First night at the montague MA criterium. It's a short-lived series, only 4-5 weeks of racing. Missed it last year due to some unknown reason, probably a mix of travel and weather.
Missed the first two weeks this year due to travel again, but made it to the 3rd of 5 races this year.
Arrived in plenty of time to warm up. Had a hard time getting in any intensity during warmup, I just did not have it in my legs. Had had a couple of longer weeks going into this, so there was some accumulated fatigue.
Pretty low key race. No race numbers, I guess they just keep track of finish and primes by jerseys. 25 racers in the "B" group start. 24 laps around a .6 mile flat 4 corner course.
Started toward the front of the pack, quickly oozed back into the last 1/3, and after 4-5 laps found myself last man standing. Pretty soon a gap formed, I was not able to chase it down, and sat out a lap to fall back in. A couple more laps, same story. I was really struggling to keep up the pace. There was a crash at one point in the back of the pack, 4 riders went down, but everyone seemed to be OK. I was about 50 feet off the back at this point, so in no danger. Being off the back is not really the most fun place to be, but it IS safe :)
Last 12 laps I started feeling much better. I was wondering if the race had slowed down, as I was keeping up, just sitting in the back, but not really feeling like I was working all that hard. Looking at lap times now, it does not look like it slowed down, just that I got my act together and was able to be a part of the pack.
This looks like the kind of a race that I could be competitive in if I had good legs. Missed the 4th race, but planing on being there for the last one this week.
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