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What Mike N. saw:
Category: 5
Result: Mid-pack
Had to wake up extra early for this one. Got a warmup on the course
and realized that the course is very short. As a reference the Cat 3s
were consistenly pulling off 1:35 laps.
The field was probably a full field. That, only two corners, and no
primes meant that it would be an easy day to just hang in with the pack.
Early in the race I noticed a large accordian effect out of the
corners, so I moved my way up front. After the pace settled down a
bit, I settled out in the back.
So there was a crash that took down quite a few riders. I am usually
on the outside so I went by with not much fuss.
At 4 laps to go I am in the back and start to move my way up front.
The plan was that by 1 lap to go Tim would be in about 4th position
and I'd make an attack, causing the first three riders to effectively
tow Tim to the finish line. But with 3 laps to go there was a surge
and I was locked near the back.
At 2 laps to go the pace slowed a bit
and I managed to get up to mid-pack. I could see Tim not too far up
ahead. 1 lap to go there is another surge and it seemed as if I was
locked in for a mid-pack finish. I move to the inside to try and take
the smaller circumference on the curving front stretch. Then there was
a crash, quite horrific, and I edged my way through without losing
much momentum. From there I saw that I was up close to the front so I
gave it 95% to save some for the sprint. I came through the last
corner on the inside at an awkward angle so I lost a bit of momentum,
but I was able to pass one rider in the sprint.
I think if I gave it 100% on the section before the last corner, I
would have been able to gain more positions and then give a few away
in the sprint. I didn't meet the objective, which was to be at the
front 1 lap to go. I suppose I should have started moving up a lot sooner.
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What Tim saw:
Category: 5
Result: Mid-pack
I got to wake up 30 minutes earlier than Mike because I had to pick
him up at 5AM. Fast forward to race. I started the race off at the
back, but then quickly moved myself up to the top 15. I stayed on the
outside most of the time and when a train would come up on the left,
I'd follow them. I was actually pretty successful at doing this.
However, after doing this I'd sometimes find myself in the top 5
which has less wind protection than 10th. But it is better than
finding myself at the back and having to try and go from 50th to 10th.
Sometime during the middle of the race, there was crash to my right,
which initiated an attack by some folks. Towards the end of the race
around lap 4, I think I was sitting around 15-20th and started to
move up. By the last lap, I think I was top 10. Along the backstretch
there was a crash just in front of me to the right. Somebody moved up
to about 5th and tried to insert themselves into line, but that
caused them to crash as the guy already in line wasn't gonna give up
his wheel. I instinctively slowed as I saw them go down on my right
side. It was a mistake to grab my brakes because I was quickly
swarmed by 5-10 people. On the final stretch I passed 2 people for 15th.
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