Saturday was off to an earlier than usual start for me and the family. I decided racing the masters race would be my best option for maintaining my marriage, and love of my children. Trick or treat holds significant gravity in our household and seeing that Ella had been wearing her unicorn costume for the past 3 weeks was a pretty good indicator of the importance of Halloween. Fortunately, the race is relatively close and has a kick-ass playground to keep the kids occupied during my warm up.
The race, initially, went off pretty much as I expected. I felt confident and strong during my warm up and hit the line flying. I sat up a bit and went through the first corner in second position. I was quickly leading the group through the outer field and by the time I hit the barriers 4 of us had a decent gap on the rest of the field. Kevin Hines, Sam Morse, Curtis Boivin and I rode together for a lap or so before Hines rode off the front of the group with a little help / blocking from his teammate Morse. I waited just a second too long and Hines had us gapped.
Obviously, Morse was not going to work to pull back his teammate, and Boivin didn’t seem interested in doing anything but waiting for the finish, so I turned myself inside out to chase, attack, and gap the other two in the group, but to no avail. A slight slip on the last lap, left me gapped, efforts to catch back on drained me for the sprint. I finished 4th on the day. I felt like the young Padawan Learner getting schooled by his master. Outwitted, but not beaten in the least.
I was excited to race Sunday as well. The smaller races mean that I have a chance to compete, an opportunity not to get my head kicked in by the truly elite of the elite. With the small-ish field and a heavy-petting zoo, everyone was sure to come home happy.
Honestly, this was one of the most fun, best courses I’ve raced on this year. Brian, from Nor’east, did a great job setting up the course with enough twists and turns to make even the best bike handler dizzy. The orchard section combined with the fast, hard-packed farm roads made for a quick ride. Bradshaw nailed the holeshot, and raced strongly all day. I felt strong again today, and felt like a champ after passing Justin Spinelli on a fast dirt section of the course (he had obviously flatted, but dropping a guy like that does a bunch for one’s confidence). About 5 seconds later, J-Spin got a bike change and promptly dropped me.
Bradshaw and I rode together for a lap or so, but Peter’s legs proved too strong for me. He gradually rode away from me and held his spot for 4th place. I was being chased by a group of 3 for most of the race and was caught on the last lap by the group. I promptly attacked, dropping Colin Murphy (future teammate and all-around good guy). I attacked again and dropped ccb’s John Bernard. That left me with one guy to beat for 5th place.
In the end, I set Damien up perfectly to take him down in the sprint. He took a very strange line through the last corner, like a line that I would never had taken had I ridden that corner 1000 times. Instead of following his natural arch, he braked and sharpened his trajectory, cornering much harder than was necessary. I had to break in order to avoid hitting his rear wheel. By the time I could regain speed, he had beaten me by a tread’s width.
Thanks for reading.
Pete Smith
