Though I’m currently on the road touring with the band, our schedule has been such that I’ve been able to get some racing in. Last weekend with a day off in Providence, RI, I drove out to my friend Wayne’s house in New Windsor, NY and on Sunday we hit up the third installment of the Bethel Spring Series (Tour de Kirche) in Bethel, CT. I did the Cat 4 race in the morning and jumped into the 3/4 race in the afternoon.
The course isn’t anything special save for the serious power climb up to the line each lap. I liked this immediately. The Cat 4 field was lazy from the start. I was first around the first corner and flabbergasted (yes, I said flabbergasted) that as I coasted down the down the downhill that nobody came around me. I wasn’t even pedaling! Anyhow, the general malaise in the field continued for the next 3 laps and I was getting pretty bored so I attacked up the hill on lap 4. First lap off the front: 5 seconds. Second lap: 10 seconds. Third lap: 10 seconds. Fourth lap: 15 seconds. Then some dude bridged up to me but ended up carrying the field with him. Oh well. It was a fun move. I just wanted to try and shake things up.
The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. My legs were feeling really good (even after coming off of a rest week). With about 4 to go, some guy attacked and dangled off the front until the bell lap when the field really wound it up. I had good position so I was just waiting to pick the spot where I’d jump. I decided that going right at the bottom of the climb would be a bad idea; didn’t want to lose any steam at the end of the sprint. I probably should have though because I uncorked the sprint about halfway up and had much more in the tank when I crossed the line in 5th place.
There was a bit of a long layover between races—like 4 hours. Since I wouldn’t be as fresh for the 3/4 race I decided I’d conserve for the first 20 laps (the race was 30 laps) and then try to get into a good move later in the race since I didn’t think I’d be able to contest the sprint after a long day. With 8 to go and a break of 2 up the road the guy who got 2nd in the Masters race just before went all out on the climb. I got on his wheel and we bridged to the pair up the road. The field shut us down with expediency a lap later. So I picked my move and it didn’t work. Ended up like 20th in the sprint or something like that. Good day of racing though and a nice result in the Cat 4s.
