Mystic Velo Crit

The team decided to show up down at Ninigret for the Mystic Velo Crit. The plan was to do the 3's and 45's. Since Badass and myself don't qualify for the Metamucal Division, we decided to meet in Wickford and ride the 20 miles down for our warm up, then ride back after the race.

Riding down is nice as it is mostly downhill on Rt2. We arrived to the Team RV and the three amigos of MikeM, Darth Norton, and Dougie were warming up on the trainer. Jim "I survived Deathcamp 2010" had done the 4's and was resting up for the 45's.

Looking at the start list, I said we pretty much had to worry about Master Yoda. If something got away, he'd be in it. For a field sprint, SDC was there, but no other sprinters

I've been feeling like crap lately due to health issues (pinched nerve) and lack mileage. My last training race was a complete mess and i didn't know what to expect. The race didn't go ballistic immediately like the Wednesday night training race. I settled in and was monitoring the HR. It was around 150 and the legs felt okay. MikeM attacked and Norton countered. When Bigbossman got caught, I gave it a go. I wanted to see what i could do and how i recovered. My attack was lame. I had little acceleration to get that quick gap, but settled in nicely for a hard pace and we stayed away for a lap. This is what i wanted. I didn't go to the back or really feel out of it as the HR came back fast. I just need to work on the jump, then being able to hold a faster TT pace (this will come). My recovery was my weakness lately and i needed that back. To test the recovery, I went a lap later and then a third time.

I was satisfied with the results and felt I could be a factor for the team today versus my "hang by a thread" performance at Wayne Elliot.

The wind at Ninigret was a diagonal cross wind that was slow on the backside, so I sort of moved about to stay out of the wind as much as possible until I made a jump. There was a crash on turn four that took down Dougie. I went off course and put my foot down to be able to get a free lap since I had been gapped. I don't like sitting around and waiting, but all was okay as we got back in. Doug was wearing his body armor and said it literally saved his ass. His finger was bloody, but that was pretty much it. i think i'm gonna get some armor.

The plan was to have Badass mark Bill for his trademark attack. They started calling primes at about 12 to go. I told john to be ready cuz he's gonna go for one and keep going or counter the prime. On the third one, there was this strong kid from Team CF up the road. The body language said "I'm going". Badass was right there and sat on. They got there and had a good gap. Words were spoken as John didn't pull through. He isn't 100% and really couldn't do anything. Well, considering he had a team with TWO sprinters and two other domestiques. He played that card. The CF kid attacked and Bill sat on. The field was in hot pursuit. If Bill had tried to attack John, he may have hooked up with the CF kid. John had nothing (that will change soon). We reeled them in and a shortly later, the CF kid was in the fold.

GHCC and Svelte had a lot of guys up at the front with 5 to go. MikeM and I got up there to keep the pace high. Soon, they all dissappeared and it was just mike and i trading pulls. not going too hard, but keeping it such that no one would attack. it was a long way to go. at two to go, some GHCC guy gets between us. then doesn't pull through. i'm thinking "This clown doesn't know what we are doing". No way is mike leading him to the line. mike flicks the elbow. he doesn't pull through. i yell "pull through, then get off, your screwing things up". he pulls off and goes into the grass...

ya know, these cat 3 teams just don't have it together. when you have 5 guys or so, som many times they all are worried about themselves and have no plan.

Anyhow, our plan wasn't to start it so early cuz we didn't have enough bodies, but we kept it going. unfortunately, the CF kid attacks just before one to go and the train is derailed. mike and i go backwards. john is in trouble. Dougie gets swamped. Lord Vader kept his position though and jumped on it. Had we made it to the line, i was gonna increase the speed to get the boys around, but not today.

on the backside, i started to move up and the mushroom occured. it made it tough to squeeze by. Vader was right up there still when Jim Peters (NBX) when to the front and ripped it like i was gonna do. I thanked him for doing my job. At this point, my job was done and no sense in sprinting for scraps. Vader came off the corner and got some separation to bring home the WIN! It was a good day for the team as we attacked a lot, covered the big guns, and delivered a sprinter to the win. The only thing that we were unhappy about was not getting dougie in position to place as well.

After race and debrief, we retired to the RV. The others started getting ready to do the 45's and badass and i hopped on the bikes for the ride home. It is uphill and we had a headwind most of the way. We scared some women cyclists taking up the whole road even though we gave them plenty of room. My legs were tired at the end and we got in about 65 miles for the afternoon.

I was beat when I got home, so instead of moving the pile of mulch (that is for today) I did some lightning mcqueen puzzles on the deck with the varmint.

aloha...