Photos (top): Men's 4/5 start, in the pouring rain! (bottom) Jeff Scala leading
That's what most racers (apparently) thought last weekend at the Nutmeg Classic Crit.
Recap: Congrats to Christine Poulin who won the CT silver medal - way to go!
Jeff Scala wrote up the following detailed report. Don't be surprised to feel your heart rate increasing as you read on. Good solid effort Jeff - thanks for sharing your insights to make us all more patient racers.
By Jeff Scala:
I did the Nutmeg Classic Criterion last weekend. After some self reflection, I extend my apologies to Karen for being so grumpy after my race. I was full of lactic acid and adrenaline and felt I should / could have done better. Sorry… thanks for your kind words and support.
The weather was terrible. During my warm up I could not decide what I was going to wear during the race. Decided on a long sleeve synthetic shirt with my cycling concepts jersey and shorts. Not sure that was the way to go as we stood around at the starting line longer than planned and cooled off a bit. I race my best when I’m warm, but I never got to the point of being warm that day.
It rained hard on and off for the entire race making seeing difficult. So much water was flying around that my contacts were floating all around. (For those who wear contact you know the feeling.) At one point, I thought I lost them and was riding with one eye closed. Not good for depth perception or peripheral vision.
The group of riders consisted of both cat 5 and 4 so the group was pretty big. The course is pretty fast with mostly fast corners with one moderately tight and one pretty sharp corner. One small short hill. You really had to fight for position and fight to stay in position as the action was very dynamic and it seemed that I always got stuck on the wrong wheel.
The inside line on a few of the corners were very dangerous as there was a few times that I got pinch off by riders not holding their line and apexing the corner. I got pinched three times by the same rider! I yelled at him the 2nd time. Yelled again the 3rd time. He blamed me because I was “making a move in a bad spot”! Go figure… He actually caused a three rider crash which I narrowly missed by inches. He squeezed someone else off, like he did to me. Fortunately no one was hurt. Lesson of the day… be aware of erratic riders at all times!
First prime (lap 5) I moved to the front 5 but did not go for it as I was concerned about a break attempt after the prime. A two rider attach on lap 7. They got a quick 50 yards on the field and were pulling away. One of the riders was from Bethel. Three Bethel riders were now on the front of the peloton. Too obvious as they tried to control the pace. I surged ahead with two other riders to chase them down. When we made our move to cover the attack the rest of the peloton followed along and helped us out. Attack was caught quickly. We are now once again one big happy family.
Second prime on lap 9, Expo Wheelmen and another team surge to the lead the peloton. The pace must have jumped at least 7 mph! The peloton got stretched out. I kept my eye (one eye as the other was closed) on the leaders but sat in trying to conserve my matches and fix my vision... But looking for another attack.
Bell rings again on lap 10… back to back primes. Now we are having fun! I expected someone or team to surge forward. Nothing. The peloton compresses to the full width of the road minimizing maneuvering room. I’m stuck in the middle of the pack. The hill frees up some room and I move forward. I have no intention of contesting the prime just want to be in position to cover any attach following the prime. A couple of riders shoot off the front to easily take the prime. Pace is very fast but nothing crazy. Must be too many miles to go as no attacks following the prime.
Everyone regroups and a few laps go by with some minor surges in speed. Not sure if they were caused by weak attack or just someone pulling harder on the front. Nothing happening. Just missed being caught up in the crash. It was like watching in slow motion as it unfolded in front of me. Someone / team attacks on the crash (not cool but good strategy as there is a lot of confusion following a crash.) The race gets strung out but comes back together within a lap or so.
Four laps to go! Four miles of rain soaked fun. There is a lot of action and movement in the peloton. Once again I find myself behind the wrong wheel and end up in the back of the pack, so I make a strong move to move up to near the front. As I reach the front a few riders attach. I make a split second decision and I go with them. I’m in third position. Lead guy takes a good pull and pulls off front. Second place guy seems reluctant to take his turn on front, but takes a short pull but pace drops a little. My turn on the front. We have about 30 yards on the field which is not much. I take a good hard pull and signal to move off front. Second place guy just sits on my wheel. Signal again and pull to the left, he still sits on my wheel. Signal a third time and waive him around, still sits on my wheel. I decide to sit up and make them work or we drop back to the field. Nothing! I’m pissed for wasting energy so near the end of the race. The peloton comes racing by.
I jump into the pack about mid pack. We hit the bell lap all bunched up. It seems the teams are looking for a bunch sprint. We hit the hill still bunched up at very fast pace. I’m still stuck near the back which is not good at all. The hill frees up some space but the front of the peloton has surged and I’m losing ground. I power up the hill gaining a lot of positions but my race to a top ten finish is over!
I lost my chance at a top ten with 3 laps to go when I went with the attack. Maybe I should have attacked the attack since they didn’t want to work… maybe I should of just put my head down and kept going and let them sit on my wheel… maybe I should have been more patient with three miles to go…. Maybe … maybe… next time.
What I do know is … I made a mistake, but if you don’t try you will never succeed.
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