Cat 4 Awesome Show of Force - Fitchburg Circuit Race, 7-2, Julian Gent
Team Captain here reporting on the Fitchburg Circuit race. The honor of a race report usually goes to the best placed finisher but I don’t think he has e-mail access today so here goes.
The plan was for Roy to go for the win and a 10 second time bonus with a team lead out at the end. The secondary plan was for Gio to go for points using other teams as lead outs.
The start was a little bit of a mess with people literally starting from the sidewalk, NEBC quickly seemed to surge to the front and then in my opinion dominated the race. The first sprint for points was on lap one, Gio sprinted to third place for some valuable points. After that we had multiple NEBC riders taking flyers off the front, including John B., Oscar, Brain A. and Darrell. Oscar seemed to off the front every other lap. John B. was also off the front several times and Brain had excellent timing with his escapade. Gio managed to get second in the next sprint, he now has 20 points vs. the 25 points for 1st and 2nd placed points leaders.
Going into the final lap, Brian A. was slightly up the road in break with 5-6 other riders. I was on the front of the pack Roy was there as well, Roy and I looked over at each other and it was game on. I didn’t really want to chase Brian down but the break was eaten up by the pack anyway. After that I started going, a few people tried jumping but I chased them down and started pulling I kept trying to feel for any surges or any other lines
coming through, none came through after the few initial surges.
I started feeling the effort, so pulled off for the next man which was John B. John B. put in a great effort and pulled really hard along 1/3 of the back stretch. Brian at this point was second wheel, I think Roy let me in as I was able to get on Brian’s wheel. We were still waiting for the surge but it never came. John B. pulled off and Brian pulled the rest of the way to the final corner. Brian had originally been in the break and did an incredible job getting himself into the train and recovering to put an all out effort in. Brian and I went through the final turn side by side with Roy right on our wheels. I put in another short effort and then Roy came by and sprinted up to the line.
Roy won, you have to love it when a plan comes together to perfection. The win by Roy was well deserved but also came down to some of the best teamwork from the 4 team that I have ever seen or better yet been a part of. I think most of us thought it was the most fun race we have done in a long time.
Bottom line is Roy is now firmly in the top 10 on GC and we also have Gio sitting 2nd on points. The 4 team is pumped, but we need some more pumping if we are going to improve. Gio is going to go for more points tomorrow and we have riders who’s sole purpose is to deliver Roy to the bottom of Wachusett as fresh as we can. We need your support so it would awesome to
have another show of force with NEBC members cheering us on and to keep everything going. We also need help in the feed zone, our race starts just after noon so it is going to be a hot day in the saddle. Please come on out to Princeton and cheer us on or hand us bottles in the feed zone. Wear NEBC kit and help keep us pumped and hydrated, drive, ride we don’t care just
come out and cheer us on and be a part of what makes NEBC great.
Julian