11th Annual Chris Hinds FUJI "Sunshine" Criterium CAT 3/4 Race report

11th Annual Chris Hinds FUJI "Sunshine" Criterium 
CAT 3/4 Race
Charlestown, RI Ninigret State Park

The temperature was a little on the chilly side and as you can see from the photo above, there is very little shelter from the wind.  Ninigret is basically a converted aircraft runway, transformed into a criterium course.  The good thing is that there is plenty of runoff if you decide that you need more room, the bad part is that its 100% flat and some of the corners can turn into pedal scrapping affairs (ask Duane).

I always avoided racing here back in the day but ironically its the second time I raced here in less than 12 months.  Last fall I raced the New England Masters criterium championships here and ended in second after leaving the field in a three man break.  Today was colder but the prospect for doing well was there.

The race started off reasonably controlled considering it was quite a large field and I quickly noted that I was one of the oldest in the pack if not THE oldest rider.    I had warmed up for around 20 minutes, but felt like I needed a heck of a lot more warming up to do.  One think I note when I train is that most cyclists over dress.  Unless the temperature is below 30 (which means you should probably stay indoors) A set of leg warmers under the shorts, a long sleeve compression, arm warmers a jersey and vest is max for me.  Because the temperature at the race was hovering around 41 I opted for knee warmers (right choice) but I also included the vest (overkill).  Toward the later stage of the race I was getting a little too hot. (see photo)

The idea with a criterium like this (where you can see practically the entire course no matter where you are) is to stay toward the front but make sure you spin the right gear in the early stages of the race to get properly warmed up when the speed ramps up.

There was a 2/3 man break after around 5/6 laps and it was obvious they were going nowhere.  Right after we caught them there was what you never want to see.  A crash with 3 riders right at the front directly in front of me.  I locked up the rear wheel (hoping that no one would ram me from behind) but managed to squeeze between two of the fallen over the grass.  Its so important to stay alert at all times during the race.  Its easy to sometimes start talking to a rider next to you, but thats when stuff happens.

Thanks to the crash I now found myself having to bridge back up to the field who had all squezzed through the left sided of the course.  Once I was back up to the field I noted that 6 riders had already put a gap on the field.  its easy to say, how dare they attack during an accident, but lets face it, in a course like this its the best time to attack!  During the following bunch of laps the average was close to 28mph so the break was working very well together.

I stayed toward the front of the pack the entire time, I felt strong, but honestly not strong enough yet to have bridged the gap.  Maybe with the help of a few more riders it might have worked, but the reality was there were 2 or 3 teams there who should have done the work and would have just jumped on for the ride.  

I actually felt best toward the end of the race and with 3 laps to go the pace was ramping up again and my legs felt great.  The last lap was a free for all, forcing me to cut corners over the grass on at least two occasions.  It was either that or go down!  That's great, but it also stinks because it gives riders who have limited pack moving skills the bravado to stick their wheels where they don't belong.

I finished toward the front of the pack somewhere (ill let you know when the results are published) and felt great about my performance in the race.

Kudos to Duane in the Cat 4 race who did a great job controlling the race.  Easy win in the prime and would have probably won the race for second if he were pedaling a slightly different gear!  Also Chris in the Cat 5 race.  Great position throughout the race.  Great effort in staying toward the front.

Thanks to Ethan Young-Kershaw for the photos!  Its not often I find myself on the other side of the camera.

Bethel Spring Series Cat 4 3/24/2013

Race: Bethel Spring Series: http://bethelspringseries.com/ 

Weather:

Seeing a pattern here with the weather!






Course: S .8 mile circuit with gently turns that ends each lap with a 8% short climb.  Cat 4 Race 22 laps.
Spark Players: Duane A Young-Kershaw (Cat 4 & Cat3/4), Chris Lake Cat 5

Being that Chris and I we doing the epic weekend away racing (how often do married guys get to do that) I decided I needed a little pick me up! The product is still pending USADA approval!


