Cat 3 - Saco Bay Criterium - 8-25-08
Saco Bay Criterium
23 August 2008 – Saco, ME
Cat 3, 45min + 5laps
David Chiu – 5th
Mike Rowell – 13th
I haven’t written one of these for myself in a while! I was able to hitch a ride up north for what is probably the last Cat-3-only criterium of the 2008 season in New England (that isn’t part of a larger stage race). Most everyone else on the team was preparing and tapering for GMSR, Mike Rowell was the only company I had, overall it was a small turnout overall w/ 22 pre-registered (strong representation from the Maine clubs: SMCC and PVC) and a handful of day-ofs for a moderately technical 6 corner criterium with long sight lines and one wide sweeping off camber 90deg right around this rotary traffic island thing in a school parking lot (I didn’t get the hang of this corner till the closing laps of the race). Pardon the inaccuracies of this race report, I already forget most of how it played out :)
From the start, Drew Szeliga (NorEast Cycling) went on the attack and the field was quick to follow, I took fourth or fifth wheel behind Christian Eager (Quad Cycles) through the first corner, I shifted a few positions forward about half way through the first lap as I wanted to hit the roundabout and tight 90deg left handers towards the front of the race so I could pick my lines and not get forced into the curb or have to jump onto the sidewalk. Coming through the start finish line the first time NorEast decided he had enough and looked to pull off, looking back I saw that the field was pretty strung out with little gaps formed throughout from all the tight cornering we had just done so I decided to jump. Hammering through to the back side of the course I took a quick look behind I saw that I had gapped the field and brought Christian Eager (Quad Cycles), Manny Goguen (Minuteman Road Club), Ben Forbes (Base36/SMCC/Gorham Bike), and Eric LaFlamme (NorEast Cycling) with me. I put my head down and drilled it a little longer to fufill my obligation of establishing my break before asking others to pull through. Everyone was working decently well together, I’d keep checking our gap going through the off camber rotary and we were holding a pretty steady gap, we would be exiting as the field was entering. Our gap hovered at the same place for a while, until we lost LaFlamme from the break and Ron Bourgoin and Hairy-Legged-Guy (both Portland Velo Club) bridged up, with some new legs in the break and most every team in the race represented in the break (over 50% of the remaining field had a team mate in the break) our gap began to open as we started working together again. We eventually lost Hairy-Legged-Guy from PVC after he burst a tire in one of the hard left handers and ended up in someone’s lawn, and we were down to a five person break once again. When we got word that we had around 90 seconds on the field, there were a few attacks in the break to try to get away solo, but nothing stuck; I remember I was put into difficulty a few times in the closing laps as Forbes (Base36/SMCC/Gorham Bike) tried to go for Maine State Criterium Champion glory but always managed to catch back on before the next corner, unfortunately I also started getting some light cramps in my calves after these efforts (although I definitely wasn’t doing more work than my other break away companions, I probably worked too hard in the first half of the race). At one to go, Christian Eager (Quad Cycles) was the first to attack on the tiny riser on the back side, his move was quickly caught and countered by Ron Bourgoin (Portland Velo Club) who was matched going in to the off camber rotary, Manny Gougen (Minuteman Road Club) played it smart and gassed it through those final left hand corners in front of Bourgoin who had been on the brakes through all the corners during the entire race, I was constantly finding myself riding up on him inadvertently through the corners, giving himself a natural gap coming on to the start finish line and holding it for the win. I rolled in 5 seconds later for my highest result in two years, with no sign of the field behind me and a little disappointed I didn’t have anything left to contest the win. Mike Rowell rolled in for 13th, having taken a cash prime in the mean time in his 2nd race of the day (the first probably being much harder as it was more McCormack heavy).