Salem shows colors at a local Spring Classic!

Myles Standish Race Report
From Ken T :

This race was another first for me. The Myles Standish race was moved to the Charge Pond circuit due to poor road conditions on the original course. Since I have never been here before, it did not effect any preparation or strategy that I had for the course. For those of you that have not been to Myles Standish State Park before, all I can say is that its a massive park. Once you hit the entrance to the park its still another 10-15min drive to the start of the Charge Pond race.

Eventually I found my way to the race start and started to prepare for the race ahead of me. One of the great things about this race was the 12:50 start time. Its so nice to not feel rushed in the morning and not having to force feed yourself at 5am. The weather was amazing, it was a little chilly and windy in the beginning but by the time the race started the sun was out and it was nice and warm.

The race started off at a quick clip, there was a bunch of teams working the front to try to thin out the peleton a little. They were successful, a start pack of 45-50ish quickly became 40, then 35. I had the pace going at 27mph for the first 3 laps. Crazy fast for whoever was driving the front. The course kinda has short up and down hills which makes it easy to really carry your momentum from one section to the next, which is why I think the speed was so high.

I learned my lesson from last week and stayed in the pack more and conserved energy. My legs were feeling good and I was confident that I could stay strong through the entire race. The pace ended up slowing down from about lap 4-10(out of 16) and my main goal was just to relax and enjoy the race at this point. The course was not super smooth all the way threw so there was a couple of close calls when people went for a drink and then hit a rough patch.

The trick to this race was a 90 degree left facing turn that led to a 200m slight uphill finish. If you took the turn right you could carry your momentum right up to the finish. If you put on your brakes your had to dig hard to catch the pack. About 4 laps to go in the race I was sitting in good position at about 7 riders back. The pace picked back up but I still felt solid strength wise. The peleton thinned out to a long line at this point and I started to feel optimistic about my potential result. On the second to last lap I jumped on the front to make sure the peleton didn't bunch back up and by the time I went around the 90 degree turn I was going so hard my speedplay pedal hit the pavement and I about wrecked. Luckily I was able to keep my momentum and we cranked up the hill for the last lap.

I pulled off the front hoping that someone would continue the pace and I could sit back in. Unfortunately there was no takers. The lead group essentially stopped pedaling and the whole peleton caught up to us and swelled 5 riders wide across the road. This was the worst thing that could have happened to me, I went from 5 place to 20th in 5 seconds. I was completely boxed in on the last lap where the whole key to the finish was to be out front. The pace picked up in anticipation of the final 90 degree turn, but by this point I was simply out maneuvered. It got so hairy out there that I had to pull some cyclocross action as I got squeezed off the road. Luckily its just grass and I was able to recover fine. By the time I hit the 90 degree turn I knew I was in bad position and there was simply nothing I could do. I was able to sprint to the finish and make up a couple of spots to 14th.

All in all I was not disappointed in my finish. I felt strong and confident on the bike, I simply need to learn how to stay in position during the last couple of laps. My finishing experience is lacking and I hope I can improve upon that as the season progresses. My hats go off to the race organizers and to the rest of the racers. It was a really fun race on a great spring weekend.