by John Naegle
The race is three stages over three nights: A rolling 6.5 mile TT
with one moderate uphill, an 8.8 mile circuit that uses a lot of the
TT course, with a similar profile, and a points race on the Star
Speedway in Epping, NH. The General Classification is scored on
points over the three nights. First on a stage gets 100 points, 2nd
95, 3rd 91 and so on. The person who accumulates the most points over
three nights wins. The races start around 6:00 in the evening, but
we’re required to sign in or pick up numbers by 5:30 which translated
into 3:30 departures from Boston to beat traffic on 93 North. Not a
big deal, but it made for long days.
I did this race 2 years ago right after my upgrade to category 4 and
was solid middle of the pack fodder. This year, I hoped to do much
better. I’d been looking forward to this race when I ended up taking
a couple of weeks off the bike in June and realized that with my
training plan, I’d actually be in better shape for this race than
Fitchburg. The TT was a little bit of an unknown, since I’ve only
done 3 or 4 TTs this year, Charlie Baker a few times and the Fitchburg
TT where I flatted. I hoped to do well to set myself for the overall.
I felt really confident about the road race and I had a personal goal
to win it. I wasn’t sure what to hope for in the points race. 2
years ago, I didn’t get any points, so I was just hoping to top that,
but without teammates, it could be a really hard race.
Time Trial
When Ian saw I was signed up for this race, he offered to let me
borrow his nice deep dish carbon race wheels. Ian’s girlfriend,
Christine, had the wheels and started her race around 6:05. I started
at 6:40, so there would be plenty of time to switch the cassette
before my start. I laid out the cassette tools by my trainer and
settled in for a good warm-up. I expected to do the course in about
15 minutes based on last year’s times. The shorter the race, the more
important the warm-up so I hit the trainer shortly after the 5:45
riders meeting. Christine finished up and I changed the cassette from
9sp to 10sp and took the wheels for a lap around the parking lot. I’d
never been on a high end wheel before — they felt amazing – I’m sure
they saved me more than 10 seconds on the course. For the TT itself,
there isn’t much to report. I finally did a good job pacing myself -
I split the course into thirds and went a little harder on each third.
I caught my 30 second guy in the first two miles and my 60 and 90
second riders after about 5.5 miles. I finished in 14:56:00, 4th
place (88 points) and 13 seconds behind Jordan Winkler (100 points)
from Cambridge who won the Fitchburg TT. I may have been able to do
a little better by pre-riding the course – there were a number of
sharp turns that I could have gone through faster. But, 10 seconds
slower would have put me in 7th; I owe Ian a few beers for letting me
borrow those wheels.
Circuit Race
We did 4 laps of the 8.8 mile circuit. I felt really good going into
the race. I did a little warm-up on the trainer, stretched, sat
through the riders meeting, and did another 10 minutes on the trainer
before the start. 42 of us rolled out with the usual set of
instructions: don’t cross the yellow line, don’t throw trash, etc,
etc. As I mentioned, I felt really good about my chances in this
race, and with 4th in the TT, I had aspirations of doing well for a
good GC position. The race was pretty typical for the 4s: a few solo
efforts of the front and everything coming back together on the last
lap. On our second lap, we rolled came upon an ambulance and some
police officers at the scene of a crash from the Women’s 3/4 race.
Unfortunately, Kate Leppanen was down in the crash and on her way to
the hospital with a broken clavicle. Seeing the crash put a big
damper on the race. Please wish Kate a speedy recovery.
The last 1.5 miles of the course includes the KOM sprint, a fast
downhill and slight uphill into a 90 degree corner about 400 meters
before the finish. We’d have the whole road after the corner, so a
few lines would be possible through there. I ended up on the front of
the race into the KOM and rode the yellow line to prevent people
coming by me where I couldn’t see them. I think this helped to slow
the pace down a little bit and nobody seemed to be too interested in
punching it up the hill. Jordan Winkler attacked the KOM and took off
down the decent first. I jumped hard at the top of the hill to get up
to speed as quickly as possible and got on Jordan’s wheel. Things
came back together and slowed down on the slight uphill and I took
position at the yellow line again to control being swarmed. This was
probably a mistake as it put me in the wind for too long and at the
front of the race for the last corner. I went into the corner 2nd and
came out 1st, but it was too far to sprint. I tried to go a little
easier and get ready for the swarm/jump that was certain to come. I
had picked out a crosswalk about 200 meters out to sprint from, but
people started jumping far earlier. I tried to jump also, but instead
of letting some riders come by, getting on their wheel, then jumping
from my pre-determined point, I got excited and tried to stay in front
of everybody. It was a bonehead move and I ended up in 11th. I
definitely had the legs for a better finish, but the strategy needed
work.
Points Race
I was really disappointed with my Circuit Race result and was sure
that it had wiped out my GC aspirations. I planned to skip the points
race and spend the evening relaxing instead. It wasn’t until after I
rode to work (I worked from home the other days) that I saw the
results from the previous night: 11th in the circuit race and tied for
2nd on GC. My wife, Kristen, convinced me that I would regret not
doing the points race. She was nice enough to grab my bike and pick
me up at work so I could race. We got up there early so Kristen could
watch the Women’s race. I grabbed some food and waited for my race to
start.
I didn’t have a great strategy going into the race – I wasn’t sure of
my legs, they were very tired, so I was going to see how they felt and
contest as many sprints as possible and hope to hang on. If I’d had a
team mate, it could have been a completely different race for me. We
could have worked together to lead out the sprint. As it was, my best
chance was to stay near the front and look for wheels to follow for
the sprint. The first sprint came very quickly, each lap was under 40
seconds I think and I was close to the front when the Cambridge
Bicycle Train formed for the first time. They did a beautiful job
leading out the race leader for the sprints — they were the only team
that was experienced on the track and organized as a team. I looked
for their train time and time again and did my best to find the
leader’s wheel and hope to come around him in the sprint. I picked up
quite a few points by sticking to their wheels.
The race was hard and fast – I don’t remember much, but a few things
stick out. The Cambridge team did a great job working for the race
leader; they dominated the race. On the double points sprint at the
half way point, my rear wheel skipped out on the last corner (the
track was not particularly smooth) and while I was in great position,
I sat up. I should have jumped back in as I was in good position
still. With 15 laps to go, I was seeing stars and was concerned about
not being able to finish the race, but I ended up behind the rider who
I started the day tied with and found some motivation for the last two
sprints where I took 6 points total. I contested 9 of the 16 sprints
and took points in 8 of them: 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, 2nd, 4th, 3rd and
3rd (double points). I was pretty sure after the race that I had
taken 2nd in the race and 2nd over all, but with the 2/3 race starting
right after ours, it took the officials a while to get the results
posted. After 45 minutes of waiting, results were posted and I took
2nd in the race with 21 points. Jordan from Cambridge was first with
30 and Calder Daenzer from Cal Cycling was 3rd with 17 points. I’d
defended 2nd on GC, but just barely.
Final Results:
Jordan Winkler: 295 points
John Naegle: 257
Calder Daenzer: 252
This was the hardest race I’ve ever done and will be taking a planned
break for mountain biking, track racing and riding without the
pressure of racing.
nice writeup and congrats on 2nd place