Longsjo Classic "Stage Race" Cat 3/4

[JeremyC]

I was holding up posting this race report, waiting for the top finishers (ahem Patrick and Chris) from the first 2 stages to post up, but since they failed to do so, and I earned today's report, here goes:

First let me post this video from Stage 2 Worcester, good times:

https://youtu.be/oUiRUXiBBaE


Stage 1 - Leominster - We had a good crew in this one, Patrick, Chris P, Smudger, Scott C., Nolan, and yours truly. I'll keep this one brief, as I was pretty bummed out about this race. Chris and I rode at the front pretty much the whole race, we covered some breaks but not much action to be found. The 3rd corner proved to be the undoing for much of the 3/4 field and the race deteriorated to some sketchy riding. About 9 laps to go and I got caught in a HUGE crash at that corner, and by some miracle I didn't go down but I dropped my chain in the scrap and it bent my RD hanger and I had to pit to fix it. The bike never rode the same but I can deal with that. With 2 to go I moved back to the front where Chris was a fixture and it was lining out for a fast finish. Last lap I was 3rd wheel up the hill but it slowed down and swarmed, then sped up going into the "turn of death". Guys were 10 wide going 30MPH into that turn. Normally my motto is kill or be killed, but this was a rare instance where I just didn't want to stick my nose into that turn after so much carnage had occurred. Chris may have been in the same boat. Luckily for MRC, Patrick had moved up nicely and was willing to risk it, and he had a solid sprint for 11th. Chris 16th, me 21, Smudger 29, Scott C. 53 on same time.

Stage 2 - Worcester - The crew grew even larger for this one as PJ and Dave Dzikiewicz showed up. The course was a sh!t show of potholes, but ended up being quite fun. Patrick was more prevalent at the front of this one which was nice to see. Chris again a prominent figure at the front, and Smudger was more aggressive. Fast forward to 10 laps to go and Patrick was in a promising move. Chris and I went to the front to block for a bit but too many people chasing. Patrick's group got caught but a few more guys were still dangling out front. Smudger moves up to build a chase but flatted in a pot hole a the worst possible moment as we hit the downhill with 2 sharp turns. I thought he was doomed as he lost control of his rear end (not the first time) in the 1st of 2 corners and had to ride it our while everyone was going 40MPH. He made it though and got a change but that certainly didn't help his race. We get to 3 to go and I move up into the top 5. Patrick was there and so I decided to go into Domestique mode. The video says most of the rest. I rode in the top 5 for the next lap and a half and then went to the front on the penultimate lap. I went basically as hard as I could for a little over a lap on the front and even sprinted for about 100 yards knowing it was the end of my rope. Explosions occurred and the field passed me with 1/2 a lap to go, with Chris in great position for the sprint. Unfortunately there were still 4 guys off the front, so when he sprinted for 3rd it resulted in a 7th overall. Still a great result. Dave got 27th in his first 3/4 race, Patrick 28th and Smudger squeaked by me with 3 turns to go and I briefly considered sprinting past him but decided that would be a DB move so I slid in one spot back at 43. PJ Scott and Nolan all finished same time. Fun race. Watch the VIDEO!

