Minuteman Road Club

Alright I'll kick this off, I know we have some great results from this one. Mine was not one of them!

But seriously, this was fun as always, it was my first CX race two years ago, so my 3rd time doing this. After Saturday's sufferfest at Kalon with bad legs on uphill power sections that normally should suit me, I was looking forward to Quad. I'm now racing with the Cat 4, 40+ group. I was a bit disappointed with my start on Saturday and yesterday was kind of lackluster as well, didn't quite gain the ground I wanted to ahead of the first few tight areas by that lake area and quickly lost some ground on the lead guys. Got passed by a couple but gained ground on a few others, especially on the fire road.

Unfortunately got picked off by one guy I had just passed on the fire road on the section of the last lap between the sand and barriers and got in 14th/33. I also got beat by nemesis Jeff D of 545, who got 12th, after I had finished ahead of him on Sat (we seem to swap positions with every race). Not bad, though, ahead of the predictor, and with my 16th spot on Sat I'm inching closer to my season goal of a couple of top 10.

At least for me, I was a lot faster this year compared to last, my speed was 9.6mph last vs 11.6 this year, I'm definitely getting better at this CX thing. I'm sure I could be slightly better if I a) really buried myself into some efforts, I hold back big time and b) didn't have clinchers where I'm running 35psi. I'd be a lot happier if I could shave a minute off my total time.

Super fun weekend to kick off the season, hopefully will get even better from here! And of course it was great to see so many others out there as well.

40+ Masters Re-cap.

Called up to the front row with the usual suspects (except Myerson who got in off the wait list and started toward the back). I got the hole-shot and led the first 4 laps at a comfortable pace, it was a large group of about 8. At times on the 4th lap I dropped into second with Myerson taking the lead. He wasn't pushing the pace any more than I was so we traded places a few times. I was hoping we would have split into a lead group off 3 a little earlier but it didn't happen until the last lap. I followed Myerson with Tony Lavoie behind me, Adam had me at my limit by the end of the fire-road but we came into some lapped traffic so I was able to catch a breather in the sandy section. Somewhere in there Tony got by me, I'm not sure where, I don't think I could see straight at that point. Anyway, Myerson won the sprint against Tony and I came in a few seconds behind in 3rd. As I led the first 3/4 laps I was trying to figure out a way to win this thing but I didn't really come up with a way to do it. I would have had to lead Myerson up the fire-road on the last lap which wasn't going to happen since his FTP is about 125 Watts higher than mine and there wasn't really any place to get by in the last 3rd of the course. Also Adam is ridiculously fast over the barriers. I though I was on pretty good form over them yesterday and he was passing me there every lap.

40+ 1-4

Happy to not get lapped. That is pretty much it.

4 40+

4th race in 2 days. For some this is not a big deal, but this was my first time doubling up and I did it both Saturday and Sunday. I was beat! Probably could have done better, but I didn't. Got caught behind someone in the first wave on the last lap going up the woods hill and he ran out of steam which caused me to have to abandon my line. Two riders took advantage of this and passed me and I wasn't able to reel them back in.

Briana wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:49 pm 40+ Masters Re-cap.

... At times on the 4th lap I dropped into second with Myerson taking the lead. He wasn't pushing the pace any more than I was so we traded places a few times....

Impressive!

40+ Masters

I was on the 3rd row of the grid and wanted to make sure that Briana and Pare got good starts...which they did...then I made sure they stayed out in front for the rest of the race!!

23rd for me...think the predictor had me at 22nd...I left room for improvement for the rest of the season!!

Thanks for setting up the team tent (think that was Briana).

I made a point of getting there earlier than I normally would. Good thing. I shut off the car and went straight to registration. Pinned up my boys who were in the U15 and got them aired up. Was about to jump on my bike for a quick lap when I realized my shoes were back in Hopkinton. Gave instructions re kids race to the wife. Raced home. Got shoes. Raced back. Had a few minutes to warm up. Race went ok for about 3 minutes until my bars rocked forward again. Makes cornering really difficult.
Overall result was ok. Really consistent lap times. Didn't notice the ground wasps until the last lap.
Boys also did well, beating a few older kids.

Awesome job guys. Brian, legit changing places with Myerson and wanting to find a way to win. You are a beast.