Sunday, March 26, 2006
Plainville Series - Race 3
No one will label Race # 3 of the Plainville Training Series a monument of New England bike racing but it still feels nice to win a race.
Like last week we were a small field of about 17 riders. great. Not as windy as last week but still a good breeze blowing in our faces coming down the start-finish stretch. March in Connecticut - cold and cloudy. The race started with Steve Rosko of NCC pulling the field around for 2 laps at a moderate "just warming up" pace. On lap 3 a CVC rider attacked and got a gap. Steve decided he was warmed up and moved over to let someone else pull. The line of riders snaked with him except for former pro Anna Milkowski. She held her line and just kept the original pace. I figured what the heck, accelerated, got her wheel and we were off for what would become a 45 minute break that would lap the field. On the next lap JD Biladeau of NCC came through Anna and I and latched onto the CVC rider. His pace was too hard for us so we just settled back into our rhythm. We had a good gap on the field by this point, helped out by the fact 3 of us had team mates back in the bunch. It took Anna and I another 6 or 7 laps to finally catch JD and CVC. Lap after lap went by. For a long while, probably a half hour, we never saw the field. We didn't seem to be gaining but we weren't getting caught either. At one point I looked at my watch and saw we were 40 minutes into the race - just over half way! I didn't share this info with my companions because I didn't want to discourage anybody. We still had a long way to go. We were out there so long with no sign of the field and we were not getting time gaps from anybody along the course. Finally we started to see the group in front of us as we rounded the last turn and they rounded the first. It still took several more laps to get them. Once we lapped the field I didn't want to leave it to a sprint so I attacked 3 more times in the closing laps to try and reestablish a break. No luck. On the last lap I found Tom Steven's wheel as he accelerated hard through the last corner. When he realized it was me and not Anna on his wheel he sat up. Oh crap! Now I'm second wheel, starting to slow up and it is too early to go into the wind. I hesitated for what seemed like forever. I thought I had blown it. I sensed the surge coming on my right and I opened up my sprint. I held off my break away companions to take the win!
Wade
Like last week we were a small field of about 17 riders. great. Not as windy as last week but still a good breeze blowing in our faces coming down the start-finish stretch. March in Connecticut - cold and cloudy. The race started with Steve Rosko of NCC pulling the field around for 2 laps at a moderate "just warming up" pace. On lap 3 a CVC rider attacked and got a gap. Steve decided he was warmed up and moved over to let someone else pull. The line of riders snaked with him except for former pro Anna Milkowski. She held her line and just kept the original pace. I figured what the heck, accelerated, got her wheel and we were off for what would become a 45 minute break that would lap the field. On the next lap JD Biladeau of NCC came through Anna and I and latched onto the CVC rider. His pace was too hard for us so we just settled back into our rhythm. We had a good gap on the field by this point, helped out by the fact 3 of us had team mates back in the bunch. It took Anna and I another 6 or 7 laps to finally catch JD and CVC. Lap after lap went by. For a long while, probably a half hour, we never saw the field. We didn't seem to be gaining but we weren't getting caught either. At one point I looked at my watch and saw we were 40 minutes into the race - just over half way! I didn't share this info with my companions because I didn't want to discourage anybody. We still had a long way to go. We were out there so long with no sign of the field and we were not getting time gaps from anybody along the course. Finally we started to see the group in front of us as we rounded the last turn and they rounded the first. It still took several more laps to get them. Once we lapped the field I didn't want to leave it to a sprint so I attacked 3 more times in the closing laps to try and reestablish a break. No luck. On the last lap I found Tom Steven's wheel as he accelerated hard through the last corner. When he realized it was me and not Anna on his wheel he sat up. Oh crap! Now I'm second wheel, starting to slow up and it is too early to go into the wind. I hesitated for what seemed like forever. I thought I had blown it. I sensed the surge coming on my right and I opened up my sprint. I held off my break away companions to take the win!
Wade
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