Concord Crit: Cat 5 - John Mcgrath - 8-4-07
Who say’s there’s no organization among the Cat 5’s…. !!!
Saturday was the Concord Crit and NEBC had a good contingent of Cat 5s however we were split up between the young guys (u35) and the oldies (35+).
Over the past couple of races we’ve had a pretty constant group showing up and we’ve been able to get more organized as a team and not just race for ourselves. This week 35+ we had
Myself
Chuck Dopfel
Eric Wemhoff
and Greg Wasik
Chuck, Eric and myself all worked well together at Attleboro so I know I was looking forward to having some fun and doing something as a team again at Concord. Colby Ricker was also there but as he’s one of the young guys he didnât get to race with us this week.
Race started off at a pretty brisk pace with the u35’s going off 30 seconds in front of us. After just a couple of laps we were catching some of the guys dropped from the u35 group and also dropping some of our pack. There was some level of organization among the pack to keep the pace up to continue to whittle the group down to a core group. Chuck, Eric and myself were all solid in the leading group but on one particular quick couple of laps Greg was dropped.
Race was pretty uneventful until about 5 laps to go. Then after some quiet laps the pace really picked up. On one lap where I was about 10 riders back on the downhill section before the 2 last bends I realized if you werenât in the top 3 or 4 on this section you were’nt going to move up for the finish as the pace on the downhill was pretty fast and generally everyone was strung out in a long line.
With 2 laps to go the pace really quickened up and there was a general move to the front. At this point I had moved up to near the front of the pack and Eric and Check were right there also. After the hill on the last lap was where the decisive move happened. The lead pack came around the left turn at the top of the small hill and right at that point caught a lapped rider. I moved left and other lead guy moved right around the lapped rider and at that point the guy on the right made his move for home with less than a mile left.
I immediately jumped to catch him but then I remembered my last couple of races. I did the same thing at Attleboro crit on the last lap and pulled the rest of the pack back and eventually got caught on the line. So this time I held back a bit to see what would happen. As I looked behind I saw Eric start a pull to my left so I immediately got on his wheel. Just before the last corner I sensed someone on my left start his push for the line so I pulled out and went for it.
It didnât look like Iâd catch him but in the last 10 meters I managed to overhaul the guy who jumped for my 1st first place. Eric got 5th I believe and Chuck around 10th.
Many thanks to Eric and Chuck for a great team ride. Exactly the way itâs supposed to go. Now weâre gaining confidence in the 5âs itâs likely time to look towards the 4âs for next year.