Minuteman Road Club

I went to Providence to race single speed today. I got there a little after 2, and my race wasn't until 4. Apparently the "Fat Tire" race was a bust, with only 2 pre-reg'ed, so I got to ride the course over and over again, right up until the start of the SS race. It's a fun course with a little bit of everything.

Detailed Course Report: The start is on the pavement, uphill, as usual, and jumps the curb at an angle (as usual) to go into the infield. Then there's a wide sweeping right-hander which leads you all the way into the center of the Expo area. They built an announcer podium about 10 ft tall in the center of the Expo area, and the course does a 180 around it, making this essentially the hole shot. This is a LONG way from the start. You then squiggle around back toward the curb, then left 180 back so that you traverse along the typical off-camber straightaway near the finish line. This year, they tried to make it a bit more challenging by adding some widely spaced and shallow S's, but they're basically nothing. Left 180 again, past the pit, a couple more zigs...and BANG: a Flyover for no reason whatsoever. You don't go back under it, so it really serves no purpose. However, it's a bit challenging (especially on a SS!) because you can't carry much speed into or out of it, due to a series of S turns immediately before and after. Loop back around the Expo and there's 2 short barriers in the "traditional" spot, where I assume there may be a beer tent tomorrow. Then there's the usual grinder up toward the road again, which hurt immensely on a SS. Right, left, down and up a "whoop" to a set of 8 wooden purpose-built stairs. Now you're back at the road/parking again. Right turn and parallel the road for a while, right 180 back and then a series of downhill & uphill S turns and 180's, separating 2 sets of 2 simple stairs. Again, in the usual spot, but different this year. These are well spaced, short and rideable, except when you're anaerobic and bleeding out your eyes. I managed to ride them in warmup, especially the second set, but ran this entire segment in my race. Maybe with gears, but not on a SS. Down, up another whoop, fast banked left turn then race toward and around the pavilion. S turns into and out of the pit area, down the gravelly road then onto the pavement for a short distance, up to the right and swing back toward the start finish. Basically, it's a lot like previous years, but yet strangely different. It follows the same basic layout, but with some different twists and turns. I'd characterize it as fun, and somewhat technical. There's definitely turns that require skill. A far cry better than last weekend's grass crits. With that said, I don't think I'll need my little ring tomorrow. I did the SS race in 46x19, and only wanted an easier gear in a few spots.

I lined up in the first row with some slouch name Craig Etheridge, and a bunch of other fast guys. Craig is a Raleigh/Clement pro that won CrossVegas in SS this year. Second at StarCrossed. First in 2 out of 3 at Trek Collective. Get my drift? And he was only 4th on the Predictor! Behind Mark McCormack. Like all SS races, there was everything from soup to nuts. A few guys were pounding beers, and complaining about the $50 fine for handups. Anyway, I started well, as usual. I was sitting in 5th for 2 laps, racing Shawn Mottram. Shawn's in good form, and didn't need to ride me into the tape to get rid of me. Instead, he just rode away. The best part about singlespeeding is that getting dropped happens in slow motion, and takes like half a lap. It's not like you can just go "click, click" and put the hammer down. We're all basically turning the same gear, so they just pull away. Slowly. For much of the race, I was in spitting distance of the top 4, so close that I could imagine bridging up to them. "Oh look, there's Mark and Craig. If you just go a little harder..." Of course, that means that the people behind me are in spitting distance of me too. One by one, several picked me off and rode away from me. Slowly. But there was nothing I could do about it. By the time I took the bell, I was in 9th and G Willey, Rosie, Myette and some other guy had me in their sights. I rode hard enough to hold them off, and it seemed like I was even gaining on the Threshold guy in 8th. Again with the whole slow motion thing. Unless you do something stupid, like crash, or stupider like completely explode, we've all got the same disadvantage of one gear. I hit the pavement and sprinted...in my 46x19...hard enough to hold them off for 9th.

On the downside, ever since Midnight Ride I've felt like there's a knife stuck in my back. I must have a bruised rib, or have some other soft tissue damage. After today's race, it hurt so bad I could hardly talk. I stopped on the way home and got some liquid pain-reliever, and I'm self-medicating tonight hoping that I can get through the weekend. After this weekend, though, I think I'm on R&R until NoHo.