Stage 3 - Fitchburg - RAIN. A lot of rain. Chris and Scott bailed (boo family stuff yeah right). Smudger, Patrick, Dave D, Nolan and I braved the elements, which were pretty bad. The course was great, 2 long straight-aways, one slight down, the other slightly up. Rain, wind and cold on June 28th? Whatever. We set up the tent and warmed up in Pro fashion. We did a warm up lap and we were already soaked. I was more determined than ever to ride at the front, because one of the corners was sketchy as hell in the wet with the cross-walk paint-of-doom. Three laps in and I jump in a break of 3 guys but it didn't last long. Fine by me I was just warming up. About 5 laps in and Smudger and I barely escape a crash in the paint-of-doom section. I had to tri-pod around the corner but no harm no foul. Smudger did a nice job pacing me back into the pack. Nine laps to go and the pace slowed on the downhill section so I attacked and got a pretty big solo gap. I probably had 150 meters coming around to the start/finish line but they were chasing and the uphill was interminable all alone. Hey I did get a shout out from Richard Fries and/or Dick Ring (and Nolan's dad Ron, thanks!). Cool. I was eventually caught and sat in for a while. Patrick did the right thing and went to the front aggressively, and Dave helped pull me back up to the front (thanks for that!). I heard a couple of big crashes behind in the straight-away of all places and it turned out Smudger was in one, slid 40 feet on his ass and has some "awkward" road rash that I wish I didn't see. He did get back in the race, and also got his shout out from Fries. Cool, but in an unfortunate way. 3 to go and I marked an attack by Harvard winner Dawry Cabrera. He is strong and I got on his wheel "hoping" he could drag me onto the podium. This was way harder than I wanted and I burned a match (trust me I was running low) for no reason as we got caught at the finish line with 2 to go. I didn't have much time to recover so I just kept drilling it to hold my position as the race was getting super aggressive. Coming down the back stretch on the last lap I was on FUMES but had a quality talk with myself (in my brain, you know) to suck it up and get a result. I moved up into 8th position on the wheel of Alexander Grabeau who won Friday night, hoping he would unleash a sprint of fury that I could ride to glory. We hit the paint-of-doom corner and he kind of wimped out so I had to go around him, hit the last corner in 7th and sprinted my face off. Unfortunately that didn't get me any higher as I finished exactly 7th. I was shattered, I've never laid it down that hard at the end of a crit. I'm pretty satisfied after 3 days of racing, and the beer tasted really good with Smudger and Dave afterwards (and Josh Merchant who raced the 4/5). Dave grabbed a top 20 but I didn't see where the other guys finished. I think Patrick may have crashed as well and boogied right after the race.

All in all it was a pretty successful weekend. Now it's time for some MTB races.

[Smudger]

Leominster the most frustrating race ever with some of the worst bike handlers in NE.

Worcester big fun if it wasn't for the flat

Fitchburg was loving it until some took out my front wheel at 30+ mph

[Jacob]

I miss you guys.

[jraguin]

That is quite a weekend and a great race report Jeremy. Nice job guys. Bummer about Leominster being sketchy as I like that one. I am sure some people rode the sidewalk.

[Mkidd3]

I miss you guys.

We miss you too buddy!

[swawersik]

Watch the VIDEO!

Great work, guys. The fields at Longsjo are some of the most stacked crit racing of the year, and consistent top 10s for the team is quite a feat.

These reports (and the video) made me both miss crit racing and reminded me why I'm taking a break from crit racing. The video of the fistfight after Fitch, however, simply reminded me of what A-holes some roadies can be.

I noticed that the Worcester course changed a bit from last year. Apparently they realized they'd missed a few potholes and wanted to incorporate them?

[pace21]

It was great, it seemed like they literally rerouted the course to add 2 additional corners and a whole bunch of broken pavement. But 6 corners are so much better than 4 IMO. And now theres an 8 corner crit in Hartford the day after Mayor's Cup and it's on the NCC calendar.

Has anyone identified the GLV rider?

[scottc]

Has anyone identified the GLV rider?

Dave Warner

[scottc]

The Longsjo races served as my debut to racing this year therefore I am not surprised of my lack luster race fitness and results. The first half of Leominster was more of me getting in the zone. The second half was more avoiding the yard sale on turn 3 every couple of laps. Luckily the entire team avoided going down. We had a more solid plan on Saturday. We all staged near each other, which helped. I completely botched my start by pushing off too soon and instead of hitting Cratty's wheel in front of me, I unclipped my clipped foot and then balanced roll trying to get clipped in. Sorry for that guys behind me. I was in last place and never recovered. I did successfully manage to not get dropped by the whipsawing that occurs back there. When things got stretched out towards the end, I could see the head of the race entering turn 2 as I was exciting turn 1. Sunday my youngest son hit is head on our brick hearth and needed stitches and didn't make it to the race because I needed to watch my oldest.

I'm looking forward to the next race with the team and will try to make one or two of the weekly training crits to accelerate things along.

[scott_sweeney]

I've seen a couple of videos...what exactly did Warner do? Guy's got a reputation....Townsend is a pretty good guy, the few times I've met him...something must have provoked punches (and ultimately his dismissal from the BikeReg team!!).

[swawersik]

I've seen a couple of videos...what exactly did Warner do? Guy's got a reputation....Townsend is a pretty good guy, the few times I've met him...something must have provoked punches (and ultimately his dismissal from the BikeReg team!!).

