Michael Schott Memorial CR Report

First group ride of the season, oh it was a race! Tough way to start the season, eh?!
KHS students finally returned to campus after their 5 week hiatus so it was a busy week of getting back into the routine and coaching the lacrosse team. Motivation and time to train took a bit of a hit as there was much to do. I even felt a bit uninterested in racing. If the weather was going to be poor I would have bagged it for sure.
Instead, I woke @ 5am on Sunday and headed south for Marblehead, MA to participate in the unofficial traditional kick-off to the road season in New England. The fact that 16 OA/CycleMania teammates were going to be there kind of made me go too!

This is a circuit race on a peninsula that has some rolling hills making for an entertaining and certainly scenic event. This was my 3rd year in a row participating. Last year was not too kind as I flatted after 2 laps and had to retire from the race. This year was a very different story as our new team was making a huge showing and our team director Neil Fitch had a race strategy and issued commands to each of us. Finally, I'm racing on a road team that actually has some organization and direction to capitalize on the team's strengths to lead to success! My role was to partner up with Fred Thomas, possibly the strongest rider I know and Maine's time-trial champ 2 years running, and get in an early break. This was very ambitious since I had no idea where my training was at. To complicate matters, I had no time to ride on Saturday so my expectations were pretty minimal. I got in about a 25 minute warmup and the legs felt pretty goo actually so I decided to just see what would happen. We all went around together the first couple of laps. The pace was pretty snappy from the gun with Fred and Mike Claus working up front. Last year, I remember my legs were not so responsive on the punchy climbs, but I was feeling good this time around. Then I noticed Fred went off the front with a CCB rider.

Luckily I was in good position to bridge up and did so, although I definitely burned a match doing so. We weren't together very long, maybe half a lap, before the pack came to us.

I'm guessing this was just to feel things out, to see what the pack was capable of. It also was a brief indication of whether I could fill my team role. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have been able to do a sustained effort to match Fred. I drifted back into the pack and recovered for the next few laps. From there, I watched things develop up front. There were a couple of larger breaks, but I knew nothing would stick. Fred continued to ride with his nose in the wind. Mike was still working now and again, and Stu Abramson showed his form as well. I stayed towards the front the 2nd half of the race, but not really working. With 2 to go, Fred was again up ahead with 1 other rider and Neil was controlling the pack up front. I had a perfect window to bridge up and quickly grabbed Fred and he and I set off alone on the backside of the course, hoping for a last lap escape. It was wishful thinking. I was in the red zone pretty quickly and Fred had to have been pretty maxed out as well. Nonetheless, we had quite a gap. But after the descent, we hit the wall of wind which just killed our momentum and the single-file front of the pack snaked by before we hit the turn and the hill. I managed to grab on but was mid-pack and had little left in the tank. Plus, it was time for the rest of the team's strategy to play out and the other riders began to help bring our sprinters to the front. On the back side there was a quick touch of the wheels in the pack in front of me, forcing me wide and almost to a dead stop. Meanwhile, the pack charged on ahead and I had no matched left to bridge back up and unceremoniously rode to the finish with the rest of the crash victims.
The good news is, teamate Ron Bourgoin won the sprint! The best laid plans sometimes do work!
I did my traditional post-race ride to Nahant where I spent some time as a kid visiting a relative and back. I was super-psyched for the team and it felt really good to be back in competition, justifying the time and energy spent on training. The motivation is rekindled! Now, I just need to find time to train!