Critapalooza

[swawersik]

I managed to leverage the fact that it's my birthday tomorrow to get a hall pass to race both days this weekend. Yeah me!

Goals for the weekend were (in rough order):

1. Work on staying near the front of the race
2. Race rather than being packfill
3. Get a top-10 result (was more focused on doing that on day 2)

Attleboro Crit

Had teammates in this one. Yeah me again! Both Jeremy and Chris were in attendance, and Chris had expressed a desire to do well here. His whole family (parents included) were at the race, so how could we say no to setting him up? That, and he's way stronger than me. This course is a 4 corner crit with a couple of wrinkles: there's a short, semi-steep hill right after the start finish, a routine right hander at the top of the hill, another right hander at the top of the hill with some broken but ridable pavement and limited space at the exit, a downhill over some more broken pavement into two semi-linked right handers at the bottom with plenty of space so they could be (should be) railed, then a slight rise into the start finish. I saw that this would be a race where being at the back would not be good, as the the uphill would cause a major accordion effect and right hander into the downhill was going to cause lots of braking, so I made a point to stay up front from the get-go. In fact, I ended up ON the front for about a lap, apparently setting a fast enough pace that nobody was coming around, and Chris had to remind me to sit up. While I was "recovering," they started calling the first of 4 straight prime laps, so I suffered for several laps waiting for it to end. Chris took prime #4, though. After that, I stayed uneventfully near (but not on) the front, with the exception of being slowed by a crash (one of many, many, many on the day). Being mid-pack told me that my assessment of pack dynamics was right, so I moved up front again (and got a funny double-take from Chris when I reappeared - he thought I'd been taken down). Somewhere just after the midway point, I was near the 3rd or 4th wheel of the main field, with two guys off the front and a 3 place prime had been called. I figured "what the hell," and sprinted, taking the third spot (1 and 2 were caught soon after). Yeah me again! Except that now I needed to recover in the pack just as the end game of the race was heating up. After I gave myself a little mental "you can do it" pep talk, I worked my way back up to find Jeremy taking good care of Chris near the front. I was gradually working my way over to them when I bumped/got bumped shoulders with someone exiting the tight turn and saved my bacon by going up a driveway onto the sidewalk. After avoiding a startled local watching the race from his front lawn, I hopped the curb back into the pack, but had to give up a lot of spots to make sure I didn't take anyone out. I was therefore too far back to help Jeremy turn himself inside out bringing back a small break (Jeremy once again deserves a Supa-Teamate award, as he did a ton of work for Chris in the final laps. Yeah Jeremy!). This did the trick, and Chris came across in 4th, with Jeremy and I finishing together mid pack. Yeah Chris! (Sorry for stealing your thunder, Chris, but the 24 hour period for race reports is up...)

The good: Pack handling felt great, took a prime, and teammate success.
What to work on: I wish I could have been better placed to help Chris in the end. Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the prime? But it was so tempting...

New Britain Crit

Solo for this one. This is a winding course with a little bit of up-and-down. There's a gradual 180 curve a ways after the start/finish, a gradual right-then-left going into a small uphill on the backside, then a sweeping 90 degree left hander back down the hill onto the start/finish. It's a very nice course, for those who've not done it. Expo Wheelmen had strength in numbers, and kept sending guys off the front for the first few laps. I tried to stay in the first 3-5 wheels, which was probably unnecessary and had me feeling a little tired after the first few laps. I learned from yesterday, though, and slid back a little to hold a position in the 8th-15th wheel range. Accordion effect was not such an issue, as none of the turns were tight, so this was good and my legs started to come around. From here, I was not in position to contest any primes, but was OK with that. Somewhere around lap 10, Mike Brier took a solo flyer off the front and quickly had 10-15 seconds (he ended up getting 6th and won the 45+ race - that guy needs to upgrade). We all knew he was strong and there was some discussion within the pack of what to do, but the Expo guys weren't making much headway on their own, and nobody seemed overly willing to help. My alarm bells went off, however, when Tom Mikolinski (from Teany) and a CL Noonan kid attacked to bridge. Tom won the Hartford Crit a few weeks ago, and we all know about those CL Noonan whippersnappers, so I decided to "jump on that s&!t," as if they got up to Brier, it would be game over for the rest of us. With no small amount of effort, I managed to get across to them, but I was apparently not the only one who recognized the situation, and the pack caught back on soon after. So now we were at 8 to go and I was a hurtin' sack - not yeah me! However, rather than mentally packing it in as I've done in the past, I gave myself one lap to recover as much as I could, then forced myself back up to the front. The confidence in handling gained from racing Attleboro helped me immensely, and despite some significant shoulder rubbing and a short stint spent riding on the infield grass, with 1 to go, I was sitting in the top 10 or so wheels. Unfortunately, some guy cut the turn too hard in the last corner and slid out (afterwards, I hear somebody say he had his tire pressure at around 150 psi - that couldn't have helped...), and the guy next to him locked up both wheels on the turn to avoid guy #1, putting himself on the ground as well. I thought I was done, as guy #2 was just ahead of me on my right, but somehow, I managed to avoid his wheel by inches. I lost a couple of pedal strokes getting around the carnage, so I started my sprint a little overgeared, but managed to keep anyone from coming around me in the final straight to finish 12/47. And rubber side down. Yeah me!

The good: I'm pretty darn happy with that race, and could have finished even better had it not been for things out of my control
The bad: Stupidly spent some energy early in the race, but even here it's not too bad, as I figured it out and stopped.

[ahamilton]

Nice reports and nice work Stefan. And nice teamwork at Attleboro.

[jraguin]

Great job guys I look forward to Chris' & Jeremy's report. And I definitely echo the thoughts of Jeremy as teammate of the year. I plan to work for him at the Working Man's race and see if I can return the favor for all of MRC.

