GMSR Recap

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started at the Warren Store, and ended with a crit. 

Stage 1: The Warren Store TT featured just a slight amount of Head and cross winds to make things a bit squirrelly. I started 4th, but quickly made my way past my :30 and minutemen by the top of the climb. With about 150 meters to go, I passed the first starter and hammered through the line and into the leaders jersey with a time that would've won the Cat 3 field and placed top 5 in the Cat 2. 

Stage 2: With a 26 second GC lead and a sprint stage on tap, I played in the group and finished in the bunch. May have taken too many pulls, but it was an easy stage so I didn't think anything of it. Day one in yellow complete. 

Stage 3: Still holding 26 seconds on GC, hell on Earth was the stage description for the Queen stage. High of 50 degrees, driving rain, a trip up Midd and App Gap, and not nearly enough layers. I (along with everyone else in my race) was entirely soaked by the time racing started at the bottom of the 4 mile neutral descent. One guy attacked a couple of miles later, and fearing an escape, I gave chase with one other rider for about 20 minutes. He stayed away for the time being and we got brought back in for the intermediate sprint. Still raining. 

Up Midd gap we were able to catch the soloist, and on the descent I got to practice some CX skills at 35 miles an hour while unclipping to keep my balance around a wet corner. By the bottom though, I was very much cold, and hung on to the selection until Baby Gap. That's where the (insert word for shit here) hit the fan. 

Too cold to pull food out of my pockets while on the bike and cracking hard, the adventure up App consisted of no fewer than three dismounts, two walking sections, and one spectacular implosion resulting in 18 minutes of lost GC time in the last 10km. Ouch. Spent a fair amount of time in the refugee/warming tents at the summit eating Cheez-Its and drinking coffee. 

Stage 4: No longer in yellow and not having to worry about doing GC math, I came to the crit just wanting to race. After winding up for the first sprint points prime, I kept going until I had a sizeable gap off the front. Rolled solo for a few laps until the guy who was 2nd on GC at the time branched up looking for bonus seconds. I let him take the GC sprint ahead of me in exchange for equal work in the break. We got absorbed after the last prime with 5 to go (after 15 laps off the front), but that time in the bunch gave me enough time to recover and wind up 5th in the finish sprint. Came home from the crit with $50 in primes, third in the sprint standings (after only contesting them in the crit), and (hopefully) enough to finally upgrade to Cat 3 for next year. 

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