Fitchburg 2004
When I rode the Fitchburg stage race as a Cat. 4 two years ago, I finished 16th overall. This year riding with the Cat. 3's, I got 16th again.
It's frustrating, since I was hoping to break into the top ten. 16th in the 3's is in the GC money, which is some reward, but it was a drag -- symbolically, psychologically, whatever -- to miss the cut-off for USCF points by one spot and to end up 20 seconds out of the top-10.
Stage 1 Looking over the various category results , it's apparent the Cat. 3's are the most evenly-balanced group (time gaps are pretty small), which makes sense for a mid-level category (you have to do reasonably well to get there, and if you're successful there you move on). I felt tired Friday during an early morning cruise of the time trial course with Joaquin, but during the first half of the 7.8 mile race I felt pretty good. It goes up a couple modest "climbs" and false flats before descending a little going into the turn-around.
I took it hard in that direction knowing it was mostly descending going back. However, whatever fatigue I had caught up to me with a mini blow-up on the small rise after the turn - slowed a bit and had to really push to get to a place where the road started to tip down. Further down I had an incident where I had to get by a truck on the course, which might have cost a bit. I was happy I was still just under 18 minutes coming up to the final snaking climb up the race hotel driveway, but didn't have a lot of steam for that final push. 18:27 was good for 24th place -- 1:14 off of the lead -- though I feel I could shave 15-25 seconds off of that on a better day.
To show how packed in the results were, the guy in 14th place was just ten seconds faster, and I was only 9 seconds faster than the guy in 34th. The 1st and 2nd place riders put in some serious times but it was pretty small steps the rest of the way down the field. Zeb just didn't have a good day - on a normal day, he would beat me in a time trial but ended up 2:05 off the pace.
Stage 2 In a timed stage race like Fitchburg, my goal in the crit-like stages is to conserve time, energy and skin. My results will come from the TT's and longer climbs. At Fitchburg, if you finish all in a bunch, you all get the same time, so you don't slide down the GC except perhaps due to time bonuses given to the top 3. I know from experience that I'm not going to go far off the front in a Cat. 3 crit that has drawn many of the strongest riders in the northeast.
The Fitchburg Stage 2 "circuit race" is like a longish crit with one big, steep climb and a fast, straight gradual downhill on one side of the course. I don't spend any energy at the front, but try to be in the top 40 or so riders so I can see what's going on in case there is a split in the field. Other than that, it's a matter of finding a line through the various parts of the course you think will expose you to the least amount of trouble -- I like to take the outside of a crit course so I can pedal through corners and avoid box-in situations as much as possible -- and trying to settle in after the ballistic first few laps. Field was neutralized at one point when the juniors came around us.
When I raced in the 4's in '02 there was a huge pile-up in this race mid-way through that caused a big field split. This year after things sped up after the neutralization there was a smaller version, again behind me - Dan Byrne of Metro got caught in it, scraping his arm and busting a Zipp wheel. There was another incident a lap later involving "rubber side up" John Caruso of CRCA/Foundation, and then a tangle leading into the uphill sprint finish that splattered our Orange Jersey leader, who was unwisely mixed in with jostling sprinters. I had a panicky moment with my chain catching in my derailleur cage just before the hill, but managed to reach down and free it quick enough to push up the hill for a mid-pack finish. Time and skin intact - mission accomplished. Moved up 3 spots on GC to 21st thanks to good time trialists crashing, getting caught behind the pile or DNF'ing. Orange Jersey was awarded pack time since he crashed in the last kilometer.
Stage 3 The 70 mile Stage 3 road race was my longest of the year, since I flatted at about mile 54 of Bear Mountain. There's a fair amount of climbing on the roughly 11.5 mile circuit, which we did 6 times. Since the race finishes with a steep climb off the circuit to the top of Mt. Wachusett, it's a pretty good bet that most riders will sit in and wait for attrition and the final battle on the climb, with a handful of Jacky Durand-style hopefuls going off at some point. The pace during the first few laps was in fact kind of a joke except going up the climbs and along the upper section of the course to the sprint points line.
One thing I hadn't paid attention to during Stage 2 was a good battle shaping up between some of the Mass., upstate and PA teams for the sprint jersey. Essex County Velo and CCB of Mass. got well organized during the road race and fought out the sprints each lap, which boosted the pace quite a bit on the climbing part of the course. They ended the day tied for points. I was wary of a field split or big group going off the front in that area, especially with those teams jacking the pace through there, so wasn't willing to sit too far back. In retrospect, I may have worked too hard on the circuit climbs, when fading back through the field would have conserved the legs without giving anything up. On some laps, the legs felt pretty stuffed already.
There were two Jacky Duranders (one from Portland, ME, dunno the other one) off the front for the last half of the race, but we could see them some of the time and they were gobbled up on the last lap as the pace increased with each mile. As expected, a big chunk at least of the field was all together for the last climb up the circuit to the turn onto the summit road. I don't know if you would call it an attack, but the pace was hard going up the final feed zone climb, and then we really pushed it across the upper area. I was in the top 10 or 12 turning onto the summit road. Once it pitched up and got steep, I didn't have the legs to stay with the leaders. I was able to get into a decent rhythm, but some guys from behind were getting past me. At one point on the steeps, I tried to spin up and get to a group ahead of me, but the big blow-up threatened instantly and I had to ease off. Lost about 50 seconds there to the main leading group, with the winner riding away from them by 15-20 seconds. Battled back and forth with a heavy-breathing PA guy who beat me at Drumore, then he blew up and a CCB guy came up alongside. Had enough for a final spin to the line to beat him. Placed 20th, with a good enough time to move up 5 spots, to 16th. I think in May I would've killed that climb (that's my lowest RR finish of the year), but perhaps even a short stage race is different for the legs than a one day situation. It was interesting to note that Mark Alden of CRCA-Axis had a good result at Housatonic and a great TT in stage 1 (5th place) but DNF'd in this road race (though I don't know specifically what happened with him). Of local guys, Dave Taylor of Blue Ribbon was best, taking third in the road race. Together with a good TT, that moved him up to 4th on GC. Zeb was very solid and moved up to 42nd GC, after being 84th after Stage 1.
Stage 4 I approached the crit pretty much as described above for Stage 2. The field was about 50 less than in Stage 2 thanks to DNS'. It rained earlier, but the road dried out as we raced the first few laps. Ironically, my legs felt the best of the four days and I had no issues keeping the 27mph average pace. In a couple of stage races, I've moved up a few GC places in closing crits thanks to leading guys racing aggressively and crashing out. That was not to be in this race. The group was one of the better behaved and skilled on the bike that I've raced with. There were only a few minor mishaps and DNF's. Results don't indicate that anyone was pulled by the refs, though I noticed a few guys in the pack riding neutral bikes from the pit. Orange Jersey smartly stayed toward the back and finished safely, 2:05 ahead of me.
-- Jon
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