Critapalooza
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:55 pm
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.
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.
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 