My goals going into the 2006 WMSR were to race hard and have fun. At the TT maybe I should have raced a little harder, but at least we succeeded in having fun before the race, escaping the broiling heat by ripping on each other under the tent. The Cronoman obviously needs to work on lowering his body fat. I mean, check out the lack of definition in his flabby calves. By the way, the TT was not raced in the dark. Even BOB is not that crazy. The photos just came out that way because it was dusk and the photographer was using a flash.
At the circuit race, I may have raced a little too hard, and not so intelligently, but having vowed to have fun as a team whether kicking ass or getting our asses kicked, once again we could claim success. The race was a classic Workingman's experience. Check out the photo finish shots.
The third and final stage, the world famous Star Speedway points race, always proves to be the highlight of the event, and this year was no exception. After working a full and productive day, I headed up to the Cronoman's. He had prepared a pot of fresh coffee to help keep us awake for our race's post-bedtime start. Of course, I use half and half in mine, and he didn't have any, so a shot of Bailey's had to do. Nothing like a little buzz to calm the nerves before an elbow-to-elbow race. We arrived at the track just after 8 pm, as the Cat 4 event was winding down. We signed in, writing some sophmoric comments to our competitors on the sheet, did some handshaking, and kitted up. Dick Ring had come out of retirement to announce the event, and Big Joey G and Tommy Young had their hands on microphones too. Joey of course gave his fellow BOBers plenty of speaker time, but few were able to decipher more than a word or two of Tommy's Scottish brogue.
I forgot to pack my trainer, so Marro went and swiped one from the mutant winner of the Cat 4 race Ryan Kelly. One of his mates said we could borrow it, but the poor guy freaked when he came back to his pit and found it missing. At least he was a good sport about it when I returned it. Our scheduled 9 pm start was delayed by repeated carnage in the Cat 2/3 race, with one competitor transported via ambulance to the local NH animal hospital with a concussion.
We finally got out on the track at around 9:30, with a light mist in the air threatening rain. Ranger Rusnak was our highest place GC guy in 5th, with me back in 7th. Poor Ranger had everyone on the team trying to give him advice, but sprinting for points every five laps on a bumpy quarter mile track in the dark is not for everyone, and the pressure from the team wasn't making him any more comfortable. Ranger is more of a road race breakaway guy. I'm not exactly a field sprinter either, but I've been through this ritual numerous times before, and being free from the burdensome pressure of team leadership, I still had the luxury of being placed high enough to ride my own race. I would help Ranger if possible, but also try to score some points myself.
The gun went off and allez we go. I led the first lap just to get comfy, and then eased back to let the top GC contenders start killing each other in the sprints. Ruane had his Sunapee squad leading him out, and the anticipated battle royal went just as expected, with Patrick taking first in most of the sprints, and Donnie Mills second. Duano and the Cronoman took turns trying to setup the Ranger, but he was getting boxed in and elbowed out left and right, and realistically taking sprints from guys like Ruane, Mills, and Munroe was out of his league.
After the fourth sprint, with 59 of 80 laps left to go, the leaders eased, opening up the inside line, and I took off. Quickly establishing a gap, I found my rhythm and spun the 14 cog around the bottom of the track at over 45 kph for the two minutes it took to get to the 55 to go sprint, putting myself on the board with the five first place sprint points before retreating to the comfort of the bunch. I sat back for a bit, anticipating the leaders going for broke at the double-points halfway sprint. However, Postie represented BOB in a four man move that went off a few laps prior to 40 to go, and this group ended up taking the halfway points before the big guns sent their teams to the fore, subsequently placing the escapees under arrest.
Perhaps not wanting to chance any more such incidents, as well as watching each other, the top four on GC, Ruane, Mills, Munroe, and Morse went off the front soon thereafter. Seeing Sammy up there, resplendent in his pink leader's jersey, I launched off in pursuit, catching the quartet within about a half a lap. With all major teams now represented, the field shut down and we motored away. I drove the break at first, missing out on the sprint for points. With the group now just over a half a lap up on the field, and those guys more interested in each other than me, I bid them farewell and soloed off. Within three laps, I was almost ten seconds ahead of the breakaway, and just a few behind the tail end of the pack, where Duano was waiting. I yelled to him not to drop back, ensuring that I would not make contact before the next points sprint. Once I took first in the "sprint" I quickly moved across, taking my 20 bonus points for lapping the field. Duano immediately took me right through the bunch and back to the front, where we proceeded to drill the pace for all we were worth. The rest of the breakaway was almost on too, but we weren't about to make it easy for them. Sammy told me later it wasn't... :o)
Our pacemaking kept it single file until the next points sprint, but not knowing how close the others were to making it back up front, I went for the sprint too early and got beat by three others, only garnering one point in that one. After sitting the next two out, I attacked at six laps to go, and only one rider came around me for the sprint, so I got three more points. This left me cooked for the double points final, and I crawled across to finish. As usual, this race was a fucking blast. By this time of night, the BOBers from the lower cats were sufficiently beered up to have done some great cheering, and the whole experience of racing in the dark is totally surreal anyway, making everything seem even faster (actually, this photo is of the Cronoman helping to shut down the field while our break was away. Notice all the riders looking across the track to check our progress).
When the sprint points were tallied up, I had 34, the same number as Tyler Munroe, but since I had two firsts to his one, I was awarded third on the stage behind Ruane and Mills. This moved me up to 5th on GC, unfortunately displacing Ranger, who went pointless and fell to 8th. The best news was the everyone had a blast, even more so than in years past. The excitement and adrenaline produced by this race has to be experienced to be described. Sammy Morse (Bike Link), a very experienced competitor, graciously accepted his demotion to second place by Ruane's amazing three nights of riding (3rd TT, 1st Circuit Race, 1st Points Race), and commented that the points race was "the most intense thing we do all year, including cyclocross." The competition was fierce, but in the masters there was also the friendly comradery you get in stage races. It made me feel good to have my best ride of the year in this event. I am glad that I got to share it with my awesome teammates, and all my clubmates who made the event possible as well. Thanks for reading.
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