on the other hand wasn't confident in being able to "sprint" up Lackey with the younger guys to contend for 3rd. But, Dan still up the road so no attacking the field. Tried to hold on final time up Lackey but a separation of 5-7 guys and nope, the legs just wouldn't go to hold that. 15th in that field yesterday with how the race played out I'm totally fine with.

[jraguin]

Cratty has a good point. First indication that reinforces Jeremy's point is that we had no guys finish in the top 10. So if we had let the break go longer, maybe it would have stayed away and the team would have had one finish in the top 10 (Rich was one of 9-10 at that point). I think the tactical mistake on my part was earlier that when the 3-4 guys jumped to get up to the break on Lackey and form that group of 9-10 guys, THAT would have been my time to jump up to the break with them rather than towing the field. I actually think I had it in my legs to jump with those guys that jumped then. My problem was when we got over the top of Lackey and I (and John) was pulling for a bit, I didn't have the jump in my legs to just jump up to the break. So although hard to second guess now, I think overall Jeremy is right.

[Bradford]

Men's Cat 3

40 starters for the Men's 3 race - 55 miles - and five trips up Lackey Road. MRC lined up with PJ, Patrick and myself. For me, this race was hard - lots of suffering.

I dropped my chain on lap two, on the fast descent on the front side of the course. I was dropped by the entire field and considered the DNF for a moment. However, I got the chain back on quickly, and a nice push from neutral support and began my chase back on. It took probably 3 minutes of an all out chase to catch back - I may have had some help on the way up - although when the race officials asked neutral support, they said 'no' - so, in that case, I didn't. But it was an all out effort, head down, in the drops, hammer to get back on. I pretty much remained on the rivet for the rest of the race.

A break of 5 went off around lap 3. My plan was to work for PJ and Patrick but I missed this move as I was still recovering/pack sliding. On lap 4 I came up to the front, and put in some time on the front to pull things back together. I think the gap was about 1 minute at this point. However I started riding away from the pack when I was pulling, people weren't coming with. This was about as close as we got to catching the break which eventually grew the gap to 2:30+ at one point.

We continued to shed riders and came around for our last climb up Lackey with maybe 30 guys. More attrition on this climb as everyone went with whatever they had left. I managed to get over with the front 20 or so, and sprinted my way in to 13th/40. I almost puked. PJ and Patrick both looked much more collected than I did, at the end of the race.

As promised, cat 3 serving up some humble pie. A real nice ass kicking.

[pace21]

Busick and I lined up in a stacked 35+ field, keeping an eye on:

1) The guy who made the P/1/2 break at Harvard and finished 7th overall (Campbell)
2) The reigning 35-40 national time trial champ (Phillips)
3) The guy who won Killington 2 weeks ago (Lipinski)

And a bunch more fast dudes including Mitchell, JTR, Billings (all 545) and other guys who make a habit of finishing ahead of me. Pretty tame first lap until Lackey. It started super easy and then blew up right at the false flat. I chased across a gap and all of a sudden there were 8 or 10 of us off the front and mostly working together. The field wasn’t that big so that represented probably 1/3rd of the guys in the race. We (mostly “they”) took turns attacking each other to try to whittle the 8-10 down but most were unsuccessful except for a brief scare from Lipinski off the front by maybe 20 seconds at most.

After a half lap of that nonsense and a general slowing and recovering, a group of 3-4 bridged up and our front group swelled to 12-14. From there it was basically a matter of shedding a couple riders each of the next 2 times up Lackey until we were down to 11. From there we played the game of attack/regroup for another lap or so. At one point Dean and Croteau got a decent gap by drilling the downhill and after some panic and extreme suffering we managed to reel them back in. What was really interesting is that I looked forward to Lackey Hill each lap for a little respite since the big guns (except for Campbell) are not pure climbers so the pace was “reasonable” for most of the ascents up Lackey since everyone in the group of 11 knew that there wouldn’t be much separation, and if Dean was gapped he could pull us back on the downhill. The reasonable pace up Lackey was offset by a furious remainder of the lap – there were attacks on Central Turnpike, there were attacks on the downhill, there were attacks on Barnett, there were attacks after the right turn onto Whitins. You get the idea.

