I showed up to the race early. A Junior racer I coach was racing in his second crit so I made sure I was there. Carter Baker, age 10, did well and looked really good. His bike handling and comfort has really come a long way. Look for him in the next few years.
The Cat 3 race didn't start till 3pm so I decided to also race the Master's 30. My plan was to chill and just ride and not really care about how it played out. Yeah right! Too competitive. With nearly half the field from Atlantic Velo and a few from Nature's Path, it was going to be an interesting race. I was the lone VBW racer. Moves happened and everyone included riders from the big teams. That meant no help from them. I bridged 3 times. Good bridges too. Solo efforts covering a decent distance on the back stretch. Each time I got in a break we got caugth, but I had to keep trying, right? Well the one time I didn't try was the one that got away. I said to myself, "next lap I'll jump across." Next lap when my legs were feeling right, they were too far. So I went to the front to see if I could chase. Three laps later, with 3 laps to go I finally sat up. Didn't content for the sprint. Ended up 15th place.
Also racing from VBW was Chris Larkin. He competed in the Masters 40 and the Cat 4. Both races were good for him. He placed in the top 10 in both of them but just outside of the needed upgrade points. He looked really strong and played tactics well considering he didn't have and teammates in the race with him.
After a good lunch and a couple hours to recover I got ready for the Cat 3 race. I had a teammate in this event. Kevin Horvath and I talked about some tactics during our warm up and decided to race aggressively even though we didn't feel great. This race actually had a fair number of teams present but Nature's Path was still the dominate team. The race started easy but built up with a number of attacks. They were covered and really we didn't do that much work early on. Kevin then went for a prime that caused a seperation and a small move from the field. I held back to cover attacks and allowed a few riders to get free from the field. I figured a break of 7 or 8 would be good for Kevin since he was fighting a sinus infection. The move got some distance on us and that is when I saw Kevin get dropped from it. So know I chased. Kevin jumped back in the field to recover but I got no help from anyone else. I kept it steady and hard (at least for me it was hard) and pulled close to the break.
They were within attacking distance when I had to pull off. I set up for a second then decided to give it one last surge. That last surge caused a reaction from the field and a move went to finish closing the gap. Kevin was in that move. I moved to the back of the pack to recover. The problem was the gaps that then formed. My fault, I went back too far. After I noticed the gaps I was too fried to close them and ended up away from the newly formed field. The break now had the majority of the riders so us stuck back were really dropped riders. So I decided to sit up and get lapped. At least this way I could help look after Kevin. The problem is that Kevin's breathing was bad and he ended getting dropped and pulled himself out. So I just ended up staying with the lead move, but one lap back. Sucks. I think I ended up 17th or something like that. Not the day of racing I expected to have.
These pictures were all pulled from BJ Samuel's Smug Mug. She was out there and took over 300 pictures. Check them out here:
Thanks to JRVS, Vince Kidd and all the other volunteers. Another great event. I really do like that course.
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