Cox Crit, Masters Race Report - Tim Dodd - 6-29-08
The Cox crit has moved south of downtown Providence to a one mile “L” shapped technical course. The new course has a long bumpy finishing straight leading to a 20sec burst up a 8-10% climb, then down a longish hill to a tight left onto a windy straight backside of the course and then a sweeping U turn back to the finish.
The weather was a steamy 85F and was I glad to have found shaded parking garage to warm up in.
Eighty masters racers started with the traditional five lap blast as fresh legs tried their luck at a chancy early breaks. The wind on the backside foiled most break away attempts. Each time up the hill my power meter registered 600-800 watts and I wondered how long I could keep this going.
The pack would alternate between single file and fat bunch as breaks went and were captured. I really could not think about the racing up front as I was just trying to maintain position and not waste any energy. At about 10 to go, I felt secure in finishing this tough race, and started moving forward.
With 8 to go four guys went down in front of me in the left turn at the bottom of the hill. I dove underneith them only to have a bike spit out sideways in front of me. I squared my bike and hit it at the rear axel, knocked it down and rolling over it making bad carbon crunchy sounds. With my heart rate max’d out at 180bpm and happy to be good, I headed to the pit for my free lap. I was joined by 15 other riders in the pit and the announcer poked fun at some very tired riders.
Getting back on the pack I had problems getting my rythim at the back getting wip sawed. I pushed forwards, but at 5 to go the pace got very tough and finally split the pack at 3 to go. I was blown and I joined four other riders as we swept the course of surviors.
I finished up 37th of the 50 remaining racers and happy to have finished. Unlike most races, where finishers are high fiving, and reliving race moments, this pack was heads down, quiet and trying to recover from a truely tough one