Good Times, Bad Times

ColinR wants a race report from Sunapee. I already provided the briefest of briefings in my last post, but since I like the kid, and this was a category 3 race (where he should be racing, and hopefully will be soon), I'll humor him.

Why did I race the cat 3's instead of the 45+? Good question, with multiple answers. Why not? I'm a cat 3 (still) so it's always a possible choice. Team BOB already had six guys entered in the 45+. That's a lot in a sixty rider field, but typical for us. You'd think we'd be a dominant team, but we're not. I've been voicing my humble opinion to the rest of the club that we're already too big and should not be growing the club by taking on new members. We already have too many riders who want to do well, and conflicts regarding strategy arise from time to time. Rather than continue to try and herd the cats, at Sunapee I decided to just shut up and take action, voluntarily reducing the size of the 45+ team by one member. Besides that, the only thing worse than using up six guys so that one can get 8th is to use up seven guys for it...

Beyond that, Mark Sups has been doing the 3's instead of the 35+, and after Sturbridge he said placing was "easy." I like easy. I've done one or two cat 3 races a year recently, usually Hollenbeck because the master's race out there was too short. I did not find it easy. Most of the 3's now are pretty damn good, and as a group the field seems much better than when I was a senior. That makes sense, as these kids have to go through two upgrades to get out of cat 5 and then cat 4 where many sandbagging lifers make upgrading more difficult. It used to be the 3's where that took place. In the 90's, we also still had many, many riders who'd had a license since there were only three categories. They'd never upgraded at all. The 3 field's were huge, but the quality of the riding wasn't all that great.

How did my race report turn into a gripe and history session? Getting back on course, the 3's at Sunapee do two laps of the 38k circumnavigation of the lake, same as the masters. Everyone used to do three laps, but now only the 1/2/3 race does. I gave brief thoughts to entering that one, but wisely decided it would be over my head and a waste of good form. I say wisely because their lap times turned out five minutes or so faster than ours. The 3's had about fifty starters by race day, as they went against the flyer and let day-of entries in. I nearly missed the start going to pee, then ended up having to participate in the human shield allowing Feltslave to drop his shorts on the starting line and do the same, all while Chris Naimie announced the race instructions. Those Canadians are a classy bunch, and despite the lack of rains, the field behind us had wet road at the start.

The first few miles were sedate, grouppo compacto. Feltslave and I each had no teammates, and we'd made a pre-race pact to cooperate. We also had very limited knowledge of the competition. NEBC had a large contingent, BRC had three or four riders, and SMCC had a half dozen entered as well, so moves by any of them had to be a concern. Not much of one though, as it's pretty stupid to go reeling in moves when you haven't got teammates. GCD commented in his Sunapee race report that he found the course to not be "rolling" as he'd been informed, but instead hilly. He also wonders why more people don't show up for this excellent race. So do I, and I'm guessing it's too hilly for those who've pigeonholed themselves as sprinters (translation - can't climb and are unwilling to work), and not hilly enough for the pure climbers (translation - can't sprint). Personally, my view of this course changes dramatically depending on my fitness level. Having achieved a few top five finishes in the three lap versions way back, when I returned here in 2005 I was thinking the race was a mix of "rolling" (rt 103 and rt 11) and small "power climbs" (rt 103a). With marginal fitness that year, I got FUCKING KILLED before we even got to 103a, and the race seemed like a mountain stage in the tour. In 2006 it did not seem so bad, but I suffered on the "little climbs," still finishing in the money. Last year, well, my eve of race accommodations were upset by a personal disagreement, and I ended up sleeping only an hour or two and got dropped early, so it must have been hilly. This year the course seemed flat. No shit. I'm climbing better, and maybe the Cat 3s are just steadier than the 45+. Our laps times were similar, but there wasn't any ebb and flow, no hard attacks (or even dick waving).

I hope you're happy Colin. You've got five paragraphs already and barely a word on the race. That will teach you to hassle me about race reports next time. Where were we? Oh yeah, somewhere on Rt 11, two guys rolled off on the first lap. Still considering this race "hilly," (remember, got dropped last year...) this was of no concern to me, because in hilly races I generally only worry about breaks that roll off on the hills. I didn't know any of the players, but I figured they were just getting a head start for the climbs. Plus, there were only two of them, and with three stocked teams in the race, at least one of them must have missed this move and would be responsible for containing it. Besides all that, this pair were just dangling out front by ten seconds or so for a few miles.

Well, wrong again honey. The duo extended their lead when the climbing started, and by the time we got back to 103 they were out of sight. Feltslave and another guy had started a nice bridge attempt at the top of the stairstep, but since the group's pace on the climbs was hardly pressured, nobody was gassed and they got reeled in. Heading back toward 11 a belated chase began, and we had decent pace. On 11 itself, we even got to single file for a while. I figured the break was probably gone, but there were only two so the rest of us still had something to race for. Going past the intersection of 103B, into the long hill, I moved to the front to do some posturing and throw in a fake attack to show these kids how weak I was, in hopes they'd ignore any real move I made later on. This turned out to be dumb, because one guy responded with a violent surge of his own, and I tagged on to him up the grade. The field jumped hard to bring us in, and all we really accomplished was disruption of what had otherwise been a decent chase effort.

I retreated to chat with Feltslave, and then on the last "roller" up rt 11 noted a lone NEBC rider coming back toward us. I wasn't sure if he was dropped from the break or whether he was a straggler blown out the back of the 1/2/3 field, but it turned out he was the former. Logically, our pace picked up dramatically as NEBC switched from blocking to chase mode. Didn't matter, as the other guy, Backhouse from BRC, ended up soloing in by over a minute. However, we were lined out heading down 103b, just before the town line climb (IMHO the hardest on the course) and the front of our pack went down in a pileup. I was in the middle and had to brake hard, and got hit from behind, but only needed to put a foot down before wiggling my fat ass through and getting clipped back in. Only two others rolled away with me, with a pack of 18 or so to chase, and what seemed like half the field either on the ground or stuck behind back there. We had about 800 meters to chase before the climb began, and luckily for me the other two guys were in full panic mode and rode like mad. I rotated through, but I was confident in my ability to close this up on the climb itself, which I did.

Now we had just twenty or so riders in a group behind the lone leader. At least we'd have room in the sprint. Rt 103 was a headwind, and nothing went, just a lot of crowding at the front looking for good position. Going into the rotary, Feltslave wisely powered around the outside and led me out nicely into the right hander up the finish road. The pace did not slow though, and I never sensed a good moment to make the kind of attack I've succeeded with here before. At the top of the first steep hump, Feltslave was a bit gassed so I went around him and tried to find the best wheels. It's pretty flat for the last 400 meters before the little pitch right at the line, and it got aggressive and elbowy as we all fought for position, but the pace never eased. I found the wheel I wanted (the guy who'd chased my move on the hill), but still nobody fully jumped. As the road curves around a bit to the right at the end, I wanted the inside to avoid taking the long way around, but everyone else had the same idea. Finally my guy jumped, but then he sat back down, then jumped again, and the sprint was full on. I never got the running room to fully open the cork, and rolled across behind six others, so I got 8th. Basically I got beat. I guess this was the last paying spot, but at the time I still wasn't sure there were one or two remaining in the break, so I never went up to collect. Instead, I put on a dry kit and headed back out for a ride with Dougie.

There you go, a senseless, rambling, not especially informative race report. Be glad I spared you the tale of my social ride on the outer Cape yesterday. Thanks for reading.