Saco Bay Crit Report

Saco Bay Crit 4th place, 4/5 Cat field After missing the start to the Topsfield race last week, I was determined to end my road season on a positive note. So I decided to enter one last crit for the season and Saco Bay was the only one I could get into at such short notice. The race location was in Biddford, ME. It couldn't have been a better day. It was sunny and low 60's with some light to medium wind gusts. The course was located right downtown over a nice .65 mile route that had one short steep climb and several sharp turns. The pavement was a little rough but for some reason it didn't seem that bad, The field consisted of only 30-40 guys. I do think if there was more races this course would be much more dangerous. The turns were very sharp and the roads were somewhat narrow, so having large fields would be more sketchy. As the race started two guys flew off the front within the first 3 laps. The short powerfull hill on the course completely destroyed the field and by the second lap there was a small chase group of 8 racers that I was in and everyone else staggered threwout the course. My initial thought was that I didnt think the two riders off the front could maintain the pace. Plus with the wind gusts on the course I could have swore that they would be taken over by the field in just a couple of laps. Well it ends up that these guys were just strong and stayed away. There was no sense of organizing to catch the leaders and we all seemed content to race for 3rd. I should mention that it was really difficult to see the leaders. So you never had the sense you were chasing anyone. The turns and terrian made you almost forget there were riders up the road. That being said, there was no team in the small chase group that wanted to organize so it was a race for 3rd place. I also think the steep hill was killing people, after 15 laps up that thing no one seemed to want to exert more effort chasing phantom leaders. With 1 lap left I was leading the group on a pull and a attack by a solo rider went off my left. I was waiting for the counter-attack but no one reacted. Other riders must have been more tired than I thought. As we hit the steep hill I attacked to try to cover the attack, and no one followed. I opened up a gap on the group and the guy in 3rd had about 15 meters on me. It ended up he took the corners on the final turns really well and held off my attack. I crossed the line in 4th with the chase froup 20 meters behind. All in all it was a really fun race and I look forward to training and building a faster bike for next year.

Ken