Rock Hard Weekend is NOT an official Sponsor of Team Spark Road

The Race: Chris and I arrived early so he could get set up for the "Cat 5" clinic, in my opinion a waste of time for some who are getting their "required races" in until upgrade.  It was once again COLD so I watch Chris suffer thorugh his "Clinic"standing around listening to some other riders life story on the bike.  I'll leave it to Chris to add his report.

My Race:
Cat 4: We lined up at the start line and received the usual pre race instructions while freezing our butts off.  We starteed the usual first lap at a leisurely pace, which enabled me to talk to a few guys I hadn't seen since last season.  The first time that hill was OK, I was suprised at that as I felt the legs would be a little spent from the day before.  The race continued on with some attacks here and there but quite frankly with the wind that was whipping up in the back it was impossible to make an attack stick.  This make me happy as my forte is typically sprinting (usually not up an 8% grade).  The race droned on with some restructuring in the pack.  This occurred as you were going up the hill you caould use both sides of the road as opposed to the rest of the course where "the yellow line rule" was in effect. This means you ride on the right side of the yellow line but with no official following there are time when you do sway over.  No matter where you were it was bunching up at the top of the hill so keeping position was key.  I managed to place myself in the top 10 with 3 laps to go with the intent of maintaining that postion to set up well for the sprint......got that bunch up effect goin gon again on the last lap and felt I was poorly positioned for the sprint.  I decided to give it a go any way as I felt I could gain some places on th efinal climb.  I did OK as I started about mid field back but had chosen the wrong gear going up the climb.  Cranking at 75RPM at the end of the race is not fun, I did manage to go from 20th back to finishing 9th, not bad.  I feel my sprint is on and coming into form, ready for this weekend where at the Chris Hinds Crit where I will be tackling back to back the 4's and the 3/4's. 
http://bethelspringseries.com/results/2013-bethel-cdr-gold-race-results

Trooper Brinkhoff Road Race Cat 3/4

Race: Trooper Brinkhoff Road Race is situated in Coxsackie NY, with rolling hills 12 mile circuit
Team Spark: Duane Young-Kershaw, (Cat 3/4) Chris Lake (Cat 4/5)

Weather: COLD!

Course: The course is a 12 mile circuit with rolling hills that are about 4% with some kickers going up to 6%.  The wind seemed to be all over the course with little room to hide.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1806586


The Race: Chris an I arrived at about 0940 for an 1100 start so plenty of time to get our number and get ready.  I didn't anticipate needing a warm up as my race was 48 miles and it being biterly cold I was really not that intent on being outside too long before the race.  I did get on the bike to ensure that it was mechanically sound as I had just pur the whole bike together after my 2nd frame paint job this year.  The bike was working great with no apparent issues.  We started the race on time with a field of over 100 racers in the Cat 3/4 field.  I typically line up near the front because I feel that it is always the safest place.  the start was neutral fro about a mile so this really makes for an easy transition into riding in the cold.  We traveled down onto the course and ramped it up a little but nothing really happent until we took a right hand turn on a little rolling road, you gotta love when college kids come out and race, kicking it up to 30mpg from the get go, however youthful I feel in my spandex (feel not look), I still just sit back and watch the explosion as they blow up.  We then hit the first small climb, about 3/4 of a mile which we averaged probably about 22mph up this incline, I've done lots of bas miles this year but little intensity, I managed this without difficulty.  We then headed into a long downhill with speeds reaching the low 40's.  After the down hill there is a sharp right turn and another rolling road that begins with a short steep 5% hill which again I managed without difficulty.  This leads to the backstretch of rolling hills but lots of wind, the race from then on in was uneventful with some minor attackes that were quickly caught mostly because of the wind.  This was looking up for me as I am typically a sprinter and can manage myself pretty good in large fields. We continued on for another lap without event, I was feeling good until............lap 3 just nothing to say I just popped on the 3/4 3% climb, I was pissed!!! To be  honest I hadn't ridden on 4 days and hardly slept with my sons emergent surgery (thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it). I attempted to catch back on during the downhill working witha another guy but only got close at the base of the other hill. This was clearly not going to be my DAY! I rode the rest of the way in and decided to pack it in and focus towards the next day's two races I was registered for. 

