Minuteman Road Club

40+ Cat 4/5

Been pushing pretty hard this past week, and I started to notice some pain in my left leg. Didn't think much of it though. The weather couldn't have been better, and the early start was a blessing. Lathered up with some sunblock, and got a few preview laps in before the racing started. As I am waiting to enter the course, on the last lap of the 60+ race there was a bad crash on the back straight. Not the thing you want to see going into a race. The start was delayed about 10 minutes while the ambulance was on the field. They were going to start the race with the ambulance still in the infield and have us keep our eyes open for when it exits, but I am glad they didn't because that would have been a dangerous decision.

I lined up second row, and my strategy again was to not pull, stay out of the wind, and not blow up, yet stay within the first 10 so I don't get stuffed in the corners. This worked pretty well, and for the first 14 laps I stayed towards the front and was able to rest in the back straight. At some point I tried to join a break, but I found out quickly that I didn't have it. Sometime right around lap 15, I got shuffled back due to taking a bad line and getting pinched in a corner. It took another couple of laps and a few matches burned to regain my position. I found that after I set myself up well through the chicane I could easily roll up to my desired position within the pack on the back straight.

The next 15 laps seemed like they took an eternity. I got thrown back and came forward again one more time. With 10 laps to go I tried to keep a steady effort and stay within the front 10. Since the entrance of the chicane is so wide, it was easy to lose your position here and you had to be very assertive of keeping your line. Win some, lose some I guess. The pace quickened with 2 laps to go, but I was still hanging on. I was well positioned, but my match book was pretty empty.

Exiting the chicane on the final lap I didn't have anything in me for an all out sprint, but I was pushing about 600 watts trying to make up some lost ground. There was one target that I had in mind: Tim Perry (raced against him many times and we are pretty evenly matched), who I saw was ahead of me. I just kept my head down and turned those cranks right to the end. Crossing the line we were head to head. I ended up finishing 0.02 seconds ahead of him. 25th overall, and 6 seconds behind the pack leader. There was a two man break that finished 30 seconds ahead. All in all, this was a very strategically driven race. With 57 second lap times, if you get bumped off the back it is nearly impossible to recover. Congrats to Mike Keohane for his very solid finish!

Cat 4/5

I lined up for the regular 4/5 race with Ethan and from the start it was a quick but manageable pace. It took a few laps for me to find the best line through the chicane, but once I had this sort of dialed in it was rinse and repeat. There were some attacks during the early parts of the race but nothing stuck until two guys got off the front and would eventually take first and second place.

I think they got free about 5 miles in, I'm still a bit new to racing so I'm still learning to maintain awareness while managing my own efforts. Once these two got away the pack kept the pace high but no-one was interested in chasing. We were all now racing for 3rd.

Just surfing the pack, lap after lap, I felt good and that I had some power reserved in my legs. This is where I screwed up big time. At around the halfway point of the race, maybe due to boredom or just wanting to make things interesting, I decided it would be time to try and chase down the 2-man break. To the rational person this was a silly move as the two guys were gone, and I wasn't going to be the one to close any gaps. So, for whatever reason, coming onto the main straight I rode to the front and put in a 700 watt effort and kept the power up over the next lap. Matches burned. I got scooped up by the pack, couldn't tag on to the last wheel and that was it. All I had to do to recover was snag a wheel, and I couldn't do it.

Interestingly my average power in the group vs after getting dropped was around the same, though on my own it was much more consistent. I just lost the draft and started to lose 5-10 seconds per lap until I got lapped and pulled from the race with about 5 miles to go.

Lessons learned....stay in the group, I could have easily stayed in the main field and tried to contest a field sprint for 3rd. Also, as a Cat 5, there's no reason I need to be taking solo hero pulls to chase down a breakaway that was never going to get caught. That was a dumb move. But was fun flying around the track at the front for almost a lap...

What was that thing about finishing a crit with the lowest amount of power possible? That would have been sound logic...