[swawersik]

One thing I forgot to add is the number of times over the weekend when I was chatting with people and they made comments (in various forms) about how strong MRC has been this season. All those nice results - and coming from so many different riders - is getting us some notice. Yay MRC!

[Smudger]

Great racing and great results. Looks like you're getting g into top crit form Stefan.nice job both days.

[rusto]

Hear anything about this, just posted on Twitter:

RT @JDBilodeau: New Britain incident in 140char: post race protest about a prime sprint dq devolved into punching the official. Dude got locked up for a&b.

[ahamilton]

Hear anything about this, just posted on Twitter:

RT @JDBilodeau: New Britain incident in 140char: post race protest about a prime sprint dq devolved into punching the official. Dude got locked up for a&b.

Guy must have popped one too many testosterone caps this morning.

[swawersik]

RT @JDBilodeau: New Britain incident in 140char: post race protest about a prime sprint dq devolved into punching the official. Dude got locked up for a&b.

Is a can of Heed really worth a night in jail?!

[JeremyC]

Great report Stefan. I appreciate the good words, I certainly don't mind paying my dues, the teamwork part is the funnest aspect of racing in my mind. Raced the Wells A race today wit Len, he got 5th or 6th and I was about 15th out of 50 racers. Confidence is building for Beverly as this was a 27mph race with some studs. MRC should continue the momentum.

[Len_E]

Stefan, great work and quality back-to-back results. Two days of this kind of competition is great experience and you have some very good results.
Attleboro - wish I could have helped Stefan, Jeremy and Chris but afternoon scheduling problems forced me to ride the morning 45+ race. The field was packed with quality riders and while I felt lousy at the start, I stayed with the pack until my legs felt better. Bad tactics kept me from the 8-rider break that stayed away and the rest of the pack, about 45 riders, were left to fight it out for scraps. I was too far back in the sprint to break the top 10 but I think I got 12th or 13th overall.
Wells A - another big group that included the B racers (last week was huge with top riders in both the A and B race. I did the A and managed a prime win but got pipped at the line trying to get a top 10). Fast pace and lots of attacks. Great to ride with Jeremy who was so consistently strong throughout the race. We also had a youngun with us. Dana who I met this week at the WC on Tuesday night and gave me a great lead out in the final sprint, was in the thick of things the whole race and just got squeezed in the final sprint. He's attending U of Vermont and rode their jersey but he's been seen in an MRC jersey in other races. He's the real deal.
These Wells races are great for crit practice and flying the colors. Come on out.
Great weekend for MRC, again.

[pace21]

Sorry it took so long to post up, I’ve had a heck of a weekend. I feel like I got run over by a motorcycle. Oh wait, I did get run over by a motorcycle. (more on that later).

First, the good (i.e. Saturday’s Attleboro Crit):

Had a good warmup since the course was only 18 miles by back roads from my house I rode over and met up with Stefan about 20 minutes before race time. About 5 minutes before race time we saw Jeremy on course – surprise bonus! The race was fairly predictable with many crashes and some squirrely riding. We all stayed at or near the front so mostly out of trouble. Stefan and I both managed some prime prizes which was cool. My prime lap was totally uncontested, I simply put in a 5 second dig out of the final corner to open up a 15 meter gap and no one responded, so I just rolled across the line first (if only it were always that easy!). Fast forward to the last couple laps, Jeremy and I had discussed mid-race a spot where he would initiate the Mark Renshaw move on the last lap, but with 2 to go someone attacked and no one responded. He was a good bit out front for the next lap. Hmm…. Jeremy had great instincts and decided to change the plan on the fly so he took off in chase, pulling him mostly back in about a lap of redline work. This was crucial as that guy (and one other who had bridged) would have checked out. Right then was my tactical error because just when Jeremy pulled them back close enough and he (Jeremy) was spent, I should have attacked the field (1/2 lap to go) and bridged up to the leader, then (hopefully) past him. I didn’t though and instead waited for a field sprint thinking the field would catch them. I had decent position coming through the last turn around 6th or 7th wheel, let someone lead me out, and passed a few in the sprint for 4th overall, within 20 meters of the breakaway dude / winner. I was of course very happy with the result, but couldn’t help thinking what might have been. I had great legs during the race and was never really in difficulty so it would have been a great day to gamble on a late move. Ah well, that’s racing.

Now the bad (i.e. Sunday’s Crow Hill Motocross):

I won’t bore you with too many details except to say that on the second lap of a long day I ended up getting taken out and run over by an overzealous compatriot. The physics involved with getting knocked off and run over BY THE SAME PERSON are interesting, but suffice it to say that the whole thing was a big downer and now I am nursing lot’s of bumps, bruises, and some rib-type injury. I actually have knobby marks on my back like you might expect to see after someone got run over in a children’s cartoon, except this was much less funny

[argus]

Way to go Stephan and thanks for the race report.

Chris, feel better quickly.

[Smudger]

I actually have knobby marks on my back like you might expect to see after someone got run over in a children’s cartoon, except this was much less funny

Did you hear a "meep meep" when it happened?

Great resultt and hope you recover well and fast.

[ahamilton]

I actually have knobby marks on my back like you might expect to see after someone got run over in a children’s cartoon, except this was much less funny

Chris, sorry you have to deal with that and hope you recover quickly. Also sorry to say I could not stifle a small giggle when I read the way you described it.

Nice work at Attleboro. Especially nice to have the whole family there to witness it.

[swawersik]

I actually have knobby marks on my back like you might expect to see after someone got run over in a children’s cartoon, except this was much less funny

Good thing there wasn't a brick wall painted to look like a train tunnel...

Heal up quickly

[JeremyC]

I hope your not as messed up as Johnny Hoogerland...