Minuteman Road Club

I think everyone who might be reading this knows about this course, but in case you don't here's the synopsis: Sprint, turn, turn, turn, sprint, sprint, turn (try to avoid crashing), sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, turn, sprint, sprint.

I had quiet ambitions with for this race, and was hoping for a top5 or podium. Well, no podium. In fact, no official result, as the finish line camera went out on the last lap. They pieced together the top 20 using photos taken by several photogs at the finish line (including Russ) and Jacob and I weren't in them, but both Jacob and I couldn't have been outside the top 25: there were only about that many guys left at the end. Jeremy is convinced I had to be top 15, but I'm pretty sure all the guys listed in the top 20 were, in fact in front of me. As of now, road-results.com is listing everyone not recorded as DNFs. I hate DNFs, so this pisses me off.

So what happened? Ken, Jacob and I lined up to race tonight. I got a great start - I actually had to sit up to avoid being ON the front at the holeshot, which I didn't want. I then sat in the top 5-10 wheels for 2/3s of the race. I had some trouble holding wheels coming out of the turns at first, but figured out the lines and how much gap to give to limit the power spikes. "Limiting" being a relative term. I laughed out loud when I saw the power file. I can't even count the number of >600W spikes I put out in this race.

I had a couple of scares, including the front two guys going down in turn 4 with me in third wheel, but avoided any skin donations. Ken also went down in a separate crash, bending his derailleur hanger, but like a true hard man, got a spare bike from Mavic and continued to race. Jacob rode a great race, and was with me in the front 10-15 guys most of the time.

With 8-9 laps to go, a guy washed out in turn 4 right in front of me and I had to lock up my rear wheel to avoid it. I then had to bury myself for half a lap to get back on the front group - sending me from the front to the back of the group. This was compounded by the fact that they called three consecutive prime laps right after I reattached, so now I was at the back AND hurting. The good news (I guess) is that the race exploded during these laps, and we were now down to no more than 25 guys - so at least I wasn't at the back of the 70-man field.

On 4 and 3 to go, there was a lull where I should have more aggressively improved my position, but I was so gassed that it occurred to me too late. Things ramped up again at 2 to go and 1 to go was balls out, and I was still too far back. I made a bid to move up on the outside of turn 4 (the 110 degree right hander of death), where I'd had some success gaining spots earlier. But now, we were going so fast through the turn that everyone was sliding further to the curb, so I just ended up getting pinched out and killing my momentum. I did my best to try to get back on, but it was too little too late.

As much as a podium or top 5 was my goal here, I also think it was an ambitious goal. That's the most competitive cat4 crit field of the year and a friggin hard course, with all its turns and power spikes. So I'm going to focus on the positives: last year, I couldn't even finish the full race, this year I was with the lead group; my bike handling was quite good, though my confidence in my bike handling still needs to improve (I was consequently less aggressive through turns than I should've been, especially in the middle of the pack); and I learned yet a little more about tactics and how to read a race - even if it was from screwing it up a bit.

Jeremy: sorry this report isn't longer

Good job Stefan. Sounded like a tough race. A real bummer about the posted results. I hope you are emailing them and getting it somewhat fixed. I didn't even show up in the initial results at Sunapee and I had to get it fixed.

Stefan, I'm disappointed, I wanted a full lap by lap analysis. Seriously, I was sitting on the finish line getting ready to line up, you and Jacob couldn't have been more than 20 back. No way. Either way, you had a good race, the whole field was imploded. Mid-race there were 2 guys out front and Jacob towed the field for 3 straight laps, very impressive, although it may have killed his chances as a serious result. Still nice work. And Ken... joined the select group of MRC guys who've crashed in the warm up, with Len Engel....

I upgraded to Cat3 2 months ago and haven't done a single race. So I decided to do the Masters 123, which I knew would be very difficult to hang on. I got a 1 lap warm up, I got a crappy start, was at the back yo-yoing for 10 minutes putting out massive power just to hang on, people were getting dropped all over. I initially got dropped, caught back on, dropped again, time trialed for 3 laps about 50 meters off the back, surprisingly not losing ground (it's amazing how fast you can hit the corners when you don't need to slam the brakes everytime). I finally decided I wouldn't catch on, and since no one was behind me I gave up. But then a minute later 4 guys came up from behind, so I jumped in and we rotated for 4 laps, then I dropped them because they kept braking in the turns for no reason. Finally the pace car came up and my race was over with about 10 laps to go I think. My only regret was my initial give up, I could have probably got another 5 laps in and a better workout. The end result would have been the same.

This is a hard race, and even harder to prepare for (especially when you don't prepare for it).

Ken... joined the select group of MRC guys who've crashed in the warm up, with Len Engel....

