Ninigret Podium!

Cat 4 Race

Mystic Velo Criterium, Charlestown RI

It ended up being a beautiful day at Ninigret Park down in Charlestown. The weather gods showed mercy on us and decided to give us a break with some rain. It might not have been sunny out but it sure wasn't raining like last weekend. For those that haven't been Ninigret Park it contains .9 mile bike track that was built on an old air field. The course is as flat as you can get with several short and long turns. The finish is at the end of a long straight away.

Coming into this race I really wanted to do well. I felt like I have been so close to having a good race but I just haven't been able to pull it all together at the very end. Today was to be a new day.

First thing is that I managed to get some new wheels from nuevation this week to replace my damaged ones from last weekends crash. Immediately when I took them out of the package it was noticeable how crappy and heavy my old wheels were. So this gave me some extra confidence coming into this crit.

This course is essentially perfect for me. Its flat, fast, and has a long finish straight away. There was about 40 races that lined up at the start. Mystic Velo was once again here in force. They were hosting the race, so it was to be expected. Other teams such as NEBC, Cambridge Cycle and Cyclonauts were there too.

As the race started the first couple of laps were fast but nothing crazy. My race strategy was to sit in for the first half of the race and then throw a couple of attacks to gage how strong the field was feeling. Well, things don't always happen like you plan them. The pace slowed about 5 laps in and the control of some of the riders going around the turns seemed to be erratic at best. It just seemed like no one wanted to take control of the race.

Well just as this happened a prime lap was called and people seemed to wake up and the peleton started to stretch out a bit. A mystic rider and a cyclonauts guy sprinted for the prime and I bridge up to them on the following corners to see if we can keep some distance between us and the peleton. Well about a full lap into it the two other guys seemed to have burned themselves out the previous effort and we got swallowed up by the peleton.

It was obvious that this race was not going to be a race were a break-away would really work in this field so the attacks that followed never really amounted to anything. About 6 laps left in the race I found myself out in front after I counter-attacked a previous sprint and a couple of guys bridged up to me. We tried to drive the pace but got caught a lap later. Now about 5 laps left I decided that the best thing to do was just to sit in and recover for the final sprint.

For the following laps I just sat in the middle of the peleton and recovered nicely. With 2 laps to go I started to make my move up and just slowly sneaked my way up to 3rd position on the last lap. The pace was being pushed and we were all strung out but it seemed everyone was just waiting for the final straight away to sprint. A mystic velo guy was in 2nd position and on the last turn he sprinted hard first. I thought this move was way to early so I hesitated and caught the wheel of another guy and we both started to make our final sprint.

I was expecting a surge of riders to come up on my outside but it never occurred. I buckled down and sprinted hard the final 50 meters and passed the 2nd place guy and almost caught the mystic velo guy at the finish. 9 times out of 10 that guy should have blown up and got passed but he was strong and held of the chase. I think if I didn't hesitate coming out of the turn I could have stuck his wheel and passed him at the finish.

All in all I was super happy with my finish. My legs felt strong and my bike is feeling faster and faster with each upgrade I make. The crazy thing about this race was that the sprint just never materialized like I thought it would with the rest of the field. It almost makes me think that another mystic guy blocked the peleton from behind me, but I can't be for certain. Anyway, I hope I can continue these results in the races to come!