Blue Hills Cat 4 Report

Summary – 4th place, using lessons learned from last year

I had arranged to ride down to Blue Hills Reservation via my normal route, leaving the house at 6:45am and picking up Sean Williams along the way at VFW Parkway. I had to turn back after about a mile because I realized I had forgotten my racing license, but we still felt no sense or urgency and had a relaxed spin down there – despite the fact that the 4’s rolled at 8am and the 5’s went at 8:05. We hooked up with Bob Looney and Ray (masters) in the parking lot, and I just got my number before the official shut down the reg for our race. I didn’t have time for a warm-up on the course, but I was pretty sure I knew it well enough by now. I also didn’t have my Garmin computer with me this morning, because the battery mysteriously died overnight, but it really didn’t matter considering that this course felt like home turf for me.

As we lined up, I was informed that the race was, in fact, shortened this year to three laps from four, which made me a little perturbed. I don’t understand why this decision was made, and it just gave more opportunity for less-experienced and under-fit riders to finish with the pack, which is always a bad idea. It was too late to complain to anyone who cared, so we rolled off and the usual shenanigans started on the descent down Canton Ave. Bob had good positioning from the start, and I spent the first descent and most of the first ascent mired in the back of the pack. I’ve got to stop letting this happen off the start, I’m just asking to be crashed out.

At the top of the first climb up Unquity, people were dropping back left and right and I easily picked my way to the front. My memories of last year’s rain-soaked event returned, and this is what happened then as well. At the top of the climb, I see Bob shoot past on the right with his head tucked, and he broke away a good distance off the front. No one reacted at first, and I was able to quickly make my way to the front and then sit up to start blocking for him. We had a couple of teammates in the race, who I admit I hadn’t really met before, and they also quickly appeared at the front and we did our best to just sit up and take up some space up there. A scattered few from some of the well-represented teams shot past us to bridge up and form a true breakaway, at least that’s what I assumed. By this time, we were turning on to 138 and headed back toward Canton Ave, and Bob was hanging out there about 40-50 meters in front of us. Pretty much the whole group of “bridging” riders gave up about halfway across, effectively signalling that Bob was going to remain all alone and that’s when his bid was officially doomed. I lost quite a few places as the front of the main field engulfed us and reeled Bob back in. On the second trip up Unquity, nothing in particular happened except that I worked my way back up to the front again, much like the first lap.

The final lap was, of course, a bit sketchier on the descent of Canton Ave, but I held my top twenty position and knew that the race would be decided up the hil, just like the race officials had tried to tell everyone at the start. As the road turned upward toward the split with Hillside, I started to look for opportunities to get up to the front and make something happen. I saw a lane on the right and moved over, but an NEBC guy was in front of me and struggling to make his move as the pace picked up. I yelled in his ear that he needed to dig deep and get to the front, which did just the trick – dude found his legs, I followed him up a few places and quickly went around him to assume a good position at the front. As we passed Hillside and made the subtle left toward the finish, I saw the last rise in the distance and knew it was time to go. I had watched the winning move pull away from me at this point last year, and I was determined not to make that mistake again. 8th place would not be good enough this year.

I put in some good kicks, and with a handful of others we quickly pulled away from the front of the pack. As we approached the finish, I passed a couple more riders but could not get around the last three before the line. I felt good and felt that I had lined up this finish well, and the $75 payout helped to ease the pain of not getting in the podium photo. Regardless, this was a good day on the bike, though I am sure that I will end up dissecting this race (just like all the others) to see what I could’ve done to finish higher.

Well done Jay!

I also raced the cat 4, though not with the same wisdom or great result as Jay!. I lined up at the start a little on the late side, and started at the back. I worked my way up over the first 2, of 3 laps to a top 15 position with just under a lap to go. On the final run down 138 i moved up to about 5th. At that point, there were several Cambridge guys controlling the front, trying to stop any break away. I was feeling pretty fresh and was well positioned and decided to try to spark a breakwaway – next time i’ll use my head and see if there are any other BRC’ers to go with. No-one followed my wheel and i gained about a 50m gap. I took the corner into the hill badly though and lost momentum (soon not feeling so fresh anymore!). I was caught and blended back into the front of the pack. I stayed in the top 15 or so approaching the finish, but was tired from my little flurry and couldnt really sprint. So another top 20 will have to do – i finished 19th. Still glad to have tried the break. It’ll help me judge a time in the future where it might work!

Thanks, and good effort on the break. I remember seeing you go on the last lap, but I wasn’t in any kind of position to block and Cambridge was holding steady up front. I think we will need to employ some dedicated tactics going forward to break up the Cambridge/Threshold two-headed monster that seems to control our races! If we have enough guys, like we did at BH, perhaps a series of consecutive attacks would break up their intent..