Northeast Bicycle Club

Fitchburg cat 3 day 4 - Jay Francis - 7-3-07

And finally, the criterium.
The course was considered flat, although there was a slight rise along Main Street followed by a slight drop along Boulder Drive. At the top of the course was a 180 degree sweeping left turn. The bottom of the course had two 90 degree left turns. Our race was 23 miles with 25 laps. We were lucky to have yet another day of excellent weather.
Our plan for the day was fairly obvious. A maximum of 10 second bonus was available, excluding any breakaway time gap. Ten seconds would do little for our guys at the top of the GC. However, Roy held onto the Verge points jersey by a slim 5 point margin. With six point laps in the crit, and a possible 25-15-5 points available on each lap, the competition over the Verge jersey would be a hot one. We needed to help Roy as much as possible.
At the start there were some guys testing the resolve of the pack with break attempts. It was unlikely that any break would get away for a significant period of time, but it was possible that one could get away long enough to snag some points away from Roy. I decided to get up front and play tag-along on as many breaks as I could. The idea was to make it appear as if I was cooperating, but not really. This seemed to work and the attack attempts died out. After that, the entire team took turns leading Roy out for the point laps. It wasn�t a pre-planned effort (we didn�t have a master list saying �Lap x, Peter will lead out. Lap y, John will lead��), but when those bell laps approached, someone was usually up there with Roy. The competition was fierce! Jason Sears from Cyfac was 2nd behind Roy, and he was going for all the points as well.
My own personal fun happened on lap 8. Someone decided to turn their bike perpendicular to the flow of the race half way through the 180 degree turn. I was two bikes behind him, saw the crash happening, then found myself on the ground. I got up, whacked my left shifter back into position, put my chain back on, and started to chase. The race bible said no free laps starting at 8 to go, so I figured I was in trouble. When I approached the pit area, the SRAM guys and a USAC official waved me in. They had changed the free lap cutoff to 5 to go, so I got a little rest and a quick bike check.
There were no points awarded on the finishing lap, and after all of the point lap efforts, no one really had the will to contest the finish.
Chris Hong � 40
Jay Francis � 43
Dave Rizzo � 52
Julian Gent � 78
Peter Bradshaw – 83
Roy Van Cleef – 85
John Broussard – 91
Peter Chiu – 93
When the race was over, we didn�t know if Roy had taken enough points. When Roy was determined to be the winner, we still had to wait while Cyfac mounted a protest. Finally, Roy was declared the official winner taking the Verge jersey by 10 points!
Congrats to all!
7 � Roy Van Cleef 5:24:07 7
12 � Chris Hong 5:24:34 12
13 � Peter Bradshaw 5:24:55 13
42 � John Broussard 5:26:56 42
53 � Jay Francis 5:27:42 53
72 � Peter Chiu 5:30:22 72
92 � Dave Rizzo 5:52:07 92
97 � Julian Gent 6:03:46 97