2014 Witches Cup

[Jacob]

It's always fun to race with the team!

PJ's best crit ever? Are we on our way to getting him hooked?

We all have high expectations for Jeremy, and he didn't disappoint.

Scott C was everywhere including bridging to a strong break.

Kevin got into the groove and was gradually advancing through the field slowly and surely the whole race -- very promising.

Chris B and Todd are guys who can just show up and do a race without really training.

Nolan waited all the way until lap 3 to bust loose and mix it up at the front.

I had fun too, but when I crossed the finish line I was on foot. There were a lot of attacks and breakaways in this race, but the final 2-3 laps were only just fast. It was clearly going to be a bunch sprint. On the final lap, I was moving up on the outside on the back stretch into the first 20 wheels. As we came around the second to last corner (the sharp one), two guys immediately to my right started to tangle up. They collectively lost it and swung wide into me. I swung wide too, but there wasn't enough road so they knocked me off my bike. A lot of stuff happened to my body really fast, but I'm pretty sure that I came down on the road inside of the curb, then rolled up the curb on my left side (two straight line marks on my shoulder and butt, I'm guessing from the curb edge). I must have also been spinning on the yaw axis, because I crossed the sidewalk and hit the wooden fence pretty much head on. The other two guys were much worse off than me, but my fall took me 20 yards further up the road, so my kinetic energy had more time and space in which to dissipate. My helmet also did it's job very well. I'm pretty much fine! I have scrapes on my shoulder, butt, hip, and ankle and a bruise on my hand. Everything is on the left side. All of my crashes this year (3) have been on the left side. I would have gotten back on the bike and rode it in if it weren't for the flat tire. I walked it in. They initially gave me a DNF, but that's been fixed thankfully.

I obviously can't end the season on that note, so I'll be back out there as soon as I can.

[jraguin]

Oooch, ouch. Sorry to hear that but glad you are OK. I had two crashes this year too, so now you have out-crashed me.

[swawersik]

Nice job guys. I saw that Jacob finished OTB and was hoping that it was that'd he'd given a massive leadout and blown up, and not that he'd crashed. Glad you're at least OK, Jacob.

Sorry I had to miss this one, but my seeing my daughter in her camp's musical will always take precedent. I did, however, end up briefly chatting with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, so that's something.

[scottc]

Great summary Jacob and glad to see a night's sleep didn't yield anything major. Heal up soon!

This is the most fun I've had racing my bike all year. Having not done any real crit racing in years and getting popped at Beverly, my primary goal was to ride the race in its entirety and to get back into the mindset of racing fast. There was an early crash on same turn where Jacob went down, but it was one rider who took the turn too wide and hit the island that was bailed up with hay. Definitely the hairiest part of the course, but overall, this is a super fast course allowing pedaling around every turn. During the race, I worked every line from every part of the field and figured out where to move up from last wheels to the front of the field. One of these such rotations had me coming up the outside of the first turn rounding things much faster than the leaders. Turns out, Greenline was on the front blocking because a 4-man break was rolling out a 15 second gap and one of their guys was in it.

Capitalizing on momentum and the idea of playing my strength of a break being my only chance it was full gas for for 3/4 lap. I bridged to the break, but this max effort felt like a race winning sprint and the race was not over, so I moved aside on last turn of this lap and spent 2 laps catching my breath. Back of the pack so the exercise of surfing wheels forward ensued. Fast forward with 2 ta go - the speed went from fast to really fast and moving up became much more difficult.

Cratty, Jacob, then Kevin were right in there. I was riding with Chris and Todd and PJ until he made an awesome move up on the outside executing his pre-race observation tactic. I heard the crash, but was not close enough to see exactly what happened, but saw Jacob getting up and 2 others still on the ground. This obviously split the pack up and created chaos for some and opportunities for others. Cratty could have been top 10 and who knows with Jacob, but PJ and Kevin had great results considering the stacked field.

37th out of 75 is far from stellar, but I got back into the groove. High end fitness takes time to develop so training for crits will start much earlier next year!

[JeremyC]

Definitely a fun race until the last few laps. Great to hang with the team before, during and of course after in the beer tent. My fitness has finally come around, I was able to ride n the top 15 relatively easily for the whole race. 3 to go and there was some pack swarm and I had to work really hard to move back to the front. Once I got there it was full gas for 2 laps and really sketchy. I was psyched to see PJ had moved up as I hadn't seen him since his first lap breakaway attempt. Jacob an I were well positioned around 10th until the crash. It definitely cost me a top 10 as I had to shed a lot of speed to avoid the carnage. I can't complain since I literally watch Jacob to my left go head first into a fence. I had that thought in my mind while sprinting, more to hold position than anything. Very scary sight, glad he's OK.

Another 3/4 in Portsmouth, I think we can improve even more.

[PJ McQuade]

Salem does it right with the Witches Cup. It was my first time going and it had the festive atmosphere of a cross race. The highlight was definitely the large number of teammates in the pack - everywhere I looked I saw MRC kits - and since I spent a good amount of the race surfing the back I saw everyone. I didn't see Jeremy much because he was right up front the whole time. The crash on the final lap definitely cost us because there's a good chance Jeremy, Jacob and me would have all been in the top 10.

Had it not been for the traffic furniture on turn 2 Salem would be non-crit racers dream! The corners are sweeping and don't require much braking and other than the tricky island/curbing it's not technical. It makes for a FAST course. I was over-eager at the start and shot to the front at the gun, latched onto a few wheels in what was an ultra short-lived breakaway. With 40 mins of racing still to go I thought I'd tuck in and hide a bit. Then I was at the tail end of the pack like 3 turns later. That happens quickly in crits, huh? I thought about moving up for some of the primes but couldn't find a good place to gain position until midway through when I saw Chris and Scott moving up with ease on the outside of the finishing straight. I tried that for a few laps but would lose my position again when the pack swarmed each lap into the sketchy island turn. WIth 5 to go I moved up on the outside before turn 1 and put down a hard dig out of the turn, launching myself way up in the pack, this time staying there. I did the same thing with 3 to go, this time making my way to the front just in time for technical turn. I was five wheels back when I heard Richard Fries say "2 to go" and I was thinking, OK, just hold this position, sit on a wheel and wait for the sprint. Not so fast. We get to the infamous turn and I see someone come up just behind me to the left dive bomb the turn. I heard smashed carbon and yelling but was clear of the carnage. I lost my position in the choas and was now like 15 or so wheels back with little forward momentum. Ended up 12th with Jeremy just behind me - good he didn't crash! But what about everyone else? We rolled around to find a few guys on the pavement getting medical help but Jacob was walking his bike, torn kit, somehow smiling. Crits are nuts. I'd like them a lot more if the ground was made out of soft gym mats or something.