There are worse guys to be in a select group with...

BTW, I should've asked this before Ken, but are you OK? I heard you lost a bit of skin, but I didn't see you after the race.

Stefan, results aside, if you post it on Strava the data tells the story. Nice work. Jacob is domestic of the year. Jeremy, way to give it a shot with the big times, I heard that race was faster than the pros. Also, you made a better showing than my sad 10 min crit at Exeter a few weeks ago.

In hindsight it may have been a mistake to throw my carefully trained climbing legs into this meat grinder, but after at least four genuinely close calls and forty minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, I felt an immense sense of satisfaction as I crossed the finish line of my first real criterium unscathed.

Warming up prior to the race, I asked Stefan what the game plan was. He told me: “Stay at the front”. Ok, I’m generally pretty good at that -- sounds simple enough, but after less than one half lap, the field was all single filed out. Either someone was really jazzed up or the peleton was not properly sorted out by strength. In any case, it took me a few laps to get into the flow: taking all of the turns at speed, getting a feel for the other riders, figuring out how to NOT go over THAT pothole on turn two. Ok, so now I’m finally up near the front as instructed just in time to get a good front row view of a crash. I’ve never seen a bicycle fly through the air so slowly! I got held up enough by that to have a hard sprint to do afterwards to cross the gap.

Round and round… I look down after a while and see we’ve done a little more than 17 minutes. That’s all? At one point I got sandwiched pretty hard, at another point I experienced the cycling equivalent of an open field tackle as a guy with +50 pounds on me swerved across to get to the inside line. Later I was even closer behind a second crash and split the gap between two victims.

I tried to get to the finish line as quick as possible, but I knew from pretty far out that I wasn’t in the right place. It felt great to finish upright though! Crossing the line, it looked like I had a top twenty finish – the updated results seem to agree. Great workout!

http://velocityresults.com/results/400/ ... beverly-ma

Some of my photos from the race are up on Facebook here and the COMPLETE gallery is on my site here.

Here's the shot of Ken and his wounds.

PJ McQuade wrote:Stefan, results aside, if you post it on Strava the data tells the story. Nice work. Jacob is domestic of the year. Jeremy, way to give it a shot with the big times, I heard that race was faster than the pros. Also, you made a better showing than my sad 10 min crit at Exeter a few weeks ago.

Haha.
Exeter was my first crit with the pros as well. I lasted about 3 lapis past the halfway point. Then the concrete in my legs hardened.

Jacob wrote:In hindsight it may have been a mistake to throw my carefully trained climbing legs into this meat grinder, but after at least four genuinely close calls and forty minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, I felt an immense sense of satisfaction as I crossed the finish line of my first real criterium unscathed.

I didn't argue for more of a game plan knowing that you've not done many crits, but I didn't realize it was your first one! You picked a doozy to start with, but did amazingly well. Guys like you with tons of natural talent piss me off

This just in from ECV/Gran Prix of Beverly:

13 July 2012
Gran Prix of Beverly

To the racers, spectators, and regional cycling community,

This past Wednesday, we had an amazing night of bike racing in the heart of downtown Beverly. I’m proud that our organization was able to produce such a fine event. However, an error was made that night and the right thing to do is fix it.

Months ago during the event planning, we placed a successful bid for the Elite men State Criterium Championships. Under our arrangement with USA Cycling, awards were to be given to the Elite Men 19-22 Years old and Elite Men 23-29 years old. Unfortunately that is not what was done on Wednesday. We correctly awarded Shawn Milne with the State Championship jersey for being the first Massachusetts resident across the line. As such, Mr Milne is the 23-29 Massachusetts State Criterium Champion.

The mistake was made during the bustle of post-race and award ceremony prep when a State Criterium Championship award was presented to the first place finisher in the Masters event, Mark McCormack. We did not place a bid for the Masters State Championship and as a result, regretfully,we need to rescind the award to Mr. McCormack.

As the first Massachusetts resident to cross the line aged 19-22, Manny Gougen is now the 19-23 Massachusetts Criterium State Champion.

I’ve called both Mr McCormack and Mr Gougen to inform them of these developments and offered my sincere apologies for error. I’ve also congratulated Mr Gougen on his championship ride and he will receive the State Championship jersey.

This has been a difficult letter to write. I work with an amazing group of hard working volunteers. As an organization we strive to provide an exceptional experience for the riders, spectators and our sponsors. Unfortunately, we fell short on the execution of the agreement we had with USA Cycling to host and award the State Championship.

To the racers, spectators and sponsors, I accept full responsibility and offer my sincere apology.

Respectfully Yours,

Paul Boudreau
Race Director, Gran Prix of Beverly
President, Essex County Velo

Congrats to Manny Goguen!