Minuteman Road Club

Doing this with John Raguin. Tonight's stage 1 was a short 6.6 mile TT. Looking at last years times gave me a good idea this was harder than it looked. I was right. First half of the course was fast but had a couple of sharp turns that hurt the momentum. I felt like I was flying, but it all changed after a left hander at about mile 4. I passed 2 riders there, but the course started into some hills. The third hill was a killer, starting with a steep kicker, out of the saddle to the top I was going 13mph. Bad sign. Then the false flat made it impossible to get back up to speed. Another roller at the top before mercifully hitting the decent. Going up to 40mph to the last right hander. 1/2 mile false flat was demoralizing. Finished 16:42 in 15th out of 33. Two riders beat me by 1 sec which was annoying When they posted the results it showed John R in 1ST PLACE. Instant joy was nullified when we saw his time of 14:25. That would win the Pro race. An error they probably will sort out. But maybe not!

Nice job. The next two nights should be fun for you guys. Hydrate up!

Same comments as Jeremy. Very tough TT. Both of us originally thought "6.6 mile TT, much shorter than the CBTT in Concord, we should go faster!" but it was not to be. I don't have experience in TTs (besides CBTT), but this seems like a technical course. Turns, many small hills, so I couldn't get into a rhythm. Seems like everyone's speed is a lot slower than Concord despite the fact that it is shorter. Fun race but to do well I really think you need to practice turns and hills on a TT bike. I think got almost the exact same time as Jeremy but we will see when it is official.

Stage 2 circuit race today. Should be fun.

Stage 2: 36 mile circuit race. 9 miles per lap, 4 laps. Rolling course, no significant hills but a few short ones. The main hill (KOM) is about 7.5 miles into each lap. Because I had no plans on racing Stage 3, the A plan was to have me lead out Jeremy at the finish. But as usual, plans don't always work.

Race goes out at a decent clip from the gun. Not much to say on lap 1 besides Mike Brier was doing a lot of work at the front. I am staying in the front 10 wheels. A guy from Optimum Performance goes off the front in lap 2. No one chases. The OP guy starts getting pretty far in front. I start goading one of the ECV guys (they have 8-9 guys in the race) that it is their job to go after him. All of a sudden 4 ECV guys go and they put a pretty good gap on the pack. I realize I have to chase that down as the 5 of them together would be trouble. I close it down with Jeremy on my wheel. Then I do some work with the ECV guys to close in on the OP guy. Each lap there is a KOM which a guy from CCB and a Killington Mountain Cycling guy are the main two to chase after. But they look strong on lap 2 & 3 and put huge gaps on the pack through the hill / false flat / downhill after. I do a bunch of work each time with a few others (including Mike Brier & Richard Batten of Stage 5) to not let them get away, including well into the 4th lap by the time we catch the CCB guy the last time.

We approach the KOM hill (about 1.75 miles from the finish) and a guy goes off the front with two others not that far behind. I figure that isn't going to get away but everyone is pushing a little harder on the hill but I am boxed in on the right practically in the gravel and not going as fast as I would normally. I see Jeremy on the left and he looks good. We hit the top of the hill and I push to the front with Brier to go chase down the guys. We close on one of them almost immediately. Then Richard goes a bit harder and hits the right turn first with Brier, Jeremy and a few other guys there. We catch the 2nd guy who had gotten away around the turn I think. Jeremy is in front of me and I think "I have to get in front of Jeremy to lead him out". I dig down to my legs and I just have nothing to go around everyone. So I sit in and look for a hole. But shortly after, Brier, Jeremy, Richard, an RPI guy, an ECV guy, and a few other guys punch it (around the school, maybe 400 meters out?). I get gapped as I was not paying attention and also am tired. I am digging for what I have but I have no draft. All of a sudden the ECV guy goes down about 200 m out. I stop pedaling and swerve a bit around the crash but it doesn't slow me down too much. I pip Richard at the line for 10th.

The punchline: Good day for MRC, two top 10 finishes and I got 10th. I will let Jeremy tell his story...

Oh, and they fixed the results from the Stage 1 TT: Jeremy 14th. Me 16th, a few seconds behind Jeremy.

It was a fun race. The pace was strange as we would hold speeds of 30mph for stretches with some suffering and then stretches of 22mph that were boring. I was antsy a few times to take a flier but decided it would be foolish and I'd have a better chance on the mild uphill sprint finish. John was closing down all the breaks anyway so I did absolutely no work on the front. As John described, the last 2 miles were chaotic. Fast pace up the hill probably dropped half the field, really fast decent into the last right hander. Brier took a wide turn and his rear wheel skidded out and almost crashed. That threw me off a little as I was following him closely. I tried to follow every move, but I was totally in the red zone and 2 guys got a big gap. 5 of us chased until an ECV guy made the worst move I've seen in a race. He tried to counter a sprint from behind him by cutting across the guys line. Too bad for him the guys acceleration had taken him to the same exact spot. They got tangled and careened off the road with the ECV crashing spectacularly. Anyway I hit the gas there and pass the remaining few guys and with 200 meters I'm clear for 3rd place. The sprint seemed like and eternity, and of course another ECV guy passed me by 1/2 a wheel on the line out of nowhere. Still happy with 4th but I had the podium in my grasp.

Oh, and good news: Out of the race we have 3 potential current Cat 4 recruits. One of those wants to upgrade soon to Cat 3 so PJ, looks like you will get company besides Chris & John S!

Final installment for the WMSR. Stage 3 was a points race, 60 laps on the 1/4mi Star Speedway with a points sprint every 5 laps. I was missing my leadout man (John R) to family commitments. My other friend in the race Phil couldn't make it because of a work event, but left me with this advice: "you'll do well because the pace is slow for 4 laps then you can throw down on the points lap and get points because your a good sprinter." Let me just say that is NOT how it played out. The pace was very fast on every lap. I couldn't even get in position to sprint the first 2 times, as the pace was so high I was stuck too far back. On the third sprint I HAD to get points so I went to the front with 2 laps to go and was in good position and squeeked out 4th place (1 point). At the 30 lap mark the points were double so I tried the same tactic. The sprint was very fast and I could only manage 6th or so, which = zero. Wasted effort, next thing I know I'm danging off the back. Took 2 laps to reconnect totally in the red. I realized I needed to sit in to avoid getting dropped which would destroy my top 10 GC hopes. I did nothing for the rest of the race waiting for the last sprint. With 3 to go I went to the front and tried to maintain position but the last lap I got swarmed and sprinted in for 7th. This helped a little as I think this broke a tie with the other 1 pointers. That 1 point was actually big because it put me 13th and I held on to 8th on GC. It was fun but painful, next year my tactics will be totally different. Sprint off the front 2+ laps ahead and try to stay away from the field.

I'd like to get some MRCers next year. Its a fun race and I think we could employ some solid tactics for a GC win.

Great work Jeremy!