2010 Blue Hills Classic – Cat 4

A quick summary and report from Blue Hills Classic – Cat 4 Race:

I set a new land speed record getting to the race. I was a little low on groceries so I made a sweet hand-crafted breakfast at the ungodly hour of 6AM on Sunday. This put me a little behind schedule and I made up the time on the road.

i wanna go fast

Time from my place in the South End to Blue Hills: 17 minutes. I got in a little baby warm-up of about 10 minutes after getting geared up. Not really sufficient to do any type of early attacking.

Once we rolled out it was clear that Vic and Miller were intent on stirring the pot.

Miller initiated a break with Cambridge and a few other teams sent along some guys. The guys from Back Bay always ride with high Jens Factor so they weren’t about to miss an opportunity to attack, lead, or be in the break. It ended up being about 10 guys with about a 10s gap. It was clear that the teams with fewer numbers weren’t content to let a sizable (and strong) group go. One by one, guys were bridging up and eventually the gap was closed by the hill on the first lap.

The first time up the hill there was a little separation in the pack but as always seems to be the case with this race, there’s enough of a decline that people get easily reattached (ehhh hmmm… hello mirror, that was you last year)

The 2nd lap was pretty chill. We were well represented at the front the whole time. If it wasn’t nick or vick it was miller or frank. Bbox did a nice long pull at the front early on. Travis displayed more of his ‘slaying it for the team’ mentality. BRC’s Jullian put in a little dig at the front to get some sponsor time on camera. It kept the pace high and strung things out for a bit.

At the end of the 2nd lap frank ‘flax is fuel‘ diaz (real flax here) made a nice surprise move after cresting the hill. he stayed road for about 5 min. Only a few guys were making an effort to close it down. Cambridge was happy to let him burn his excess flax. I think it helped soften up the non-Cambridge riders. He was reeled in right at the turn onto rt138 .

Then Gert put in a counter attack on the descent and stayed away until the right hand turn at the gas station. At that point, he and Nick decided to get closer. Euro close. They touched and Nick displayed some Belgian bike handling. Those Kermesses helped, eh? No damage done.

Mike and Greg from Back Bay put the hammer down and closed he gap to gert and kept pushing. I had lost some positions at the turn so I wasn’t too optimistic. I also couldn’t see what was going on at the front.

I was too far back to see Mike lead out Greg from WAY out. By the time I got near the front he was really far up the road. I was holding position around 20th wheel with Drew, Brad and Travis right around me. Ken was right behind us. I got boxed in behind a couple of slower guys but moving around people on the hills wasn’t too difficult. After the first step incline I took an inside line and was about 8th. Miller was just behind me as Rolling DS. He told me to go but I waited a bit. Then he told me to go again and my Gu-soaked brain agreed. I hit the gas and went to the left side, passing 4-5 guys pretty quickly and shifted to a higher gear and drove to the finish for 2nd. Greg was too far up the road at that point and finished about 8s up on me. He did dry heave for 5 min after the race so maybe there’s some consolation that I didn’t vomit to get on the podium (keeping my 7 year non-vomit streak alive). Jens Factor for Greg = high. Jens Factor for me = nada.

Thanks to great teamwork, I was able to sit in and hide until the end. Awesome day to be out there. I’ll put my winnings towards food and beer at the next Threshold gathering at my place.

P.s. Props to Shane for 8th place, brad @ 16th and frank ‘flaxy’ Diaz for 18th.

P.p.s props to miller for good DS direction and facial sacrifice. see below.

One Response to “2010 Blue Hills Classic – Cat 4”

James says:

May 4, 2010 at 3:04 pm

Nice racing with you guys this weekend. With such a big team, we were definitely watching you, along with CB. Gert was definitely racing aggressively on the last lap. The counterattack going around the corner was a nice touch (despite brushing Nick) – chapeau.

See you at the races, James (BHCC)