Yesterday started with the promise of a relatively easy race in the pack for this week's Bethel crit. My goal for the day was to stay sheltered as much as possible and see if I'd have enough at the end to "get on the sheet" (they only record the top 20 placings). I had packed the team vehicle the missus' car the night before, leaving only my cooler to be packed the next morning. I got what I thought was enough sleep and had plenty of time to eat before heading out.
As an added bonus, teammate Dave called during breakfast to let me know that he'd be joining me. Dave's a super strong rider, acting team captain of our Cat3 squad, and recent holder of the yellow jersey in the Plainville crit. It was going to be a very good day.
With a couple of (minor) exceptions, it was.
The first glitch was discovering that I'd left my cooler, with my water bottles, next to the back door. At home. "Where I can't possibly forget it." Yup. Forgot it. The next thing, my stomach wasn't doing so good. After dealing with pre-race butterflies ever since starting racing, I'm pretty familiar with what those feel like. But this was different.
But no excuses. On the missus' suggestion, I was able to stop and get supplies on the way to the race - including a couple of cool Poland Spring bottles with "sport valves" Thankfully, Dave had an actual cycling water bottle for me to borrow. He already helped me out and the race hadn't even started yet.
As I changed, I realized how WINDY it was. Wind's always a factor at Bethel, but it seemed especially breezy yesterday. I figured it'd help my plans by keeping everything - and everyone - together for the final sprint.
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Two final highlights before the start: 1) I finally got to meet Mr. Bell-Lap after commenting on each other's blogs for while now. Dunno whether he recognized me or my bike first, but it was cool that he introduced himself; and 2) Dave recruited CCNS rider Cal to be a member of our now-3-man ad hoc team for the day.
After the usual preliminaries, we were off. While there'd been only a little over 50 registered as of that morning, over 70 racers lined up with us. Welcome bodies for drafting.
But it was FAST right from the start! Who lit a fire under these guys?! The previous two races had been pretty brisk, but the wind had kept things fairly under control. But this time, it seemed that the wind just invited attacks - which were only too happy to accept, one after the other.
The pic above shows me trying to catch that lone guy off the front on one of the early laps (as always, photos courtesy Mrs. Suitcase; click for a larger version).
As the hits kept comin', Dave was right on them. He's easy to pick out in these photos - he has the yellow gloves and bar tape (an artifact of his recent holding of the yellow jersey?) In the above pic, he's on Hobgoblin's wheel (who was racing his second race of the day. Where'd all these strong guys come from?!)
Given the attacks, we were pretty strung out for much of the race. While the average speed was actually a little slower than in previous weeks, the wind - and the fact that we charged up the hill each lap - made it seem much faster.
At least that's how it felt to me. In the pic above, I'm - er - under the tent.
Here I'm near the front, but not too sheltered.
Strung out again - Dave's tell-tale gloves in evidence.
The big story of the race was that one Adler guy got away, solo, and had some teammates blocking for him. Even so, it was amazing that he was able to stay out so long, in that wind.
Others tried to bridge, and a couple of efforts stuck for a while . . .
but most of the time, it looked like this. I'm comin' up the outside. The previous two photos - and the one below - are of the hill. The first pic in the series gives you a decent perspective.
Dave and I together on the hill.
With a few laps to go, the Adler guy was - remarkably - still out front, with about 40 seconds. And there was another twosome in no man's land, but still able to hold off the pack.
Dave, Cal and I did a decent job of staying together and trying to get in breaks when we could. I didn't see Cal a lot, but reviewing the pics shows him out there in some front groups. Special mention goes to Dave, who not only chased down almost everything, but did so on tired legs. AND he had enough for the end.
Here's how it went down, based on the various reports:
At the final bell, we were pretty sure that the Adler guy was a shoe-in for the win but some of the pack must've thought they could at least catch the twosome. The last lap was especially fast - as always - but where we'd always slowed a little on the backside due to the headwind, this time we actually drilled right through it (natch - it's the last lap!). Unfortunately, the combination of speed and crazy wind caused some sketchiness and one guy got himself moved into the curb. Fortunately (so I'm told, since I didn't see it), he hit the dirt - literally - rather than pavement, rolling over his bike in the grass.
We hit the final curve before the climb and I was on the outside, trying to hang onto a wheel, unlike last week when I was out alone in the wind. I heard "Chris! GO!" and - thinking it was Dave on my wheel - I went.
Hit the hill, passed some people, slowed down, some people passed me, stood up, I passed a couple more. Didn't give up, though my legs threatened to.
Had no idea where I ended up, but hoped it was at least top 20. Didn't see Dave anywhere either, until the descent on the cool down lap.
Saw friends Felipe and his g.f. Lisa at the line (Lisa'd been cheering for me, but hearing "Go Chris!" in Doppler effect - and figuring there were a LOT of Chrises in the race - I didn't know it at the time). Had a good time visiting after the race and doing the post-mortem. That's one of my favorite parts of racing.
Then it was time to check out the results.
When I saw it, I literally laughed out loud. There I was.
There were over 70 guys in our race, but I came in 20th. On the sheet - even if only barely.
Dave came in 18th. If you can find his yellow gloves in the video, you can catch a glimpse of me, just off his left about a 1/2 a bike behind. I never even saw him.
(finish line video courtesy Mrs. Suitcase)
So, all in all, a good race. I worked harder than I probably should have - especially considering I didn't need to with Dave & Cal covering. But I ended up better in a tougher race than last week's. And I have my goal set for next week:
Move up from the bottom edge of that sheet of paper...
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Quick shout-out to former-teammate Dillon of Cheshire Cycle Racing who had some bad luck in Saturday's crit at Plainville. Hope the collarbone heals soon! (must be a record # of ambulance trips for Plainville this year...)
Nice Post and great to finally meet you. Nice to see you made the results sheet. I tried to bridge to the Tony of Adler on my own. Was off the front on my cross bike 48Tring for a lap and a half. Got him close but could not close it down. Then going into the sprint I got caught behind the crash. Hit my brakes a bit and lost about 20 spots going into the sprint. Those are the "breaks". Great race and pretty fast.
See you on the Road!
Posted by: Jesse G | March 23, 2009 at 09:01 PM
Great post as always Chris, always an enjoyable read. Thanks for the email the other day - my face is healing and I don't scare small children anymore.
bob
Posted by: Bob Grove | March 24, 2009 at 08:52 AM