Second to last lap – we’re in a lull before Lackey and Campbell puts in a stealthy attack on the climb right before the descent by the pond. This was still a lap and a quarter before the finish so it was a little surprising since I figured Brian could just wait until the final Lackey and ride away. But in hindsight he was probably going on the offensive to avoid having to chase Phillips or Lipinski or Croteau on a last lap TT-style attack. Whatever the strategy it was a good one because we ended up not going too hard on Lackey and by the time we rounded the left hand bend midway up we could see him cresting the summit so probably 45 seconds. That was that and we never saw him again. More attacks followed but nothing stuck until Dean drilled it down Mendon Road and no one (including Matt Mitchell!) could hold his wheel. Once he had a gap after the right turn onto Barnett it was game over and we were racing for 3rd place.

The only good thing about that is we could sit up a little and recover before the last Lackey since Brian and Dean were gone and the field was still 6 minutes back. I put a little acceleration in at the same place Brian did but since it was last lap there was an immediate reaction so I shut it down quick. We rolled into Lackey and it was hard but not super hard until the “wall” where I was definitely at my limit, I think everyone was aware that since we were all so similar in our climbing that any gap generated by going into the red on the hill would be quickly consumed by the field sprinting it out. For this reason we checked up a little on the very last step and crested in a group of 9, and here’s where I made my only regrettable decision. I got a little nervous and made an attack/sprint up the left from about 300 meters out since Croteau and Lipinski were playing a little cat and mouse over on the right at that point. Unfortunately that lit up everyone and then we were 3 wide sprinting but I was 2 or 3 bike lengths back and blowing up. I had a brain cramp at the tent and thought the line was 10 meters sooner so I sat up and of course 2 guys pipped me for 7th place. Oh well at least they only paid 6 deep so 7th vs 9th was only for bragging rights. I wonder though if I had sat in a little inside 300m if things would have been different since it is an uphill-ish and cross/head wind-ish sprint so not a good one to attack early. Honestly I’ve never been in a proper sprint at Purgatory since it is usually so blown out on Lackey, it was definitely more fun to be in a reasonable size group for the finale.

[Fintan]

Nice work guys. A great day for MRC.

[Jacob]

What an extraordinary showing for the team both in numbers and results! Great job!

[ahamilton]

What an extraordinary showing for the team both in numbers and results! Great job!

Jacob beat me to it. Kudos all around.

[PJ McQuade]

Wow, MRC results all over the place at Purgatory! Unfortunately, we weren't as successful in the Cat 3 race. Brad captured the gist of it: it was basically tame until the third trip up Lackey when a small group of six at the front surged from the bottom of the climb and opened up a gap that quickly expanded all the way to the top. It was frustrating not to be there since I was at the front with the same group for most of the lap up until that point. I lost my position on the Manchaug Rd descent and when the climb exploded I had way too much ground to make up and the legs just weren't there for me. The break had a lot of firepower and we had very little. I went to the front but it was obvious I wasn't towing the entire field back to the break. When Brad came to the front on Whitins Rd I thought we had a chance though. We could see the break far up the road, maybe a minute, and he put in a huge effort. I had trouble holding his wheel. When I turned around we had a small gap, as in a no one else was going to work or pull through kind of gap. Maybe Brad could have bridged solo, but with this lack of help from the field it was pretty evident we were racing for scraps with more than one lap left. Sigh. Fast forward to final Lackey for the field sprint. I kept it moderate at the bottom - just staying on wheels - to try and save something for the final grind. This plan worked fairly well as I came around several blown riders by the houses around the corner. I saw Brad hanging tough, which was very impressive considering the digs he already put in. Patrick was worked-over from an earlier attack and may have been in survival mode. We crested the top and I had great position - second wheel behind Chris Gougen. It was funny reading Pare's report because I made the same error - I launched way too early and sat up to be passed for 10th on the line. It was fun to be in the sprint but I was bummed to not be in the break. Purgatory continues to elude me!

[cbusick]

I put Katie's MRC pictures up in a dropbox folder. I think everyone can download directly from there,
let me know if there are any problems.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/innrqbwl33pl ... mDqla?dl=0

[jraguin]

I love the picture of Brad with the Cat 5 tattoo on his face instead of his leg...

