Saco 35 plus 4/5, Julian Gent, 8-26
The Saco crit consisted of a 6 turn, 1 mile +/- course for twenty minutes plus 5 laps. The course had three ninety degree turns, a sweeping turn followed by a funky trip around a rotary in a school entrance. For the 35+ 4/5 race there were 32 people signed up per bikereg. Chuck Dopfel, Pat Convery, Peter Esselstyn and I represented NEBC.
I hadn’t originally planed on doing this race but right now according to USACycling I’m ranked as the number one NH, Cat 4, crit rider and I want to maintain that ranking not that it means much. The guy in the number two spot had entered the race so I figured I should make the one hour drive and promised my wife I would be home by 10.00am (she is being very supportive of my late season efforts considering her condition).
My plan for the race was to stay near the front, go for a mid race prime and then wait for the finish. The race seemed to start pretty quickly as gaps started appearing almost immediately and I spent a lap and half closing gaps and getting myself up to the fourth or fifth wheel. The trips around the sweeper and tight rotary were interesting at best, the pavement was irregular going around the rotary on a few occasions I felt my tubulars moving around on the pavement. Also setting up for the turns meant you had to be very aware of the other riders through the left right left combination.
There were two riders from CCB who more or less dominated the race, they went for every prime and attempted breakaways off of each prime. I decided that they were the ones to watch for the finish as they seemed to be working very well together. I also made certain to break up any blocking attempts and to bridge dangerous looking groups going off the front. Half way through I made a half hearted attempt for a prime but backed off almost immediately because I was too far out of position. With two laps the CCB guys were on the front and the pace slowed considerably at this time I was fifth wheel, the pace remained slow through the whole lap. Coming across the line for the final lap there was a surge from the back and the CCB guys accelerated in response with an ECV and a Sunapee rider along myself on their wheels. A slight gap was opened up by the CCB riders through the rotary section and I thought uh oh they might hold that. The gap closed up on the final turn and I stayed put as the sprint started. With maybe two hundred yards to go I came off the wheel in front of me and sprinted by everyone and won by a bike length. Apparently, the looks on the other riders especially the CCB guys faces was priceless as I went by as they must have thought they had the race won.
Some how a little bit of an anti climatic win. Sorry about all the “I” s but I didn’t see another NEBC rider through the whole race :->(
Maybe M. Rowell has a point about making the race more interesting by attacking, but my goal was to keep things together or go with a group off the front. I did effectively use another teams lead out and tactics to my advantage and better yet it was CCB who I have some bad history with.
Anyway, thanks for reading my boring drivel and I made it home at 10.00am so my wife was happy.