Myles Standish Cat3 Report - 4-23-08
Myles Standish Cat3 – Sunday April 20, 2008
5 laps of a rolling 5 mile course with one short climb
22+ starters, 15 finishers
We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather, maybe a few more competitors would have been nice. With such a small field and an equally short race, the plan for the day was attack and counter attack until something stuck to avoid just sitting in for the final sprint. We started out with nearly 1/3 the field (only 7 of us!) with the next largest team only 2 strong, everyone played their part, we eventually lost 2 (Mike Rowell and Greg Brown) to flat tires, much to the delight of our competitors. Our attacks were frequent and hard, to the point where none of us really remember how many we put in, and who went with us which time… but here’s basically how it went down.
Part way into the first lap and first time up the hill Peter Shapiro, “fresh” from his trip to upstate New York, was the first to go;
Cambridge Bike and Bike Barn were quick to respond and pull him back, sitting about third wheel during the chase I jumped right as we were about to make contact and hit the down hill portion solo, only to be caught in the rollers before the parking lot. Right as I was getting caught, Scott Brooks jumped with a NorEast rider and the game was on again. For the next 4 laps, we took turns jumping off the front while the rest of the team sat on deck recovering in the draft of our competitors chasing the attacks down. On occasion we would bring one or two other riders with us, but the field was determined to let nothing go. There wasn’t a single moment without one of us off the front and others blocking and waiting, except on the last lap when Scott’s chain dropped on the hill and he had to leave his two breakaway companions and come back to the field, at which time Peter and I immediately drilled the pace over the hill and quickly caught the remaining break. Despite the small field and our dominant numbers, there was plenty of resistance to our aggressiveness, but to no avail as we controlled the race completely.
In the last lap we were still all together, on the back side by College Pond I went to the front to try to set pace for the finish;
Peter Shapiro made another go at it. He brought eventual winner Kyle Smith (ECV/Cambridge Bike) and a strong Bike Barn racer with him. With the everyone else worried about their own finishes and not wanting to do the work to pull them back, the field was content on letting me stay at the front riding a pace clearly slower than what the front group of 3 was moving at. It wasn’t until just before the parking lot, when Peter’s group was out of sight, Barry made a hard acceleration that the whole field came around me to try to salvage what was left of the placings… but to no avail, Peter powered home for 2nd and Barry successfully stayed in no-man’s land ½ way between the lead group and the field all by himself for 4th place for his first mass start race in years (excluding Wells Ave and the New England Velodrome).
All in all it was an excellent team race, everyone played their part and contributed towards the team goal, and we were able to keep the pace high and active and avoid a bunch sprint.
Peter S: 2nd; Barry G: 4th; John B: 7th; Scott B: 11th; Dave C: 15th;
Greg B & Mike R: flats
Thanks to Peter, John, and Barry for contributing to this report.