Cyclonauts Racers Road Race, Cat 2/3, Mike DelRossi, 7-29
Mike DelRossi, 2nd
Gary Douville, 5th
Paolo Mion, 25th
Monson, cat 2/3 Mike DelRossi
After a last minute cancellation of our Vermont recon plans, and a bit of arm-twisting from Gary, I decided on Friday that I would race Monson on Saturday. After a late Friday night dinner of Chinese food and Mai-Tais, I woke up Saturday morning ready to go (actually I felt like junk, big surprise).
This was a combined cat 2/3 race, so I didn’t have huge expectations of myself, but I figured it would be good training. The one thing that made me a little uneasy was that none of us had any idea what the course looked like, and we would only ride through the finish area once before the actual finish. Not a lot of opportunity to study the approach, I was worried I wouldn’t even know it was coming.
Given that there were only 3 of us and we barely saw each other before the start of the race, there wasn’t really a plan. We got out on the road, played it by ear, and watched each others backs as usual. Actually, we watched a lot of Paolo’s back; he did a great job of staying at the front the entire race. Gary and I stayed pretty close to each other and rode toward the front 3rd of the pack for the first half of the race. When things started heating up in the 2nd half we moved to the front and started responding to the attacks. One particular break got away with about 5 riders. It was still pretty early, but the group had some strong riders in it so we knew we’d have to work to chase them. Me, Gary, Andrew Boone, and a few others worked the front, trying to chase the break while still leaving something for the finish. At one point Boone attacked and got off the front. I went with him, but quickly decided that it would be way too much work for 2 guys to bridge the gap alone. Gary quickly jumped up to us and asked if I wanted to try and bridge it, but I didn’t have the legs so we fell back and rejoined the chase. After a little while, with no sign of the breakaway, I was sure we’d all be fighting for 6th place. However, in the last 10 miles we started picking up breakaway riders one by one. It was obvious that there was some suffering going on tn that break and I was happy with my decision not to try and bridge up to it. In the end, we caught all but one breakaway rider. He got to the final hill with just enough time to hold us off. He must have been pretty spent because he reached the base of the hill with 15 to 20 seconds on us and he only got us by 3 seconds at the line. I wish I had been a bit more aggressive at the bottom of the hill, but I never thought we’d catch him. Things played out pretty well for me and Gary at the finish; we sat on some other riders most of the way up the hill, until the finish came into sight and someone attacked. I got up and sprinted for 2nd place with Gary close behind for 5th. I was surprised to see the solo breakaway survivor right there at the finish. It was Toby Walch, a very good Cat 2, so I certainly didn’t feel bad about 2nd. Great finish Gary! Paolo also did awesome, racing for the first time after an injury several months ago. Nice to race with you paolo.
Congrats to Jesus, who took 3rd place in the 4 race (got your message Jesus, thanks!), and to Tami and the women’s team who had a great race as well.
Till next time, Mike