Palmer Library Road Race Report 4/29

Masters 35+
60 miles
35th/92

Today’s event appeared to be a more ramped up version of the previous day’s event with many of the same cast of riders plus another dozen or so. Apparently this race is a New England classic. As it was the first time for me, I just didn’t know what I was getting into!
The weather was overcast, chance of showers, and there was a slight chill in the air once you were pedaling along in the open air. My biggest dilemma thus far this season has been what to wear. I blew it at Turtle Pond and have been cautious to not over-dress ever since. Yesterday was a no-brainer given the sun and temp, but today was iffy. Shorts were definitely in order, but I was torn what to wear on the upper body. I decided on a short sleeve with the possibility of arm warmers but they’re just too warm so I went with bare arms and full-finger gloves. In hindsight, the right call would have been the team long-sleeve. Oh, well. Riding in the pack provided protection from the coldest air, so that’s where is stayed for the most part.
The course was a 20-miler with fairly negligible climbing and some seriously long and fast descending. In a nutshell, this was a far easier race than yesterday’s. The layout also made it difficult for anyone to get off the front and stay there as the pack was powerful when knifing through the wind on the long open stretches. As was the case yesterday, we had the full use of the road which was necessary due to the large size of the field. There was room to move up if you wanted to, but it wasn’t wise to stay there too long because it made for harder work. I felt much more comfortable on the bike in a group, but not enough to want to be in the middle of the pack 6 wide for very long. It was fitting that the day’s NASCAR race was being run at Talladega because it closely resembles the dynamics of a bike road race: the majority of riders are in a pack; you can go from 3rd place to 20th in a matter of seconds as certain lines move faster than others; there’s always a chance for “the big one;” there’s strength in numbers. Whenever I felt unsteady, I let myself drift back and then find a lane on the outside of the pack and worked my way back up front.
PVC teammate Fred Thomas was in attendance, but we were seriously outnumbered by several other teams. There would be no working together. He had a nice run going with a breakaway on lap 2, but as I said, no one stayed off the front. He put in a hard effort while up there so he was fairly depleted on the last lap and settled in for s decent finish. At the finish, the entire field made a right hander and you needed to be towards the front in order to have any advantage over the rest of the field. There was a fairly long straight before the road turned uphill so it was wise to sit in behind teams organizing for the sprint finish so as not to go out too early. I’ve learned a fair amount during my brief road career, enough to recognize I wasn’t going to contest for the win so play it safe, but go hard. I looked for openings and tried to advance as many positions as possible in the last 100 yards. I ended up passing some and getting passed so I guess it evened out.
Overall, I was hoping to have better results on the weekend. But as I perused the results closely, I noticed some familiar names. For example I finished within a few places of Pro mountain bike racer Michael Patrick both days and ahead of Bill Yabroudy who was 1st in New England road racing last year. Clearly, these races ended up being events that catered to sprinters which is not my specialty. I hope to attend the Sterling classic in 2 weeks and capitalize on some climbing.