Minuteman Road Club

Beverly Grand Prix - Pro - 1,2,3

Hot and humid night in downtown Beverly. I lined up in a field of 74 for the men's Pro 1,2,3 field for what would be a very short race (for me).

After my first warm up lap, I saw only a few guys on the line and decided to take one more - this was a mistake. When I got to the line, I was at the back of the field with probably 60 or so guys in front of me. This isn't the end of the world, but it certainly wasn't helpful.

Our first lap was 'neutral' - but I don't think anybody (myself included) took this seriously. For those of you unfamiliar with the course, it's a quick right out of the gate, followed by a quick left and right, into a punchy straight followed by a right, and a long backside followed by two quick rights. 6 corners - technical crit.

What this really means, is that if you're not at the front going through the first series, you're at the back - people at the front are flying through the corners and punching open sprints on the straights, while you're still playing the accordion in the chicane. This of course was obvious and predictable - but no less frustrating succumbing to it. There was probably a 40 second gap when I came around on lap two from my position, to the guys at the front.

I was working to bridge, but basically knew it was over after two laps - I would move up past guys coming off the back but had no wheel to move to, just sort of riding past people into open air. After 15 minutes and 50 seconds, my race was over.

Back at it tomorrow - fuel for the fire.

Chris and Chris had strong performances in a tough masters field, and Dave D and Nolan represented well in the 4s.

Brad, based on how well you have learned to race in one season, I have no doubt that in your next P123 crit you will be in the front group dropping the rest of the field.

Well my race (40+) is best summed up by "99.87% great, but 10 seconds made the difference".

Felt comfortable the whole time, surfed the top 10 wheels, bridged to several (probably too many!) breaks, and generally had a good race.

Late in the race (4 to go), a very dangerous looking break went away with a big acceleration out of the corner leading onto the back stretch. It was well represented with the main teams and had some of the faster guys so I decided to go all in and bridge which was like a 30-40 second ordeal. I caught them close to a lap later and then they sort of fizzled out. As soon as we were caught another move went -- I saw it coming and was in position to react but I could quite muster the 10 second effort required to go with it since I was gassed from the previous 2 minutes.

Lots of guys chased though, and I got mini-swarmed in the chaos of guys chasing up the sides. I was cycled back to about 20th spot (there were maybe 40 guys left at this point) when the chase was full on. We were lined out single file for the last 2 laps so it was very difficult to move up for the finish. We eventually caught the break on the last lap but we never let up the throttle. I managed to pass a few guys on the last lap and finished 16th.

Overall happy, I layed it out there thinking the break would stick but in hindsight should have sat in. Oh well, no regrets. Post ride beer was great, but watching Brad get mercilessly whipsawed in the pro race was not

@Brad: Tough race. In my limited experience, I have learned that a key to crits is lining up at the front. Even if that means 1 less warm-up lap. The other thing is clipping in quickly when the start happens. It makes a big difference as the pace is often so hard that you can't move up, so starting at the front is a big advantage.

@Chris & Chris: Nice job. Some serious studs in that field. Sorry about the choice you made. If the break had stuck, you would have been mad that you weren't in it, so it sounds like you probably made the right choice given the information you had at the time.