Minuteman Road Club

The plan was to set up Jeremy for the sprint. The backside had plenty of wind, so Chris was going to lead him out from just before the second to last turn, through a slightly downhill straight drag and into the final turn, and leave him off into the straight (but fairly bumpy) final sprint. My job was to make sure Jeremy was at the front, bring back any late breaks, and, if possible, string things out going into the final lap. Todd S. was the wildcard and covering early breaks. That was the plan anyway...

Jeremy got the hole shot at the start, and he and Chris were in the first few wheels for laps 1 and 2. Chris ended up on the front for a good long time until I attacked to bring others around him, we then all receded to mid/front pack for a while. The pace was quite tame, but that didn't stop some squirrelly riders from causing trouble. At one point, through the start finish straight, two guys got a little tangled up (no real reason why). The Noreast guy, doing exactly as he should've, leaned left into the other guy for support to steady himself. The other guy freaked and moved further to his left, nearly taking out the next guy over, and essentially pulling the legs out from under Noreast, who went down right in front of me (with Jeremy on my wheel). We were both lucky to dodge Noreast by inches and get through. The message: if you make contact with somebody and lose stability, lean into them. If somebody leans into you, lean back towards them. Then gently separate once you're steadied. This will avoid crashes.

Somewhere in all this chaos, Jeremy decided that it was less stressful to stay near the back. Todd and I kept dropping back to check on him, and he was in no trouble, so we figured we're still on. At about 9 to go, things seemed slow, so I took a short flyer off the front, then slid back to recover and bring Jeremy up. As I slid back on the left side, I saw him moving up nicely on the right. So I gave myself a quick breather, then moved up again myself. When I got to the front, I saw Chris, who says "Where's Jeremy?" "I thought he was up here," I replied, then slid back again to try to find him.

As I moved back, Mike Brier made a nice attack off the front. He may be a (self-acknowledged) sandbagger, but you gotta give the guy credit for animating races. Brier's move made everyone pay attention, and there was lots of "we gotta get that" talk. Chris and what looked like two or three other guys got on the front and worked on closing Brier down. I still couldn't find Jeremy, so made the decision to move up to try to help Chris. Of course, by the time I worked my way to the front, Brier was caught. Chris and 2 others had a small gap, but it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to stick, so I tucked into 3rd wheel as we rolled past Chris and his companions. I stayed up in the first 3-4 wheels for a while (still no Jeremy), and next thing I know, they're calling final lap. I'm thinking "Sweet, I'm in great position here!" Until I got a little boxed in as guys dove into the second to last turn, and I was too conservative on the final turn. The final sprint felt like I was riding a mechanical bull, as I manged to hit every pothole and divot on the run-in. I was convinced I'd had an outside shot of having cracked the top ten, but in the end I was 18th (math was never my strong suit) - an OK finish, but a little frustrating because of the good position going in. Guess I just gotta practice more.

After taking a cool-down lap, I found Jeremy: he'd been crashed out shortly after the last time I saw him at 8 to go, just as the "no more free laps" rule kicked in. Bummer. His wounds looked painful (hip and elbow), but he'll recover quickly.

Despite the confusion and modest results, we tried and we raced well. On to 'cross (yeah, Jeremy, I'm looking at you...)

No matter how I slice it, that is my favorite race. I managed a field finish with very little training and somehow managed to avoid the more than usual crashes including the final corner pile up in which it felt like everyone around me was down. I still don't get why guys are sprinting the final corner for 35th place. The winner was already at the line guys. I even managed one lap at the front to get my annual props from Richard.

We did 25mph for a 1/2 hour. The elites did 35 mph for 1 hour. And I saw Jim Nash, John Grenier and several other 'elders' mixing it up on the front. Quite impressive. Oh yeah, and 14 y.o. Peter Goguen right there with them. Both Manny and Patrick had mechanicals but got back in. Good showing by Chris Coutu and the boys too. There were also 3 LF ladies in the womens race.

On a side note, my folks and I were standing just off turn 3? (at the island) for final laps of the mens race. Mom was sitting on the steps with an elderly local couple and dad and I were standing on the sidewalk. When the field went by on the way to the bell, my 'spidey' sense went off and I somewhat jokingly told dad we should move up on the steps. So we did. When the group came by on the last lap some guy came out of the corner and right up on the sidewalk at 35+. The 5 of us just stood there looking at each other in disbelief.

After moving up on 5 occasions and getting swarmed every time i decided to chill mid pack until lap 4. When we got to that point I Put in a dig on the back stretch and moved from 40 to probably 15, jumped on a wheel hitting the 2nd to last turn. Unfortunately he got boxed out, and to avoid hitting the median, basically bailed out and I had nowhere to go. Locked up the wheels and pulled a Ponch in CHIPS and slid into him. Just like on the show some chickens flew from the coop of the overturned pickup truck. Anyway I digress, I appreciate everyone working for me and wished I could deliver. I'm not the guy who says how sketchy the race was, but in this case IT WAS.

Still working my way through the photos but thought I'd post this nice one of Chris, Todd and Stefan during warmup: