Solo recovers at the back of the field.
Eighty laps on a 1/4 mile bumpy, banked car racing track, with a sprint for points every five laps, 5-3-2-1, double points at halfway and the final sprint. Most points is the winner. 20 point bonus for lapping the field. Simple right? Traditionally we masters, who go last of all the categories, would start at around 9:30 pm and thus race under the lights, making things more interesting. This year, the track is not in regular operation, and there are no lights, so we kept the program moving and raced in the twilight. Not as much fun to me, but it may have made for closer racing.
Going into this stage I was tied with Charlie Bedard (Sunapee) for 6th or 7th on GC points (not to be confused with points race points). I guess it was tied for 6th, with tiebreaker rules pushing me down to seventh as Charlie had a 2nd on one stage and my best was a 3rd. Since he had the entire Sunapee squad at his disposal, and is a talented sprinter to begin with, he was one guy I was conceding to and not going to worry about. Instead, as I had the night before, I put my goons on the strong individuals who had no teammates: Soups (TT1), Bill Shattuck (Corner Cycle), Ron Bourgoin (OA) and John Grenier (Fuji). To me this was just pragmatic strategy. Paul Richard (CCB) and Charlie were going to do well and score points no matter what my team did. For me, the best case was if Paul won as many as possible, thereby lowering the threshold for how many points I'd need to finish ahead of some of the others.
Normally in this race, I hang back in the early going, letting the top GC guys wear out their teams in the first-half sprints. Late in the race I try to strike with a big move off the front, sweeping up some points and maybe getting into a break that laps the field, which is something I've done twice in the past. But the daylight changed a lot of things. And somehow, I went for points in just the second sprint, at 70 laps to go, and took 2nd, putting myself on the board early.
From there it got rough. Sunapee was aggressive of course, throwing riders up the road and on the front all night. Soups rode like he had a motor in his seat tube, sweeping up several firsts in the early going. A lot of other riders attacked. My team did what they could to mark my rivals and try to take points away if they got close to the front on a bell lap. Then before the halfway I got off the front and took a 1st, but then Jim Nash (CCB) got up to my wheel. He was not interested in working, instead protecting his leader Paul Richard. One of the other keys to doing well in this race is to not waste your efforts. Being a non-sprinter, I have to go three or four laps before a sprint, building and holding a gap, essentially "winning" from a break. Not the easiest thing to recover from, so if you're going to do it, you want to score points. Well, I thought Jim should and would work with me. I really wasn't a threat to Paul, as he had GC sewed up anyway (he only had to finish 8th or so on the stage to win). Plus it was unlikely that I would beat him on the stage. Me getting the points was certainly preferable for CCB over Charlie and Sunapee getting them. I pleaded with him, but he had none of it, and would not come around. If I'd stayed focused and just pulled, he would have come around me and taken first, but I still would have got 6 for second as it was doubles. But with our dicking around we got swarmed in the last turn before the sprint. Richard took it. Me, all that work for nothing.
Solo follows Soups but this effort was for naught.
This would happen again later when me and Soups spent four laps off the front busting hump only to get caught by Sunapee and get another goosegg. As a matter of fact, their overall strongman Bruce Diehl, who was the big loser Wednesday night, dropping from 2nd on GC to 10th, pulled off a textbook copy of my usual m.o., rising from the ashes in the second half of the points race to sweep up big points in sprint after sprint, eventually finishing 3rd on the stage, pulling himself back to 4th on GC. I managed to get away again later, this time with Craig Harrison, also a Sunapee. At least I wouldn't have eight guys and a woman chasing me if I was with him. I had to let him take 1st at the ten-to-go, but then we kept going and he worked with me. We stayed clear, but on the bell for the next sprint the field was right on our heals, with one guy actually bridging up. This was the five to go sprint, and I knew this was it for me, so I fought to the death all the way. Shooting up through a hole on the very inside of turn four as the field fanned out around me, I thought I got it. Dick Ring was announcing and he said I did too. But the photo showed otherwise, in fact I was 3rd across, with Charlie and a CycleLodge guy nipping me at the line by a tire.
Totally gassed, I had all I could do to hang on to the field for the closing five laps, so I did not do anything in the double points final. In the end I was 8th on the stage, and this was enough to keep me in 6th for the final GC, the last paying spot. Not quite what I wanted, but with a 3rd in the TT, the results were reasonably satisfying. If I'd managed to stay up a few spots better in the circuit race and have better legs on the track (I was really shit on Thursday) then I know I could have been in the running for the overall podium. But that's racing and it was fun, and I think the team rode well and had fun too. The Cronoman brought me a forty of Schiltz and it was ice cold, and that was awesome, brown bagging in the parking lot under the fireworks one of the other teams brought.
WMSR 2010 in the books. Thanks to all the other New England competitors for entering and supporting our event. Next year will be the 25th anniversary, so don't miss that. Thanks for reading.
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