[Bradford]

ha - ya - I had grease all over my hand from the dropped chain - was probably tagged when blowing snot all over the place afterwards. great look.

[KTeves]

Cat 4 35+

Let me start off by saying I was anxious all weekend leading up to this race. It was probably a combination of remembering the suffering from last year and wanting a good result badly and the fear of failure that comes with that.

You normally don't hear anything of the neutral start, but I think this is kind-of amusing. I was on the front row with a sleeved-out NEBC guy and John O'Connor (also NEBC) and a couple others and we seemed to be working work way to hard for any neutral start that I can remember. This seemed to be driven by the pace car that I guess was in a hurry to get things going and us thinking that we were supposed to stay within a reasonable distance of the car. By the time we got to the Central Turnpike intersection I looked back and there's probably a 50 ft. gap between us and the rest of the field. I think it was the first mini-break on a neutral start in racing history

The race starts for real at the top of the first hill on Central Turnpike and I spend most of the time 2nd wheel behind the sleeved-out NEBC guy. This lasts about until we get to Lackey Rd.. Even I wouldn't have pulled for that long Last year I was usually going backwards on Lackey. I made sure I was one of the first few wheels so when I slid backwards I'd still be in a decent position. I put in hard effort but nothing too hard for fear of burning too many matches and by the time we get to the third step I started pulling away. I went over the top of Lackey first in a little bit of disbelief then I sat-up a waited for the front of the field to catch me.

The second, third, and fourth laps were standard cat 4 racing fare: surge, sit-up, repeat. There were times when the pace was embarrassingly slow. I was doing more than my share of work (yes, I know, but I didn't do THAT much and was mindful to recover), but there weren't many others willing to do anything. So it didn't come as much of a surprise when on lap 3 on Whitins Rd. we were neutralized for the cat 5 race. It was Dan Schlieff on what I thought was his solo break for glory but learned after the race was an attempt to catch the 545 Velo solo break. The race was back on when we hit Manchaug (in a manner of speaking; the pace picked-up where it left off—slow—until Lackey) but the neutralization caused the field to bunch and gave ample time for everyone to recover before the 3rd time up Lackey. Not good.

The third time up Lackey was pretty much the same as the first two. Except . . . I went over the top in the first 5 or so, but this time someone attacked on the false flat. I was the next behind the attacker with another guy who said to me "just let him go." The attack was hard enough and coming at the top of Lackey that I knew it was going to require burning a lot of matches to bridge. I didn't feel it was wise to burn the matches figuring that he would just burn-out and get caught anyway so I was in agreement. Had I known who it was I probably would have tried to bridge. It was THE guy that I should have been marking (thanks John Raguin!).

The chase was on starting from Central Turnpike but was uneven and unorganized (to say the least). By the time we got to Manchaug I/we knew we were racing for 2nd. Knowing that and after doing too much work on the chase I started to fade a little physically and mentally. I recovered my composure enough to stay with the 6 or so guys who were surging toward Lackey grabbing wheels where /when I could and trying to recover at the same time for the final ascent of Lackey and sprint (gulp). I managed to gain a couple of positions on Lackey and gave it my best to the finish (5th).

[KTeves]

Breaking Race Report Update:

The race winner, Eric Nedeau, has commented on my Strava for the race: Apparently he wasn't the guy on the break after all. He caught the State 9 guy who was on the break with just seconds between them. He was in the chase group with me when the race marshal at the right turn on Manchaug informed us that there was a 50" gap. I didn't think there was any possibility that it could be caught so so little race to remaining. Wow. On one hand I don't feel as dumb for letting the marked man go off on a break; on the other I feel like an idiot for hesitating and not staying at the sharp end of the chase to Lackey. Racing is crazy!

[Fintan]

I put Katie's MRC pictures up in a dropbox folder. I think everyone can download directly from there,
let me know if there are any problems.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/innrqbwl33pl ... mDqla?dl=0

Thanks for the high-res pictures; very nice.

[pace21]

It's interesting to see your race from a different perspective. Dean's report:

http://mobile.dudamobile.com/site/fitwe ... =true#2909

[KTeves]

It's interesting to see your race from a different perspective. Dean's report:

http://mobile.dudamobile.com/site/fitwe ... =true#2909

Good race report. I suck at it.