Race: Flushing, Queens Criterium
Date: Sunday, June 14, 2004
Category: I-II
Distance: 27 Miles
Racer: J.P. Partland
I wanted to do this race Sunday, figuring the racing would be faster and punchier than doing another Prospect. Short course, a fair amount of turning, short distance (27 miles in 30 laps); I wanted a race where there was alot of attacking so I could work on intensity. Prospect is more of a cruise and it's easy to sit in. I also wanted some endurance and hills, so I did 81 hilly miles on Saturday.
The course was shorter and tighter than I remembered. The promoter said it was .9 mile, but it felt shorter. I'd say a third was done on a section which was about a car lane wide and had a serious chicane in it. Start on a two lane road, curve left over some bricks and onto a path. Go around a large circle, back onto the path than a tight left, hard to take it two abreast at speed, followed by a right. Back onto a road, around a larger circle, then another left around a traffic island, and then back to the finishing road. And there was a pretty significant crosswind coming off the lake.
At the gun, two Sakonnet riders attacked. I followed with a Pig Iron rider. After a lap, we had five seconds and I found out that the course was well suited for breakaways. With me in the break was John Loehner and Kevin Molloy (Sakonnet) and Mike McGinley (Pig Iron). Sakonnet had three riders in the field and Pig Iron one. If we blitzed the opening laps and the teammates behind could just slightly slow the field through the narrow section, we'd have a good chance of staying away.
We held the gap for the first few laps and could see we were slowly increasing our lead. Loehner was being a cheerleader every time he looked back. "Come on, a little more and we'll demoralize the field."
We pulled out 15-20 seconds after 9 laps or so. I was feeling at my limit, so I started skipping pulls. I told the guys I'd sit on for a few laps, but I wasn't going to attack and I would come back in when I felt strong enough. Two laps out of the rotation and I tried again for a few laps. Then I sat out another few laps. Loehner wanted me to ride, so he started saying, "ride or you get fourth." I would be happy with fourth, but I got back into the rotation with 12 to go.
The field was demoralized, but we were still riding very hard. I still felt like I was at my limit. I was following McGinley in the rotation and Loehner was telling me to sit on him more, make him work harder. The thing was McGinley was pulling off pretty quickly. I was having a hard time making him work without coasting.
With five to go, a group was in sight. We could lap at least a portion of the field. We kept on pressing. Two to go and they were 10 seconds ahead of us. Just before the last turn, Molloy attacked. McGinley countered, Loehner followed. I had nothing. I tried chasing, as I could see they were starting to play games--and looking back for me. But I couldn't go any faster. I looked back and no one was behind.
Up front, McGinley followed the Sakonnet attacks and outsprinted them at the line. Loehner's read of McGinley was right. I guess I didn't see it because I was closer to my limit--my guess was Kevin was the rider to watch (kev recently took 3rd in the cat II somerville). Loehner also gets the tough guy award. He's a medical resident and he came straight from his shift to the race.
I cruised for a comfortable fourth. We completed the race in 59 minutes.
JP |
