Mystic Velo Crit

[onegeardoug]

Todd P and I headed to RI for a double-down-day consisting of the Mystic Velo Crit cat 5 race at 8AM, followed by the Gloucester Grind MTB race at 11AM. As I'm not a sprinter, I told Todd that I'd try to lead him out on the final lap for a good result.

As expected, the race pretty much stayed together for the entire 17 laps. A few guys tried to get off the front, but a monster headwind on the finishing straight nullified every attempt. Following Todd Savage's advise from a few weeks ago, I played around with moving up toward the front, then fading to the back, then moving up, etc. Having a good ol' time; not working too hard.

With 1.5 to go, I looked around for Todd, who was right behind me...only we were in about 20th place in a long single-file line. Against the monster headwind approaching the finish line for the bell, I stuck my nose into the wind and took a big dig on the outside assuming Todd would follow me. I quickly found myself with only a few riders in front of me and then I was out in front. I backed off a bit, and some guy went around on the back straight with the tailwind, so I jumped on his wheel in second. This was good, because I had been way too impatient and had found myself on the front way too soon. Two turns to go and the guy in front of me blew up, so I had no choice but to bury myself for as long as I could. I hit the finishing straight in the lead and got about halfway down the finish straight before I completely imploded. I looked back as I sat up and saw Todd in about 5th or 6th. Virtually the entire peloton flew by me before the finish, but Todd got 7th place. Not bad for a couple of Cat 5's that had never ridden on the road together before.

Nice finish Todd.

Both of us had mechanicals and DNF'd from the MTB race on the first lap. Probably a good thing.

[Bruce]

Nice, you won by losing!

[taudep]

It was a pretty good race. I tried convincing Doug not to do too much work, he couldn't help himself! Anyway, as he said all attempts at someone getting away -- usually aided by a nice tailwind -- came crashing to a halt when the wall of wind welcomed them after rounding the final corner to the finish straight away.

I spent most of the race just being patient, staying outside, and even dropping to the very back. With the strong tailwind, I knew it was really easy to get to the front when I wanted to. Which is what Doug and I did for the last 1.5 laps. However, I tucked myself in about 5 or 6 guys back. Doug made a quick move to the front and I figured that if I spent any effort trying to get up on his wheel that it'd tire me out. So I stayed put to see what would happen. As I learned at Turtle Pond when I was leading out in 2nd and 3rd place, it wasn't where I wanted to be.

Doug pretty much pinned it and we were all single file the last half lap. I joined on just in time as a small gap opened up behind me.

Then, we rounded the corner to the finishing straight and the wind just punched you in the chest. I was already in my drops, Doug pulled for maybe the first 30 or 40 meters into the straight away, and then pulled off and it was a mad dash. The two guys immediately on Dougs wheel were battling each other for position and had a five foot gap that I wasn't about to close with the wind. I looked for the next largest guy, got behind him, and sprinted in the drops for the line.

Another bunch sprint finish. Good times. Wish I could say the same about the Gloucester Grind.

[swawersik]

Nice job guys. As I watched the race, I though Todd was sitting too far back most of the race (you use more energy going through turns when you're at the back because of the "accordion effect"), but your finish either shows how much I know or shows that you had power to spare.

As for me in the 4's, I spent a lap or so in a very dysfunctional four man break early on, then decided to sit in until the inevitable final sprint. I wasn't aggressive enough in the final laps, though, so was too far back for the sprint, ending up with a very "meh" packfill finish. I clearly need to work on getting better at holding position.

On the plus side, I did a much better job keeping speed and holding wheels through the turns, as my power profile for the race had far fewer 700+ watt spikes than the last time at Ninigret a few weeks ago, so that's something.