Claremont Crit, Kevin Hetherington-Young, 7-15
Like Ross said, this was flat and fast and a really short circuit at .45 miles. For those who haven’t been there, the course narrows to 1 1/2 lanes at the start line leading into turn one and the exit of turn one is the immediate setup in turn two. From there, the back stretch is straight and flat and we had a bit of a headwind. That led to two 90 degree fast turns into the home straight.
Last week, my goal was to win a field sprint, breaks be damned. his week, I wanted to play at the front and try to find myself in a good break if possible.
Masters 35+ 45 minutes plus five laps: I was the only NEBC rider who was up against at least ten Sunapee riders. With such a short course, it seemed a break might get out of sight and stick and my goal was to go with a significant number of breaks if there was a Sunapee rider present. Mike Norton was there too with one teammate and was aggressive in trying to get into breaks as well.
About five minutes into the race I found myself with a bit of a gap that seemed to be growing quickly. I decided to work it and see if a Sunapee rider might bridge up. During my excursion off the front, they rang the bell for the first prime which I took a lap later. $15 worth of pizza – which turned into a nice team dinner later on. :) For the bulk of the middle of the race, I went with as many breaks/bridges as I could and found myself in a three man group that successfully bridged to another three man group forming a nice six-man break with two Sunapee riders and Mike Norton. I liked the looks of this one. Unfortunately, they rang a $10 preme and three of the riders went hard for it messing up our rhythm. The three of us who ignored the preme blew by the others after their sprint and managed to stay off the front for another five to ten laps (each lap was so short it’s easy to lose track!). Unbeknownst to me, somewhere either before all this happened or right after we were caught, a three man break went clear and got out of sight really fast. Given that our lap times were about 52 seconds, they managed to lap the pack – and I simply missed this important fact, though I doubt I could’ve done much differently.
In the last five laps, my goal was to stay in the top five and win the sprint for what, at the time, I thought was the win. With two to go, Charlie Bedard of Sunapee went up front and hammered to keep the pace up. I ended up on his wheel but felt I was up there a bit early but had to adapt as I wasn’t going to go back now. On the back stretch of the last lap Mike Norton and his leadout rolled by along with another rider. I forced myself in there on Mike’s wheel thinking it was probably the wheel to have with 300-400 meters to go. A Sunapee rider attacked from behind though and gapped us. I gambled that Mike would close the gap. Bad gamble as the Sunapee rider was clear and flying. I dove inside Mike on the last turn and easily held onto 2nd in the field sprint. With the three riders who lapped us, that put me in 5th and in the money. All in all, I rode an aggressive race and given the lack of teammates against Sunapee, I’m happy with how it turned out.
Let’s get more Masters out there!
Cat 3/4 40 minutes plus five laps: This was immediately following the Masters race and I was still pretty tired. In addition, it started raining lightly making the corners quite slick. About five minutes into the race, two riders slid out on turn two gapping those of us behind. I shouldn’t have been so far back, but so goes it. From here on out, it turned into futile work closing gaps and chasing and I decided to bail and take my first DNF of the season. In fast crits, definitely work to stay near the front of the group. The riding is smoother and you have fewer chances for such mishaps. Watching from the sidelines, I thought Scott Brooks looked good going for premes and the field sprint. Report Scott? Peter did well in his first race as a cat 4 (is this right?) and Julian appeared to ride well in the pack as well.
P123 60 minutes plus five laps: I wasn’t planning on doing this race, but about ten minutes before the start, I figured what the hell. What’s it matter that I just got dropped in the 3/4 race? I just had a thirty minute rest! :) Scott, Justin, and I were representing the colors and I believe we all found the pace quick, generally running 27-29 mph with a few slow-downs here and there. The highlights of my race? Surviving some crazy mishaps. About 15 minutes in, my rear tire went flat exiting turn one. Turn two is about 30 meters up the road and I had to get through that turn on a flat clincher. Oh, and we were probably going 26 mph or so. :-/ Anyway, I think I won the ‘save of the day’ award by sliding through the turn with my rear wheel kicking out out the whole way through. Going straight and missing the turn was not an option as there was a rider outside of me and a huge pile of hay I’d rather not hit head-on. He ended up going straight. I was yelling “Flat!” the whole time hoping not to get hit from behind. I rolled the flat slowly to the pit, changed out my rear wheel, and jumped back in. I got a few “amazing save!” comments from other riders during and after the race.
This flat reminded me of one of the reasons I prefer tubulars for racing. They simply behave better without air than clinchers. My rear clincher was just too damn squirrley and I found it difficult to control the bike even when riding slowly to the pit. Gluing tires is no big deal. Race tubulars.
Anyway, I hooked back into the pack but missed the large break forming off the front during my free laps (yes, we got two b/c the course is so short). Didn’t matter though. I was working hard enough just staying in the pack. I found myself trying to pedal early coming out to keep the gaps from opening as closing them was quite exhausting and ended up clipping a pedal hard enough coming out of turn four to double hop the wheel. I heard a couple more “nice save” comments from behind.
By this point, I was the last NEBC rider in the pack and just got into the rhythm and rode it in to finish in the pack. This felt like a success as I’ve been nurturing some sore, tight lower back muscles all week and needed Motrin to get through the day.
I suppose the main lessons in this race were two-fold: unlike the cat 3/4 race, I stayed in the first 15 wheels or so until things settled down. Even though the pace was harder in the P123 event, riding up there was steadier and thus, easier to handle. Later in the race, it wasn’t nearly as hard further back as things had thinned out enough. The other major lesson is good bike handling can pay huge dividends. What could’ve been an ugly crash turned ended up simply being a free lap. If you think your bike handling needs work, be sure to ride all the crits you can and cyclocross this fall and winter. If you stay relaxed, calm, and balanced over the bike (make sure your bike fit is well-balanced over the wheels), you can get yourself through some pretty dicey situations. You can also put the bike were you need to be tactically in a tight crit.
All in all, a fun day at a great course with nice, late afternoon start times.
Kevin