Minuteman Road Club

This was supposed to be a 60 mile road race against the old guys, but frankly these guys are too fast for me. Lined up with John and 2 545 guys Jerry Deeznuts and Brett. This isn't a condensed report, it really was this brief:

1. Felt great during the elongated neutral start :)
2. Attacks fly incessantly from the start
3. Dropped on the first hill 7 miles in, these guys are nuts
4. Miraculously catch back on at the start of he really steep hill
5. Almost make it intact, not good enough, dropped again
6. Teach some lesser "masters" how to "spell about". They aren't getting it
7. Torrential downpour, sweet!
8. Drop the group to try to bridge to John and Brett who are 200 meters in front
9. Break a spoke sprinting out of a corner
10. See John at feed one with my Dad, great minds think alike, all set with 40 more miles TTing in a hurricane
11. Drive to Vermont and drink beer, racing season over

I will try to keep it equally brief (hard for me). Masters races are hard. REALLY hard. Especially when there are some serious hills (5000+ feet of climbing).
A few lessons:
* Need to plan out my season better next year. Getting fit and just trying to hold it for months doesn't work.
* Going into a race with this kind of field without being fully mentally engaged is complete folly. Either you are 110% in or don't go.
* Masters races are hard.
* Watch out for Masters fields that have 20+ guys who are Cat 2s and Cat 1s.
* Don't study the race predictor before most masters races. If you do, you probably will be intimidated and guarantee yourself getting blown off the back.
* Masters races are hard.
* If you get dropped, find a group to work with rather than just trying to TT. And when you find a group, short pulls really do work to gain ground on the pelaton.
* When you get close to getting back on to the pelaton, don't drill it to try to bridge the gap. Just keep doing the short pulls as they clearly were WORKING!
* Masters races are hard.
* Racing in light rain is fine. Racing in hard rain sucks. Really sucks.
* When Accelerade has a neutral water & sports drink zone at a hilly race, use them rather than lugging bottles up those hills. These guys & gals were great.
* Masters races are hard.
* My race season is over. Time to rest and take a few weeks off the bike.

Seems a good place to add my perspective of the race:

The course was as tough as advertised. Just before pre-reg. closed out the competition in the masters ranks got a lot tougher with the addition of a bunch of guys I know to be quite strong. After I saw the pre-reg list my race goals changed from thinking I could get aggressive, maybe get in the right break to just try to hold onto the main field and take a shot at the end if I could.

First time through the ~7 miles of nasti-ness I realized my race goal was the proper one. Also, was a bit bummed to see my home boyz slide off the back of the main group, put my head down and tucked myself into the main group.

There I stayed until ~300m to go of the last 7 mile nasty stretch, the string stretched tight and then... snap! I was off the back. I did not want that to happen but didn't have much say in the matter. Caught up with another guy and we rode a solid pace to the finish to limit the damage, 21st, ~2.5min off the winner and main field. Happy with my effort but not so pleased with my place and that I could not stay in the main group.

Learned a couple things for future. Coming into the last ~1mile of the 7mile stretch of nastiness I was tail-gunning the main group, dreading/fearing that last, v. tough uphill. What I should have done was move myself to the front maybe even a little off the front heading into that last stretch. Why?

1. I could get a head start on the last uphill section and then slide back to the pack. 2. I might have avoided that stretched string where I was on the back, still under massive strain pedaling uphill whereas the font of the group was on a much easier grade and picking up steam. If I had been closer to the front of the group a more positive outcome could have been possible.

Jeremy and John, felt a little bad we did the masters instead of the 3s but 30 guys in the cat3 field finished under my time, winner only 1min slower than our field.

Ah well, I'm a maybe for Tokeneke. See y'all on the roads. -Jerry

Ouch, sounds like a kick in the teeth.
So Jeremy and John, you mean you're through AFTER Tokeneke, yes? Jerry, race the 3s with me at Toke. We will be like team Sky or something.

Sorry PJ. I am done for the season.

So am I, the canceled the race due to lack of volunteers. %$$#@%*!!!

Wow. I am surprised.