Norwell Circuit Race - Pro-3 Race Report

I signed up for the Norwell Circuit race because my fitness is at a good point, and I have been fortunate to podium there in the past – even though the course isn’t flat, and it has an uphill finish.

I decided that I would race both the master’s race and the Pro-3 race.  The goal for the master’s race was to win, and the goal for the Pro-3 race was to be an active participant and finish within the top 20.  I only did the SMR portion of the group ride on Saturday, but I felt really good and won the final sprint at the Cookie Jar – staying ahead of the crash near the finish in the process.  This, on top of how I felt at Yarmouth the week before, was a good confidence builder.  

My start time for the master’s race was 10:00 a.m. and the start time of the Pro-3 race was 3:00 p.m. – planning an hour to get my number, warm-up, and partake in my typical pre-race routine, adding 30 minutes for any traffic delays, and then adding it the drive time of 2.5 hours meant a Falmouth departure time of 6:00 a.m.  This didn’t seem too bad the night before, especially since I had left at 4:30 a.m. to head out for a race with Jon a few weeks earlier.  It didn’t seem too bad until my alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning, when I decided that I would rather sleep in and head out at 11:00 a.m. and only take on the Pro-3 race…

I left on time and started getting excited, but a bit nervous about the race.  I hadn’t gone far when I was reminded about Sunday traffic leaving Maine – crap, I hope I allowed enough time!  Stress began to build, as I hit two places on the turnpike where accidents slowed traffic to a crawl.  I watched the predicted arrival time creep to 2:15 – barely enough time, but still doable.  From NH through Boston, the traffic was heavy, but still moving at a good pace, then as soon as I hit the south side of Boston, traffic came to stand-still again!  Time was ticking away, and I was sure I would miss my start.  I ended up rolling into the parking lot 20 minutes before my start time, ran in to registration, pinned on my number, downed a Red Bull, and hopped on my bike for a lengthy 8 minute and 37 second warm-up!  Oh well, at least the stress had gotten my heart rate up.

I lined up at the start, and saw several familiar racers:  Jurgen and about 7 of his team-mates from Embrocation, Jeff Yingling from OA, Mark McCormack, Frank McCormack, and John Grenier from Clif, and Skip Foley the beast.  Met Life, Zip Car, Hot Tubes, Apex, and several other teams were well represented, so I figured the race would be won in a break, and I quickly changed my plan to be present in that break if at all possible.  That is, if I had the motor.

The race started neutral from the school where we staged until we were on the course.  The official told us the point where the race would start, but I wasn’t paying attention.  The official also told us that we would have the whole road – nice!  We rolled out, and although it was neutral, I decided that I should move to the front, so I kept advancing positions through the middle of the field as spaces would open.  After a couple of turns, we took a left, and the group was immediately single-file – I guess the neutral portion was over!  Met Life was putting the squeeze on the field, probably trying to cause pain and shake some riders who weren’t warmed up by putting them in pain and letting the start/finish hill complete the job.  Surprisingly, I felt good and popped up the hill with ease.  Only 13 more times to go!!

The next 3-4 laps were fast.  A break would form every time we went up the hill, and the field would chase it down, typically catching it just before we hit the hill again.  I was feeling pretty good, and I noticed many riders climbing beside me were breathing much harder than me, so that was a good sign.  I would spend most of each lap making sure I was in the top 10-15 when we hit the climb; that way I could watch the breaks to see what teams were represented.  Most only had one or two teams and none had Mark or Skip, so I waited…

On about lap 6, I saw Mark moving toward the front, so I made sure I was ready.  Jeff Yingling was also up there, so I hopped on his wheel as we were going up the climb.  The leading 8 riders put in a surge and a gap started to open quickly.  The group included 2 Met Life racers, 2 Embrocation racers, Mark McCormack, Skip Foley, 1 Zip car racer, and another guy.  As I saw it go, I knew this looked promising.  The gap was opening quickly, so I jumped across.  I spent about ½ lap recovering and joined in on the pace-making.  My second pull unfortunately took us to the base of the hill – meaning that I would hit the climb at a very high heart rate.  It worked out alright, and I was able to keep pace up the hill.  Lesson learned – do not pull immediately before the hill!  The break continued to gain ground, and we reached a point where we couldn’t see the field – the uphills hurt, and the downhills were so fast that I was concerned about my tires holding in the turns.  After about 3 laps, we could see the field closing in – for some reason Embrocation was leading the charge, even though their team-mates were in the break.  About ½ lap later we were caught, and I was gassed.  Time to hide and recover.

The remaining laps were fast, but no substantial breaks formed.  People looked tired, and even though I have spent a bit of energy in the break, I still felt alright.  We passed the start/finish with 1 lap to go, and I immediately started to move up whenever the group slowed.  I was planning for the finish; I knew the outside line would be the fastest (there was a 90 degree turn just before the climb), but it would also be the riskiest in the event of a crash.  I decided to take the risk, so I shifted left in preparation and continued to position throughout the lap.  In the final mile, Met Life was driving the pace super-hard, and my legs were feeling it, but I was maintaining position in the top 20.  About 100 meters before the turn, one of the Met Life lead out guys pulled the chute and swung left because his job was done.  Unfortunately, I had to pause and re-accelerate when going around him.  Then we hit the turn – crash!  Three riders collided and crashed in front of me, but they slid left and didn’t slow me down.  I started charging up the hill as hard as possible, passing riders as I was trying not to crack.  I crossed the line in 16^th place – solid finish, goal met, and best of all no crashes and a solid performance throughout the race.

Thanks for reading...

Jeff