Lessons: Don't get dropped on hills! Easier said than done!

Charge Pond Week 1 03/16/2013

The Charge Pond Training Series is typically the begining of the season, a time to get the cobwebs out of the legs.  Being the first showing under the new "Spark"colors we wanted to have a lot of guys there to kick off the season.   

Team Spark Roster: (great showing)
Duane A Young-Kershaw
Peter Pereira
Chris Lake
Kevin Sullivan
Dave Beauchesne
Doug Veilleux
Frank Petrulli

Weather: Brrrrrr, more like cross weather: Sunny with 8-10mph winds (usually not a factor as charge is in Myles Satadish and surrounded by trees) 34 degrees. 

The Course:
1.3 Mile circuit,  The course runs counter clockwise with the start/finish at the top of a 250m 2% hill.  There are some rolling hills (nothing major in the back). 

Charge Pond Course
 

 

The Race: (From my perspective)
Kevin, Chris, and I arrived around 0900 for a 1000 start, we we're all pre reg'd so we got our numbers and pinned them on, staying in the car as it was a bit nippy out. We finally ventured out to warm up on the course (Chris and I have done this race before). There was a little wind on the backside of the course but not too bad as the trees blocked most of it. After a few laps we went back to the car and met up with Pete, Dave, Doug and Frank, took Bio break then headed to e start line. The race started on time with about 45 riders lining up, I noticed more than a few guys that I had raced and ridden with in the past, two of which are super strong cat 3's ( this is a B race typically with 3's, 4's, & 5's.), but with the need for miles at a premium some guys choose to do both races. The race started on time and was to be an hr long, the first lap as usual is typically a "get comfortable" lap with things heating up after that. My objective in a training race is to work my ass off and get some fast intensity in, my other objective in the race is to stay in the top 10 ALL THE TIME! This allows you to see whats going on and typically stay out of trouble as crashes tend to happen from the middle to back. At about the 4th or 5th lap things heated up with Dave Warner from Green Line Velo attacked, while it was early in the race I knew Dave could get and stay away. I was near the front so when another guy from Bolocco jumped to chase I went with him, with both of us working we caught Dave in about a half lap, I was smoked! This early in the season the training lacks intensity and I felt it. Our little foray didn't las long as the pack caught us, no doubt by the work of Bart Lipinski, a monster from Blue Hills, he's strong and does more than his share of work.
Being caught I went back to Pete and Chris to recover, I was surprised to see that the field was cut in more than half by the attacks and chasing. I'm sure the other guys from the team we're disappointed to find themselves there but with it being a 3,4,5, field this is not unusual. The thing to remember is that this race is not typical of cat 5 races during the season. The race continued for the next few laps with some minor attacks that were not successful........until.......Warner attacked again with about 10 laps to go. I was a little far back to respond to the chase again by the Bollocco guy.....opportunity missed. The break was about 10-15 sec off the front with little happening to chase. Bart Lipinski and I made several attempts to organize a chase but there are guys who show up to race and those who show up to suck wheel.....seems there were many of those. Pete, Chris, and I took our turns in an attempt to catch the break but it wasn't happening. With two laps to go the pack knew we we're racing for 3rd so things settled down. Of course this is when all the guys who sat on their asses like to come up so holding position is key. I went from 3rd position to about 8th then to 10th. (need to work on holding position). Coming down the hill into the turn I was on the inside, not ideal as there is a good spot of sand on the corner. Well......murphy's law prevailed and I hit the sand spot and fishtailed, I managed to stay up and start the uphill spring about 10th back in the field. The sprint went well i managed to pass about 6 guys and finish about 4th in the sprint so 5th or 6th overall (results pending).

Lessons:
Position Position Position! We should have worked together earlier (as a team) to chase the break.
Overall a great morning on the bike, good to get back in the groove so early in the season.

Coming up: Trooper Brinkhoff Mem road race (Coxsackie NY) Sat & Bethel crit on Sunday

Feel free to add individual race reports or comments.

Duane