This will be quick because there isn't much to write about. Stage 2 for the 40+ consisted of five laps around an 8-mile circuit. Most of the course is the same as the TT, except we go further down Kimball Road into NH. Lone Goose Road then makes a rural path back to the teeming metropolis of South Hampton, which sits at the top of a decent rise. Then the route plunges back down, at high speed into a tight left hand 135 degree turn where we rejoin the TT loop at the bottom of the "big" climb. Each lap a KOM sprint was on offer at the end of the false flat, just before the road plummets down into Amesbury. The sprint line this year was about 500 meters past the school, so basically a flat sprint preceded by a very slight rise.
All eyes were on team Sunapee to control the race, as they had ten riders. With Bruce Diehl in second, they were also in a position where they needed to attack. Race leader Paul Richard (CCB) has a sprint to match anyone else in the race, so the best way to beat him was probably to get up the road without him. CCB was missing strongman Tyler Munroe on Wednesday, but even with their limited numbers, all of them were strong enough to put up a fight. I had four team mates myself, and we decided to watch the strong individuals like Ron Bourgoin (OA), Bill Shattuck (Corner Cycle), and Mark Suprenant (Team Type 1), all of whom were big threats, especially if they got in a break with someone from Sunapee.
But none of that happened. I struggled the first two times up the hill, and a few alarm bells sounded, but nothing got up the road all night. The strong guys basically neutralized each other. People sprinted for the KOM, but I'm not sure who got it, and each time we regrouped. On the third lap we went pretty slow and I guess the Cat 4 field nearly caught us. They didn't, and the fourth and fifth laps were more animated, but still grouppo compacto. The last time into South Hampton the Cronoman made the world's briefest attack, sprinting off the front for just long enough for Diehl to join him before getting swarmed. Bruce persisted into the dowhhill before getting absorbed himself. I must roll down hill well, as just coasting and staying off the brakes I ended up leading through the hairpin, with Richard on my wheel, and I think he was unhappy with the way I sat up coming out of it. But I did not want to gas myself leading into the hill.
At the bottom and onto Friend Street, with 1.5k to go, the field mushroomed so I alerted my team mate John Diehli to light it up and keep me from getting swarmed. He did a great job, but it was a long f'n way to go and it was too much to ask him to hold it that far. Somehow I managed to get between Paul Richard and his leadout man Leo Devellian, who Paul instructed to move over and not jump yet. After a few tense seconds I got stuck on the front when we still had 600 meters to go, too early. I tried to go just fast enough to keep from getting swarmed badly, but not gas myself. Luckily my other teammate Chris White by now had un-boxed himself from the group and he came to the front, drilling it. I got on the train and at 300 meters Devellian and Richard came by us, and miraculously there was space on Paul's wheel, and I jumped in the gap. If I had any speed this would have been my ticket to the promised land. However, lacking sprinter's instincts, I did not go hard enough to fully close the gap, and maybe I was fading anyway from too much time on the front. As the line came into view, I was still in the top four and on top of the gear as Devellian swung off and Paul opened up his sprint. The other sprinters were closing on both sides of me and I simply was not fast enough as riders inched by me on both sides, all the way to the line. I ended up crossing in 10th, behind Richard and all the sprinters: Charlie Bedard (Sunapee), John Grenier (Fuji), Chris Naimee (Sunapee), Tim Dodd (NEBC) as well as ALL my marked rivals: Bourgoin, Soups, and Shattuck, plus Geoff McIntosh (NHCC) for good measure.
This stage has never been my friend, but at least the thunderstorms which blanketed the areas nearby managed to miss Amesbury. The result bumped me down from 3rd to a tie for 7th on GC. Richard now had a lock on the overall, but the rest of us were still very tight on points so second place would be very much up for grabs going into the final points race night. But Sunapee still had nine guys and one woman for that too... Thanks for reading.
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