The only reputation I know of Warner is as one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet, and personal experience squares with that.

In the end, though, it doesn't matter. There's just no excuse for Townsend's behavior.

[pcollins]

Congrats Cratty and Pare for solid top 10 results!
Longsjo was disappointing and frustrating for me personally. Last year I was pack fodder trying to sprint for 20th place, this year I felt much stronger and raced progressively better each day but my results reflect otherwise.
Leominster: Started near the back was suffering due to poor positioning most of the race. Very sketchy, chaotic and crashy. Almost went down mid-way through in the mega-crash in corner 3 but saved it by barely dodging a telephone pole riding on the sidewalk for 50m. Took the last corner really fast and as tight as possible and sprinted for 11th almost catching Sean Casey on the line.
Worcester: Felt really good and was near, on or off the front for pretty much the entire race. Choosing my own line through the corners was fun and I could pedal through all of them. Last lap, second to last corner (the left one), guy in front of me let a big gap open and was going much slower than everyone else. I was passing on the outside when he drifted right and we had contact. He went down, I nearly went down and had to slam brakes to avoid going straight into barriers. Lost a lot of positions. I think I would have had the legs to be in the break but I don't know where they escaped.
Fitchburg: I felt even better than at Worcester and again was on, near or off the front the entire race. I didn't mind the rain, as it was actually kind of fun. The pace felt slower than the previous days and my HR reflects that. I crashed on the downhill 1.5 laps to go when someone was passing me on the left (inside) while the field compressed left. Our bars tangled and we both went down and slid for what seemed like an eternity. It reminded me of my alpine ski racing crashes. Crashing in the rain is much better than crashing on dry pavement. Very minor road rash, small rip on skinsuit and some bent spokes. A USAC moto official convinced me to finish. I really think I could have finished in the money (top 6) if I didn't crash. I went straight to the car after finishing. John S., sorry for kind of ignoring you after the finish, I was furious and dejected.

As for the fight after the elite race... my understanding, from reading tweets of participants in the race, is that Warner rode dangerously and caused a massive pileup in the last corner and took his hand off his bars and pulled Jerome back after Jerome divebombed a corner, all of this is alleged. What Jerome did was really dumb and overemotional and from the sounds of it, understandable, but still unacceptable. His contract was terminated with BikeReg and there's talk of a 1 year suspension.

[Smudger]

" John S., sorry for kind of ignoring you after the finish"

No problem. I thought you had finished in the top 10 and was ready to congratulate you which is not what you needed at that moment. My crash was almost the same although it was the guy in front of me on my right who moved left for apparently no reason and took out my front wheel. Also slid for an eternity. When I stopped sliding I looked back to see a front wheel heading straight for me. Fortunately I ducked, he dived and got around. Agreed on the road rash. More bruising than anything else and some holes in kit. At 30+ MPH this would have been very different in the dry. At the time I couldn't understand the reason for crashes on a straight bit road but after getting back into the race on a pitt bike and seeing another crash in the same place I think the issue was the straw bail that was lying in the gutter on the right causing people to push left unexpectedly.

You absolutely did race better each day and finishing position doesn't reflect that. Impressed with the aggressiveness and taking the race to the others rather than reacting/responding on sunday.

[Bradford]

Sounds like some pretty badass racing! Nice job guys.

Jeremy, looks like you emptied the tank in that video! Scott, glad to hear you're back racing.

Some very solid team results over the weekend - well done. I was locked down for work, but enjoyed refreshing on road-results. Great to read the reports.

We have two solid months to pour it on for Mayor's Cup, with a promising squad in the 3s. Let's get after it.

[pcollins]

I had some redemption yesterday when I won the CCAP Tues. Night Crit B race in a long sprint from a 4 man breakaway, 45 starters. Fueled by anger from the Longsjo, I lead out the sprint into a left headwind from ~300m and held off a fast Hot Tubes junior tucked in my draft. It felt good to win, especially after the frustrating weekend. Too bad they don't publish results...

[scottc]

I lead out the sprint into a left headwind from ~300m and held off a fast Hot Tubes junior tucked in my draft.

nice job Pat, but I'm disputing your draft because it is non-existent by my reckoning

[cbusick]

Katie's unwatermarked full size pictures from Worcester are here on dropbox for anyone on MRC.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gvtyj2q2561n ... wtAVa?dl=0