Minuteman Road Club

Since crash footage is up on the interwebs, we need a race report to say that none of the MRC team was seriously hurt. The crash happened on Chris' wheel (literally), Jacob got around, Rob went down (but relatively gently), I avoided going down, but had to unclip to do so, and Todd also had to full-stop.

I came into the race just off of 9 days of full rest, and that and my first time racing crits with the Cat3s had me a little nervous. I also slipped on the curb while unloading the team tent and turned my ankle - no real injury, but a bad omen (and all the sympathy I got from Chris was "You can't get hurt, you're supposed to be my bitch for this race! ")

The Comprehensive Racing guys got a well deserved call-up for organizing, but since I was right behind them and many of them were not "front of the pack material," I got shuffled backwards on the first lap. Mid-pack during laps 1-5 was a festival of chops, shoulder bumping, and sketchy line choices. Between my lack of confidence and these shenanigans, I ended up in the last third of the pack. There weren't any really sharp turns to cause major surges, so I figured I'd sit back there for a while until things settled down, then move up. This gave me a view of some fairly entertaining events, the highlights of which both involved questionable choices but good handling by the B2C2 team:

- One of the B2C2 guys got a plastic bag stuck on his rear dropout (on the non-drive side) and rode the first half of the race with it flapping in the breeze. Some time around mid race, one of his teammates (Colin R, I think) was finally able to lean down - mid-pack, mind you - to remove it.

- Colin R misjudged turn 2, and almost went into the traffic island, locking up his wheel and skidding on his unclipped cleat to stay upright.

Anyway, sometime around mid race, things seemed to have settled down, so I started trying to move up. But the pace was consistently high enough that simply gunning it up the straight section (the standard tactic in previous years' cat4/5 races) was completely ineffective. After a few more laps, by watching Rob, I found that the inside lines on the turns were fast and pretty open, so I started to follow him and work my way up. We were mid-pack by 8 to go when the carnage happened.

The race was neutralized, and those of us caught in/behind the crash were at the back of the stopped group. We then sat for 10-15 minutes, waiting for the ambulances to take care of the badly hurt guys, before restarting for a 5 lap death sprint to the finish. Starting from the back, I had little chance of getting into position for much of anything - a fact not aided by the realization on restart that I must've flipped down to my little ring at some point - so I just tried to stay hooked onto the wheel in front of me and rolled in for 65th.

It was a bit of a disappointment for me, as I had the fitness to do better and I would have liked to contribute more. But at least my teammates acquitted themselves well: Chris rode his usual quality race, Jacob continues to show himself to be a hell of a rider, and Todd and Rob hung in despite their "undertraining." It was a fun night, though a bit of a strange ending to the road season.

I crashed last year in this race because of some bad riding in front. There was also a HUGE crash on the last lap. Not sure what the problem is, its the easiest crit course of the season. Pretty happy with my decision to skip it (although I didn't end up having a choice). Sorry I missed the post race beers tho.

Nice job to all around for manning up...

This race was less about “witches” and more about “which guy is going to fall down?”

I started at the back and spent about 25-30 minutes working myself up to the front. I had one close call: I was on the inside in advance of the last turn of the loop and the guy to the outside slid out slightly and we got hung up on each other. My front wheel left the pavement in the reaction and came back down at an angle. I somehow weebled out of that one in time to make the turn and continue on unscathed.

Later on, I got a chance to ride at the front for a couple hundred meters and did an embarrassingly noodley pace across the start/finish line.

Chris was well-positioned at all times. He looked very comfortable and aero.

Right before the big crash, there was an acceleration of 3-4 guys off the front. The time was about right to start suffering, so I covered the move along with some others. This put me in the perfect position to be unaffected by the crash. I was actually ahead of Chris when the crash happened, which was not the norm. If the race had continued from that point it would have been very good for my result.

When the race was stopped, I didn’t comprehend the urgency of getting back to the start line in a good position; lesson learned. On the restart, I was somewhere in the back third, and was delayed further by someone in front of me struggling to clip in. There were 5 laps to go and I was basically back at square one. I did my best to move back up in the short time remaining and ended up getting up to 32nd place – more like a rush hour TT than a sprint per se.

These crits are pretty fun! I like the intensity and having teammates there makes it more fun too! Thanks guys!

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night; I was thinking about what I want to do next year – this is probably a good sign. With the twins due in October, I’ll be skipping the spring races for sure. I may return to structured training in April and target the Green Mountain Stage Race in late summer.

Jacob wrote:I had a hard time getting to sleep last night; I was thinking about what I want to do next year – this is probably a good sign. With the twins due in October, I’ll be skipping the spring races for sure. I may return to structured training in April and target the Green Mountain Stage Race in late summer.

Good luck with the babies! You'll be welcomed back to the team whenever you're able to make it.

Jacob, I'm sure you won't have trouble.getting to sleep after the twins arrive.

Here's my photos: http://www.russcam.com/cycling/120808_w ... index.html

And a subset of them on FB for your tagging pleasure: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 431&type=1

THE BABY CAVE!

It's so dark...