I raced Casco Bay Sunday in the Masters 1-3 40+ Category. The course is a great mix, long pavement start, a steep run-up, some off camber, some grassy turns and one set of barriers. The course is right on the ocean with some great views. The weather this year was absolutely perfect, cool temps with a light breeze. Normally its freezing cold and there's a strong wind coming off the water.
I did my usual course inspection, 25 minute trainer warm up and was ready to go for my 10:55 start. I was called up 8th which was nice but with the wide pavement start for about 1/4 mile everyone had a fair chance of getting a decent start providing you were strong enough. The course starts straight for about 1/4 mile, makes a U-turn then heads back for about 1/8 mile then does this little super tight hook thing before dropping down into the woods (you need to be near the front here). I got a little trapped at the start and was maybe 15th or so on the first straight, after the U-turn I sprinted as hard as I could up the left side and was able to move up to about 8th before the bottleneck hook thing. I was able to get up the steep run-up quickly and found my self in 3rd at the top behind Troy Barry and Alan Starrett. I couldn't stay with those guys and was alone for the first 2 laps with a group of about 8 chasing me down. Paul Richard and john Sakalowsky were the only two that bridged across to me and we worked together to stay ahead of the chase group which contained some fast guys I was happy to be in front of (Vinnie Bolt, Bill Shattuck, Donnie Seib). They got pretty close on the last lap, we had been taking it easy on the pavement, nobody wanted to do any work there, including me and I'm sure the chase group was pushing hard to catch us. We held them off and I finished 5th. I was happy with that but thinking back now I should have played the 2nd half of the last lap a little differently, maybe I could have been 3rd with a different approach. I'm having fun this year, I feel like I'm more involved in the race strategy rather than just hanging on for dare life until I get dropped and just riding the laps couple laps. On to Orchard Cross.
Brian
