Central NH Road Race/Bow, Gary Douville, cat 3
Cat 3; 53 miles; 57 starters
6th – Gary Douville
24th – Paolo Mion
28th – Scott Cole
45th – Anthony Laskaris
Thanks the the race organizers and volunteers for putting together a great, well run race.
The Cat 3 race was 5 loops around a course of ~11 miles with a long gradual climb at the start ending with a fairly steep KOM climb, followed by several miles of descending and then rolling terrain into the finish. Temps in the mid 80’s.
The average pace of the race was about 22.7mph and most of the climbing with the exception of the first lap was at a good pace thanks to the KOM competition (won by Colin Murphy of ECV). I sat in for all of the first lap and didn’t do much work while Paolo , Scott and Anthony road towards the front. My plan was to ride towards the front and watch for attacks on the climbs from the second lap on. Colin and a few other guys attacked hard up the KOM climb on laps 2-4 and would gap the rest of us and then recover while the pack regrouped. I was riding in the top 10 or so on the climb but was making it a point to stay out of the red zone as I had no interest in contesting the KOM and wanted to conserve energy for countering any attacks with an objective to place in the top 5 or so. There were some attempted attacks of 1-3 riders throughout the race, but none were real threats. Towards the end of the 3rd lap I started bridging to any breaks and in general the peloton was chasing down just about anything. I was feeling good, my legs weren’t cramping and I knew that I wasn’t burning any matches so going into the last few laps my intent was to go with anyone on the climbs and get into a break if possible. On the last lap, a group of 5 or 10 attacked at the feed zone (which led into some heated discussion at the end of the race between some of the guys, but that is racing) and I countered the attack with Paolo by my side. By the time we hit the KOM climb, Paolo and I were well into the top 10 but unbeknownst to me, there were 3 guys off the front. Not sure when they got away, but I wish I was paying better attention because I could have, would have, should have put in the effort to get away with them. The 3 guys were 1 minute ahead of us half way into the last lap and we chased with most of the effort done by Matt Jameson of Exodus who, despite the effort, still managed to sprint for 7th overall. I was 3rd wheel for most of the 2nd half of the last lap and 4th wheel going into the last sweeping left hander. The pace was FAST going up the small kicker before the finish line came into sight and 2 guys attacked and one or two riders passed me before I started my sprint. I recovered, passed the three riders and came in 3rd in the field sprint.
My lesson learned was that I simply raced too conservatively. I had the legs and felt great but never put in any significant efforts. I believe that I could have climbed the KOM much harder and been in the 3 man break if I was more aggressive and more attentive to what was going on. But that’s racing and nevertheless I had a blast out there.
Paolo put in a great race coming back from a hamstring injury and was climbing well and towards the front the entire race. Welcome back to racing Paolo.
Thanks again to the organizers and volunteers!
Gary