Beverly Crit
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:51 am
Paul Boudreau and ECV do a fantastic job with this race. It's one of my favorites, in part because the course is friggin' hard, but also because the atmosphere is so great.
For those who don't know the course: 6 corner crit. Turn one is a wide, fast 120 right, followed in close succession by a 90 left, then a 90 right. A fast straightaway feeds into the hardest turn, which looks like a 90 right, but is tighter and has some sketchy pavement. Turn 5 is almost not noticable, and turn 6 is a wide 90 right that you can pretty much pedal through. From turn 6 it's 200m-ish to the line. With all those turns, staying near the front is critical.
In the cat 4 race, we had me, Chris B., and Jacob. We rolled off with one "neutral" lap (it was a pretty fast neutral) to get the hang of the course. During the second lap, Chris Gougen (a cousin) and Vincent Buffone rolled off the front. Good horsepower, but I'd promised myself I wasn't going to waste energy on an early break. After rolling through turn 1 on a better line than the Fitwerx guy in front of me (he never figured out the good line the whole night), I found myself on the front of the pack. Not going to work... not going to work... Nobody coming through... So I rode tempo for a lap while Chris and Vincent's gap grew. But I noticed a big gap open when I led through turn 4, so I figured I'd bridge to the break - so much for not working. One other guy came with me, but when we connected, the break wasn't working all that hard. Well, at least we shook out some deadwood...
At some point, I sprinted for a Craft baselayer prime, but lost at the line by half a bike.
Things settled in, and Jacob and I were sitting consistently in the top 10-15. As some point (maybe 10 to go), Jacob followed an attack and I sat on the front letting a gap open. A few more guys went and now there was a break of 5-6 with Jacob in it. Cool. I sat on the front riding tempo. Hey! This is kind of nice! A few more guys bridged. I thought "that's OK" and enjoyed my active recovery. Then a few more guys bridged. Through the fog of racing, I realized that I was no longer letting a break go, but was now on the bad end of a split in the pack. I needed to get up there. I grabbed the next wheel to get across.
So now I was in the back third of the pack, and holy hell did it suck! Constant surging, crappy line choices, and fistfulls of brake being grabbed everywhere. I had to get out of there!
By the time I got up far enough to at least minimize the horror, we were around 5 to go, and I wasn't the only one with the idea of moving up. All night, I'd been using the Adam Myerson-approved technique of allowing a gap to open going into the turn, which allows you to hold speed through the turn and roll back onto the wheel in front on the exit. This was working great, until guys started diving into that gap on suspect lines, and forcing themselves AND ME to slow through the corner. I lost some ground here until my race-addled brain registered what was happening and stopped letting quite as big of a gap open.
With two to go, I was further back than I wanted to be, but told myself to be patient. I've found that I can make up spots just by passing people who are tired, as long as the pace is held high on the last laps. And the Fitwerx guys were on the front keeping the pace nice and high (kudos to them). On the final lap, the pace REALLY picked up, especially coming out of turn 4, and I picked my way through a bunch of dying riders. I briefly had a thought of trying to do a Chris Pare-like attack into the last turn, but realized that I was too far back for that. I lost a little ground taking the last turn a bit wide, but it gave me a clear sprinting line, and I came across 12th.
Jacob, who'd ridden in his usual calm and steady style, finished one spot in front of me (11th). In hindsight, we need to do a better job connecting on the last laps so we can work together.
Chris B. suffered through a night of tailgunning for 23rd. After my brief stint back there, I think he probably worked harder than Jacob and me combined.
For those who don't know the course: 6 corner crit. Turn one is a wide, fast 120 right, followed in close succession by a 90 left, then a 90 right. A fast straightaway feeds into the hardest turn, which looks like a 90 right, but is tighter and has some sketchy pavement. Turn 5 is almost not noticable, and turn 6 is a wide 90 right that you can pretty much pedal through. From turn 6 it's 200m-ish to the line. With all those turns, staying near the front is critical.
In the cat 4 race, we had me, Chris B., and Jacob. We rolled off with one "neutral" lap (it was a pretty fast neutral) to get the hang of the course. During the second lap, Chris Gougen (a cousin) and Vincent Buffone rolled off the front. Good horsepower, but I'd promised myself I wasn't going to waste energy on an early break. After rolling through turn 1 on a better line than the Fitwerx guy in front of me (he never figured out the good line the whole night), I found myself on the front of the pack. Not going to work... not going to work... Nobody coming through... So I rode tempo for a lap while Chris and Vincent's gap grew. But I noticed a big gap open when I led through turn 4, so I figured I'd bridge to the break - so much for not working. One other guy came with me, but when we connected, the break wasn't working all that hard. Well, at least we shook out some deadwood...
At some point, I sprinted for a Craft baselayer prime, but lost at the line by half a bike.
Things settled in, and Jacob and I were sitting consistently in the top 10-15. As some point (maybe 10 to go), Jacob followed an attack and I sat on the front letting a gap open. A few more guys went and now there was a break of 5-6 with Jacob in it. Cool. I sat on the front riding tempo. Hey! This is kind of nice! A few more guys bridged. I thought "that's OK" and enjoyed my active recovery. Then a few more guys bridged. Through the fog of racing, I realized that I was no longer letting a break go, but was now on the bad end of a split in the pack. I needed to get up there. I grabbed the next wheel to get across.
So now I was in the back third of the pack, and holy hell did it suck! Constant surging, crappy line choices, and fistfulls of brake being grabbed everywhere. I had to get out of there!
By the time I got up far enough to at least minimize the horror, we were around 5 to go, and I wasn't the only one with the idea of moving up. All night, I'd been using the Adam Myerson-approved technique of allowing a gap to open going into the turn, which allows you to hold speed through the turn and roll back onto the wheel in front on the exit. This was working great, until guys started diving into that gap on suspect lines, and forcing themselves AND ME to slow through the corner. I lost some ground here until my race-addled brain registered what was happening and stopped letting quite as big of a gap open.
With two to go, I was further back than I wanted to be, but told myself to be patient. I've found that I can make up spots just by passing people who are tired, as long as the pace is held high on the last laps. And the Fitwerx guys were on the front keeping the pace nice and high (kudos to them). On the final lap, the pace REALLY picked up, especially coming out of turn 4, and I picked my way through a bunch of dying riders. I briefly had a thought of trying to do a Chris Pare-like attack into the last turn, but realized that I was too far back for that. I lost a little ground taking the last turn a bit wide, but it gave me a clear sprinting line, and I came across 12th.
Jacob, who'd ridden in his usual calm and steady style, finished one spot in front of me (11th). In hindsight, we need to do a better job connecting on the last laps so we can work together.
Chris B. suffered through a night of tailgunning for 23rd. After my brief stint back there, I think he probably worked harder than Jacob and me combined.