Myles Standish Report:

While most of the team was suffering away on the dirt roads and epic climbs of Battenkill yesterday, Frank and I decided to get it together for the Myles Standish circuit race today. I’m not sure if it was the same course as previous years but it was 16 laps for a total of ~20 miles. The course was never really flat and never really straight. This made it pretty interesting and full of potential. Rolling and curvy, the final section to the finish was a decently steep downhill into a ~90 degree left hand turn and then up a lengthy but not terribly steep hill to the finish.

The short:

Frank decided to be pretty visible today, jumping off the front for alap and confidently finishing with the front bunch at 12th of 50. His family was there cheering him on!. I had some fresh legs today and loved the finish setup which led to a solid win!

Super long winded story:

Saturday night I meticulously prepared for the morning; set the alarm and got my stuff all packed for a 6:30am leave. When getting the bike squared away, I accidentally ripped the computer off my handlebars. After .5 hours of trying to ghetto rig it back on, I decided I would be ‘riding blind’ the next day. Bummer.

Sunday morning, the alam fails to go off, but I saved by the alarm on my cell. Leave the house 15 minutes later than I should have. Stopped to poop at Dunkin Ds and lost another 10 minutes. Arrive at the race with only a half hour for reg, getting dressed, and warming up. Brutal. Get set, ‘warm up’ and have to sprint to get to the
start…end up lining up in the back.

Having no preride on the course, I took the first 2 laps to hang out and check things out. As expected, tons of braking, a reasonably slow pace, and a group where no one wanted to work. Three laps in I test the field on the hill leading to the finish. Take off up the hill expecting to be chased. No one chases. Meh, I’ll ride till I get
caught. Eventually a guy from Mystic Cycles jumps the gap and we pull off of each other. It was a solid gap but we were fading fast and after 3 or 4 laps of being away we sat up and let the group catch back up. (Probably dumb to get away like the so early, but had to try. It did however give me a great idea of the kind of speed that the final turn could be had at.)

The remainder of the race consisted of false breaks and a reasonably slow pace. The Mystic Cycles guy was trying hard to organize a larger attack. With 4 or 5 guys I think we could have gotten away and stayed away. But everyone was lazy. Enter Turbo Frank.

Somewhere in the middle of the race Frank decided to shoot off the front for an attack, I jumped on his wheel and the two of us got away for the better part of a lap. We got caught on the hill, but it was a great show of Threshold force. No other team showed anything similar. Three laps to go, some guy’s drivetrain literally exploded next to me. I swear I rolled over a bit of rear d on the ground. Very confidence
inspiring…

Bell rings for the last lap. The Mystic Cycles guy attacks and I follow. The group is too alert at this point so we sit up and work on getting solid positions. I didn’t see him again for the rest of the race. Back stretch I’m sitting second behind a Bike Barn guy who appears to be fading. Another bike barn guy flies up the outside to help his teammate. He goes too fast and I take the opportunity to jump onto his wheel. He pulls me till the down hill before the 90 degree turn where, when everyone else brakes, I hit the gas. I hit the turn hard. I’ve never been so close to parallel to the ground. Thanks to Matt and Mover for recommending the GP4000s. They started to slide, but held in the end. The aggressive turn worked and I started the climb with momentum that the others did not. This forced the Bike Barn guy to sprint early to give chase. He was strong and held on hard but I got him by what seemed to be a few inches at the line.

I got a sweet trophy.

Devo.