Doug Burdi and Mark Daniels joined me in the combined 50+ and 60+ field which at 59 riders (40 & 19 respectively) comprised the largest field of the day. Of course also joining us were a "big three" of Ron Amos, Fred Thomas and Rob Lyons. After that there was an extremely competitive field. Race predictor had me at 16th, and when looking at the field I figured realistically I could finish anywhere between 4th and 18th. Found Larry A from 545 during the neutral start and he was bemoaning the lack of 545 presence in either of the masters fields (he specifically asked me to mention this in my write up
)Plan - 1) Be at the front heading into the descent to get a clear vision of the road. 2) Be near the front for E. Hawley to avoid the weaving/uphill braking/position jostling and to see who's doing what. 3) Get in a selection after the hill and put in an attack or two within the last 10K (unless of course by some miracle I was with the Big 3 in which case it would be "simply suffer for as long as I can")
Execution - 1) Rode the breakdown lane for almost the entire first 10 miles, picking spots to move up on the far right without overly expending energy. Knowing we were nearing the left turn to start the descent I put in one move and hit the turn in 3rd wheel. Perfect! Stayed in the top 7-10 wheels for the first 5 miles of 8A until it began to flatten out when the expected slowing and swarming began. I decided not to fight things and completely conserve. Grade: A
2) Too much jostling and people with the same idea as me. Instead of being aggressive heading into the climb I picked a couple guys to mark and follow. I might have been top 20 starting but probably not better than that. This led to not being in position to even attempt to go when Big 3 went right away, but otherwise had only a couple of spots I had to slow as things bunched and the beeping started to keep people to the right. Grade: B-
** The climb felt hard but controlled. In retrospect, it would have been possible, with the right position, to attempt to hang with Big 3 but would have required a near max 20 minute power so I would have been on borrowed time. Otherwise, 2 others (Mark Paggioli and Alan Potter) got into no mans land in between Big 3 and the main pack. I definitely had the legs to bridge to them but we had a good selection forming and gambled that we would catch them whether or not I got up to them so why burn an extra match. Correct assessment as at the top we formed a good 9 man group into chase mode and made the catch within 10K. Grade: A
3) Now it was 10 of us plus Bill Thompson who was the only 60+ to make the selection. Bill was in full on stay away mode so he kept the group honest. I decided to test the group in a couple spots with some high threshold on a couple grind climbs and the legs felt good and was able to separate 3-4 guys each time. But, too early so would regroup and recover. With ~7 miles to go Alan Potter put in an attack. Mark Paggioli covered and I jumped on his wheel. Hit a hill and I went and only Mark could follow. We started to work and got a decent gap but Summers (okay, maybe he wasn't in as much difficulty as I thought..), Potter, Trojan, Caligari were having none of that and I shut it down. Now into town of Savoy and as we approach the climb into the left turn to head to the finish (~4 to go) I attack and then threshold into the climb and nobody's coming with me. Turn left and I've got a pretty good gap. Onto the drag to the finish and it's a headwind and I'm not gaining any more. Shut that down and let's do the the finish sprint thing. Grade: A- (did what I wanted but couldn't make it stick so no A)
FINISH - In reconning the final 1.5 before the start it became obvious that early moves would be very hard to stick as it progressively ramped up. I figured even 200 was too early. After 2-3K of cat and mouse, just before 1K Jay Trojan goes HARD and gets a sizable gap. Nobody reacts and he's pulled back. At 500 Alan Potter goes. Nope, still too early. Also correct. At maybe 300 Cliff Summers goes and drags Paggioli, Walker, Trojan with him. I still wait a bit and then go all in at just under 200. He can't hold it I figure. I figure wrong. I pass Trojan and think I pass Walker at the line but it was the wrong line (race brain, and he was ahead of me at the actual finish). Summers and Paggioli hold everyone else off. So I'm 4th in the group sprint and 7th overall. I'll give it another A- since I beat race predictor by 9 spots but truthfully with a bit more proper race reading should have been right there for 4th so really a B+ for the finish.
On a not so good note, found Christo Tinkov (who was in the 4's) who informed me Jason had crashed out of the 3's and was taken to Northampton Hospital with a likely broken clavicle. Thankfully Christo's wife also at the race so she was able to go with Jason. Word was Jason was standing on the side of the road and alert so hopefully it's "just" the break with no head/neck issues.