That's interesting because I've also been having a hard time recovering from the Midnight Ride. No injuries, just feeling tired in the legs and back day after day. I've started taking it easier since I realized that I need more rest.

Anyway, I did the Madison with Chris B. Tom Ball and Bruce were also in there. Tim Johnson was in the race too, but clearly just for fun. Chris started us off. I think he had a mechanical mishap because he was near the back the first time past the pit. No problem with that though -- it's took some of the pressure off and gave a chance to pass some folks near the beginning. Chris did the required full lap to start then we started switching off. The pit area is very large, so there was plently of room to line up and tag on either side. As we all kind of figured it out as we went along, people started doing hand slings reminiscent of the track cycling style. A lot of fun, but not necessarily that helpful, at least on the pit 2 side where you have to make a sharp turn as soon as you exit.

Since Chris started, I had to finish. Taking breaks in te middle of a race is a good way to catch your breath, but it got harder and harder to restart fast each time. On the last leg, Chris encouraged me to 'sprint' as there was someone close behind. So I sprinted down the road, around the corner, up the hill

, around the bed (this is a lot of sprinting!), onto the pavement, etc. I needed to sprint for a couple more pedal strokes than I did though, as I got pipped on the line. Effort mistake!

Maybe next year I'll start and Chris can finish.

Madison = fun.

I had a great start, about 7th at the the turn, then drifted a bit in the next turn before the mulch, and heard a guy trying to pass me on the left snap off a wooden stake to the cheers of the Philli handup squad. I was pretty exited about what was nearly my best start ever then going into the next turn I notice that my chain had fallen off. I guess I will need a chain catcher for my wide-narrow ring after all. Funny thing is I instinctively tried to shift the chain back on, even though there's no front deraileur attached to my left shifter anymore. I had to get off and put the chain back on, slipping me from 7th to last. I quickly caught the back of the pack and started moving up, but got heckled by Doug for being so far back. I considered doing 2 laps as penance rather than starting Jacob off at such a disadvantage, but pitted at 1.3 laps to start Jacob off with a miss followed by an awkward slap of hands. We'd get better at it as the night went on. The atmosphere in the pit was fun, with people waiting around for their teammates. At one point Tim Johnson (in 1st place) did a track stand at the pit entrance to hold back Manny G. He was messing with the Goguens all night. Tom Ball came in, and made the exchange to Bruce's friend who pulled up on his handlebars to sprint out of the pit only to snap off the steerer tube at the headset and go down hard. Tom had to go out for another couple laps while Bruce was brought in as a sub. Jacob and I were somewhere in no-man's land with a couple others. Between the guys who were taking it serious, and those that were more focused on hand ups. We got in a battle with a kid from RISD who I remember battling in the 4's last year and his teammate from Brown. The Brown kid couldn't turn, so we gained time when he was racing, but the RISD kid was hard to shake. I'd gap him a bit on some parts of the course, but he'd come back.

The atmosphere was way more fun than some of the other races I've done this year. I got a lot of heckling for not taking hand-ups at the top of the stairs. Finally I was offered a hi-five handup which they claimed was safe and legal so I took it. With 2.5 laps to go Jacob came in about 20 seconds behind the Brown kid. I took off after him, and his lack of ability to turn made it easy to get on his wheel in the turns before the finishing straight. I set up to pass him on the inside on the last turn before hitting the pavement, but he washed out his front wheel and made it easy to pass. I sprinted up trying to put as much time as possible. Then he exchanged with RISD at pit 1, while I skipped the exchange so Jacob could do a 1/3 lap sprint. I could see that RISD was gaining on me, I tried to give Jacob as much of a gap as possible as I came into the pit, but after tagging him, I could see that it was going to be close. He got pipped on the line, making us the last pair to not get lapped.

One more thing. The course felt pretty empty with only 40 riders at a time on it. Good thing I'll have 150+ of my closest friends to keep my company on Sunday!