Critting around - Greenfieldx2
As Crit Week descended upon New England, many a racer put aside their regularly scheduled life to commit the better part of the last nine days to race around the northeast (read: Massachusetts and briefly New Hampshire).
I, on the other hand, work in the tourism industry and was unable to afford the luxury of melting this weekend at Longsjo, but I did get soaked at Gran Prix Beverly and the Greenfield Criterium earlier in the week instead.
My Crit Half-Week started last Sunday at 3:30am, when my wake-up call for Greenfield came.
Eventually, it was time for my first race of the day. Oh yes, I was doubling up races today. First up was the Cat 3/4, which proved to be quite the stem-chewer. Granted, I was the cause of that chewing, but I digress.
The race started off, well, fast. After only a couple of laps, I found myself off the front with a rider from NCC. We were pushing the pace, but working together really well to try and stay away, arguably better than I've worked with my own training partners sometimes. For nearly thirty laps we yo-yoed off the front, collecting primes along the way while eluding the field. At our peak we had just over ten seconds on the field over the 1/2 mile course.
But alas, all things must come to an end, and with ~5 laps to go, we were reeled in for good. We knew it was coming, and with a rolling handshake, we were absorbed by the peloton. At this point, it was every man for themselves.
Coming into one to go, the bunch was running fast, and it got the better of someone who had a mechanical going through turn-2 on the last lap, backing up everyone behind them. I was one of those unlucky few, and had to lock up my brakes and start from a near-standstill with a quarter mile left to race.
That little mishap wasn't the greatest for my sprint position, but I managed to recover enough spots going through turns three and four to be able to sprint for eighth place.
Now the waiting happens. I had a little over two hours between the end of my 3/4 race and the start of the 4/5 race, and no idea what to do. Sit and wait? Eat lunch? Ride around? A little of each? Well time got away from me and number four was the answer. I had a quick couple of bites of my bacon and peanut-butter bagel, shook out the legs for a couple of laps before the start, and took my place in the field.
This time we tried to take things a little slower to start, with Donnie Seib and I trading off singing bars of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" for the first couple of laps. But soon enough, the pack got tired of our singing, and found that the only way to shut us up was to pick up the pace.
This race, rather than trying to go off the front to safety, I tried my best to stick in the front of the pack and work off of others instead of drilling it myself, and for the most part, my plan worked. I sat in the top-ten for most of the race, trading pulls and throwing myself out to pull back wannabe breakaways.
In time, I decided I wanted some swag, so my race plan turned to prime hunting. The organizers put a ton of merch on the line for each prime, and with each field having (at least) four primes, some fun was to be had. Gift cards, $80 pens, waffles, socks, mugs, I managed to win 5/8 primes between my two races, and three in the 4/5 race.
By doing so, though, I did not put myself in a good place to contest any sort of final sprint. I had been attacking for primes all race, and going into two-to-go I was still sitting towards the front of the pack as everyone was winding up behind me. Long story short, I got swamped from behind and had to settle sprinting for eighth. Again.
And that was day 1.
I, on the other hand, work in the tourism industry and was unable to afford the luxury of melting this weekend at Longsjo, but I did get soaked at Gran Prix Beverly and the Greenfield Criterium earlier in the week instead.
My Crit Half-Week started last Sunday at 3:30am, when my wake-up call for Greenfield came.
After my three hour drive, during which I saw seven deer, five raccoons, a dead possum, and a couple of squirrels, I arrived at the race. Two-and-a-half hours early. Ski racing for years put me into the mindset that you have to (plan to) show up multiple hours before your start for race prep, ski and wax testing, and a proper warmup. In cycling, that just equals a lot of standing and sitting around.You win since you’re up before the promoter. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 https://t.co/SM70ij6cDD— The Greenfield Criterium (@greenfieldcrit) June 24, 2018
Eventually, it was time for my first race of the day. Oh yes, I was doubling up races today. First up was the Cat 3/4, which proved to be quite the stem-chewer. Granted, I was the cause of that chewing, but I digress.
The race started off, well, fast. After only a couple of laps, I found myself off the front with a rider from NCC. We were pushing the pace, but working together really well to try and stay away, arguably better than I've worked with my own training partners sometimes. For nearly thirty laps we yo-yoed off the front, collecting primes along the way while eluding the field. At our peak we had just over ten seconds on the field over the 1/2 mile course.
But alas, all things must come to an end, and with ~5 laps to go, we were reeled in for good. We knew it was coming, and with a rolling handshake, we were absorbed by the peloton. At this point, it was every man for themselves.
Coming into one to go, the bunch was running fast, and it got the better of someone who had a mechanical going through turn-2 on the last lap, backing up everyone behind them. I was one of those unlucky few, and had to lock up my brakes and start from a near-standstill with a quarter mile left to race.
That little mishap wasn't the greatest for my sprint position, but I managed to recover enough spots going through turns three and four to be able to sprint for eighth place.
Now the waiting happens. I had a little over two hours between the end of my 3/4 race and the start of the 4/5 race, and no idea what to do. Sit and wait? Eat lunch? Ride around? A little of each? Well time got away from me and number four was the answer. I had a quick couple of bites of my bacon and peanut-butter bagel, shook out the legs for a couple of laps before the start, and took my place in the field.
This race, rather than trying to go off the front to safety, I tried my best to stick in the front of the pack and work off of others instead of drilling it myself, and for the most part, my plan worked. I sat in the top-ten for most of the race, trading pulls and throwing myself out to pull back wannabe breakaways.
In time, I decided I wanted some swag, so my race plan turned to prime hunting. The organizers put a ton of merch on the line for each prime, and with each field having (at least) four primes, some fun was to be had. Gift cards, $80 pens, waffles, socks, mugs, I managed to win 5/8 primes between my two races, and three in the 4/5 race.
By doing so, though, I did not put myself in a good place to contest any sort of final sprint. I had been attacking for primes all race, and going into two-to-go I was still sitting towards the front of the pack as everyone was winding up behind me. Long story short, I got swamped from behind and had to settle sprinting for eighth. Again.
And that was day 1.
Comments
Post a Comment