Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic

Five NCVC Cat-4s drove up to Fitchburg Mass for the Longsjo Classic this past weekend. I had unabashedly high expectations for the race. In our funding proposal to the NCVC gods, I announced we would have a man on the podium in every stage, win the GC and have 3 riders in the top 10. Pretty ambitious, eh?

The crew going up was myself, Drew and Cam, not total suckers. So although those were pretty lofty goals, I thought we could deliver something pretty close. We did all right.

TT:
6.5 miles at 3% average grade. The 4s went of first. I got the best result of our group with a time of 19:14, placing me in 5th place on the day. Drew got 19:26, placing him 11th and narrowly avoided a falling tree as he came back down the course. Cam got 19:50, for 20th place. Pretty good start, we were excited.

RR:
45 miles around a 10 mile circuit with a 1.5 mile steep climb up Wachusett mountain. I got the best result here at 20th. I fucked up the finish though. I pretty much rode the perfect race until then, not taking any wind and staying at the front the whole race. I didn't contest any sprints or even push the pace on the climbs. I figured all that would do was shed people off the back who were of no consequence to the GC. Looked like everyone agreed. As we approached the turn up the final climb, I looked all around me and it was basically the top 10 GC. The climb was one big grind and I went as hard as I could, which apparently was not as fast as 19 others. Whatever. What can I do? Get stronger and lighter I guess. I lost about 37 seconds on the day and was now 45 seconds behind the race leader and slipped to 9th place. Drew got a flat 2 miles into the race and waited for 3 minutes for a replacement. He then spent the rest of the day tring to make the time cut. He did. He finished 100th over all. Cam got his massive frame up the hill in 30th place.

Circuit Race:
I talked with Matt Cuttler of Affinity cycles out of NYC before the race since he and I were sitting 8th and 9th about 15 seconds behind 7th place and suggested we attack on the last sprint lap, with 3 to go. As we got to the sprint lap, I attacked with 2 others who were vying for points an we got pretty large gap. Neither of them were in GC contention I guess and so didn't care so much about breaking away. I got as much as 15 seconds into the field but the long downhill section before the wall is so fast that one guy can't stay away from a charging peloton. I was caught halfway up the wall. On the last lap, I had recovered and was following the Enforcer through the pack as we approached the final climb up the wall. Another jerk stole Cameron's wheel and I was relegated to being in the middle of the pack as we made the last turn. I was feeling pretty good charging up the hill and was passing tons of people on my way to the line, but I started too far back and finished 31st, same time as the finisher. Cam got a well-deserved 7th place.

Crit:
We had a sick strategy for this race. Drew was so far back on GC that he didn't care so much about winning this race. I was going to attack on the last sprint lap and Drew was going to fall back, get dropped essentially, and we were to rejoin together and work together to help me stay away until the finish line. Unbelievably devious tactic if you want m opinion, but totally legit. Whatever. My front wheel was taken out when another rider and I broke away midway through the race and he swerved for no reason. I crashed again and could only crouch in the middle of the road and hope to not get plowed into by one of 120 riders. Once they went by, I grabbed my bike and ran through the crowd to the pit and got a replacement wheel. I spent the rest of the race adjusting the breaks and moving up the pack. I was a bit confused and thought there was another lap to go when in fact it was the last one. So when we made the final turn and people started sprinting, I thought we were just trying to shed the pack and not actually sprinting for the win. Lame on my part since I had great position for a top 5. Instead Cam charged his freight locomotive self up the road to a photo-finish 2nd place. I got pipped at the line by Cuttler and got 11th. Bastard.

Overall:
I maintained my 9th place. Came home with no upgrade points and Cameron now has 16 and finished 23rd over all. Final tally for the weekend was: 3 top 10 finishes for the stage race, one podium and one top 10 GC. I suppose that's OK. We had a pretty good time and enjoyed hanging out with the elite team. The town of Fitchburg is a dump though, ugh.