Green for go at Fitchburg - Men's Elite Team - 7-4-08
The Nebc contingent:
Peter Bradshaw
Roy Van Cleef
Peter Shapiro
Thursday -6.5 mile TT
The time trial was pretty uneventful and the team performances were nothing special with Bradshaw getting top team honors in 28th place at 18:01. Myself and Shapiro were 58th and 94th respectively of the 111 starters
Friday -92 mile RR
I wasn’t optimistic about my GC and due to the length of the stage I thought my efforts would be better spent trying to get points. All 3 of us were badly positioned at the start and it wasn’t until just after the feedzone that I was able to attack and get a small gap. It was only another 3 miles or so to the points line so I raced for that. I crossed the line with a small gap and after the long downhill a single rider from Kissena bridged across and we soon had increased the gap again and gobbled up some more points. Once again at mile 25 or so the pack had closed the gap and another solo rider from KBS bridged to us. With fresh legs the gap got up to 3 minutes at one point. He was also interested in points so we sprinted it out on the next lap and I managed to come around him just before the line. It nearly killed us though so we decided to split the rest of them for the benefit of the break.
Back in the pack it sounds like Metlife were starting to panic and formed a train on the front which Bradshaw was doing his best to derail and not making any friends in the process. I heard about his antics later from one of the Metlife riders and it sounded great. We got caught with 35 miles to go and I was exhausted as I soon popped out the back with my legs cramping up.
Shapiro stayed with the pack most of the race but lost contact with one lap to go. Bradshaw finished a respectable 39th with the main field. Meanwhile I was taking it as slow as possible, eating and drinking as much as I could to stave off the cramps and make the time cut. Thanks for everyone who helped at the feedzone who made our race slightly more manageable.
Saturday -50 mile circuit race
I wanted to get as many points early on in the race to take the pressure off in the crit and the first sprint was on the first lap. Bradshaw came to my aide early and hit the front. I was well positioned and won the first sprint with Bradshaw close behind. I tried to conserve energy sagging on the climbs and then moving back to the front on the downhill. I was second in 2 more sprints to the same Noreast rider and small breaks ate up the rest of the points.
On the final lap Bradshaw and I lost contact and rode in at our own pace with Shapiro not too far behind. Again it was great to have so much support as I heard people cheering every lap.
Sunday -25 mile Crit
I had a 90 point margin so I was just happy to follow my 2 nearest rivals and just respond to their sprints. Most of the time riders were attempting to break away and that helped my cause. After the previous 2 days I didn’t have much left in my legs and was quite content to go for only one or 2 sprints and then sit in the pack. There was a crash on the final turn so everyone got the same time and both Peters and I managed to stay upright. I was very happy to keep the jersey and a big thanks to both Peters who sacrificed their legs so we could keep the green jersey.
roy