Race Report: Turkey Day, Cat 3

NCVC had about seven racers. Route 1 Velo had four. No other team had significant presence, or more than a pair of guys. Besides the rainy September atmosphere, there's a reason.

Route 1 Velo probably hasn't had four racers in any Cat 3 race this year. That's because Brigham wanted to defend his slim lead in the BAR, from me. All four of those guys entered to shut me down. At the start line, Brigham pointed to me and told his boys, "That's the guy!"

Their plan worked.

R1V literally did nothing but chase me down. Brigham went as far as telling his guys to stop chasing other teams down. I threw down a 4-5 hard attempts to escape. Bridged up to a few breakaways. Attack from the front or back of the pack. Caught R1V sipping water, or took the gutter route. Attacked my own attacks (ouch). Stooped to low levels, but nothing worked with a tiny field and four pairs of strong legs stalking me.

I could gap Brig's boys, but he was always on my wheel, relentlessly. Good on him. Anything I did was wasteful to my own efforts, and really to that of other racers, too.

Ian from Bike Doctor got pretty pissed when I bridged up with two R1V guys doing nothing but following my blue tires. Sorry Ian, apparently you didn't get the "showdown" memo from Brigham and me. We had our own agenda.

Those R1V guys did their job. In a way it was fun racing with a specific mission, butit also sucked to be personally neutralized. With only a few laps to go, I told my NCVC boys to give it a go on their own. I wasn't getting anywhere.

That's when Harry Fang stole the show. Ian snuck away with him, along with my good friend Nate H. from GamJams. If you put Harry in a breakaway, that's darn near a sure victory. I'm glad the other two guys were up there too. Nate because he's my pal, and Ian because he tried so hard to animate a race that I was ruining for everyone. But I had to try. Harry apparently was hoping I'd bridge up - but those three guys were GONE.

In the end, the group of three stayed away. Then we let a group of four sneak away. By "we" I mean the now-miniscule peloton: Drew, Andy, and me from NCVC; all four R1V guys; a few stragglers with other teammates up the road. Only a dozen total.

Two more NCVC had slipped away, though. David Brookes (5-4, 101 pounds) and Matt Dockins (he's at least 6-3), so that looked funny. When two Bike Doctor guys tried to catch them, Drew A. and I chased to save their top 10s. R1V, of course, sat on my wheel until the last lap.

That last lap was super fun racing. Even though all the BAR points were up the road, R1V threw down the hardest lead-out I've ever seen for 10th place in bike racing history. It was awesome, actually - I was on Brig's wheel and couldn't come around. He is one of the best crit racers and sprinters in Cat 3, though I suspect he won't be there long.

Kudos, Brig. Your boys followed the script to a tee. Hopefully everyone will forgive us for our antics, like Ian. He placed second ahead of Nate.

Harry, though, took the win for NCVC. We couldn't snag the BAR, which was a shot at the moon anyway. We tried, though, and still won the last race of the season with three in the top 10.

When I arrived home, before even showering, I submitted my Cat 2 upgrade request.

Uh oh, now I have to learn how to race.