Minuteman Road Club

Another angle from my bar cam: long (unedited) video.

https://youtu.be/PF4MVfdK24U

Looks adrenalin pumping.

Chris's audio gives you some idea but unfortunately neither video does justice to the conditions for the race. It was mentally windy especially in the later P/1/2/3 race. Several times during the race my front wheel was blown off the ground 6-8" sideways and on one lap I quite literally came to a full stop as I turned top corner. Lots of fun though and great to be back out racing. First time I've been down to Ninegrit anyone wanting to try crit racing should look out for the other races that take place here during the season. Traffic free, totally flat, you can pedal through every corner and nothing but grass if you get something wrong.

Smudger wrote:anyone wanting to try crit racing should look out for the other races that take place here during the season. Traffic free, totally flat, you can pedal through every corner and nothing but grass if you get something wrong.

+1 to that. You can't call yourself a crit racer in New England until you've done Ninigret at least twice.

The only downsides are that the surface is very hard on both lycra and skin if you happen to go down (though, come to think of it, I can't recall ever seeing a crash in at least 8 races there) and the wind. It's windy there on a calm day - I can only imagine the insanity last weekend.

Smudger wrote:Several times during the race my front wheel was blown off the ground 6-8" sideways and on one lap I quite literally came to a full stop as I turned top corner.

I was in the Cat 5 race, and saw pieces of the 3/4 race. Windy was certainly the adjective of the day. The 3/4 race was very broken up and hard to decipher who was ahead of who. Nice to see the MRC guys doing well.

The Cat 5 race was all over the place and very chaotic with two fields at the same time and lots of lapped riders. Three laps to go the main field turned into the wind and hit a big gust that pushed someone across me and I didn't have anywhere to go. Thankfully I just ended up with bent spokes and a wheel unfit to carry on. Half a lap later my brother Caleb rolled his rear tire and somersaulted in the grass in an effort to avoid a windblown rider. An interesting experience overall, and a very fun place to race.