Thought I’d wait until full results were posted to write an official report, in the hope that I’d get at least some of the facts correct.

Just Gary, Craig and me this year aka the Three Musketeers (or CWG Masters Cycling; we already contacted the bank and changed over the checking account)…

Thursday, 14k  TT

Left Craig’s on Thursday at 7 AM in pouring rain. A tree had fallen onto I-91 in Springfield and the delay gave us a little concern on time, and heavy traffic in the rain in Worcester gave us even more. Still got to the race hotel a bit after 9 and lo and behold, as we headed over to the TT start, the rain stopped. We would get VERY lucky with the weather.

Craig was Gary’s 30 second man around 11:15 AM start and I went off at 11:37. I had a full TT rig with a disc (thanks Ian and Brent; I owe you about 20 places on GC). My goal was to hold off Buben (who started 1:30 behind me) as long as possible. Other than a rubbing back brake the first time I got out of the saddle (which I loosened on the fly), I had a good ride out to the turnaround, snuck a look back and saw no CCB jersey in sight. But coming back, a nasty headwind kicked in and with 5k to go, a mysterious figure in a white skinsuit slipped by me and yes…it was Dimitri. Still, I’ll take it and was happy with my ride. I did about the best I could; caught my 1:30 man at 100m to go (Steve F. on AZW’s old frame), and almost caught my minute man on the line. 41st place 21:23 @ 2:56 to the super-human Mr. Bold. Gary rode a respectable 20:08 for 16th. Craig rode a strong 23:22, with no aero gimmicks.

Had a nice dinner with the amateur/non-ringer  members of the (secret) Williams team. Tried to draw some secrets out of them but they were tight-lipped.

Friday, Circuit Race, 28 miles

Woke up to drizzle and fog but the sun popped out on and off starting at 8 AM. Got a little lost on the way down to the race because of bridge construction on our usual route so didn’t really need that stress.

Race started hard on first lap; sprint points for lap 1. A bad crash in women’s 3/4 field just before final corner meant we were neutral on lap 4.  Our “plan” was for Gary to sag climb and save energy and for Craig and I to try and take him back up front if needed. We all did our job and Gary looked good every time up the hill and played it smart. A dangerous little move with some heavy hitters (lap 6?) coaxed Gary into a chase with one other guy. Smart man; it had “the move” written all over it.  But it all came back together and after the last points sprint, Craig was right with Gary and helped him back to the front.  At the bell, I was near Gary so I took him up to about 5th wheel, then sat on the front until just before we hit the turn onto Fitch the last time. Gary did a great job, and was top 10 at the final corner and took a well-deserved 8th place. Gary got chopped pretty hard (twice) in the last corner by none other than the race winner, or he may have picked up a few more spots. Mission accomplished for the day. Fisher won, Ruane second, Fabio P. 3rd.

Gary was on a Specialized loaner bike and I guess it suited him well. It was weird with such a small field of 75. Much easier to move around the pack. Funniest moment of the day was Craig flatting after the race as we were standing around chatting, then Gary changing the tube for him only to have Craig find out (when he was at neutral support trying to inflate the tire) that Gary had put the flat tube back in the tire!

Didn’t do our usual trip back to the pro race; it stormed on and off anyway, so I was glad to just hang around the pool. The 3 of us went over to Leominster to Christina’s for Italian. Very good food…keep that one in mind for the future.

Saturday, Road Race, 60-something miles

Aspholm, Fisher and Gil (green jersey) attacked first time on the points sprint/hill, and were gone for good. Their 7 minute lead on the field by the end was padded a little by multiple neutralizations in our field but trust me, it was 2 different races today.

I was trying to stay near Gary on the climb to help him hang on if I could, but he didn’t look great the 2nd time up and when the gaps started to open in the feed zone, I kept rolling and I sat in on the back of the field hoping he and Craig would come back. Wicked headwind on the climb, through the feedzone, and up to the old KOM/sprint line. A split happened on the hill starting lap 5, and I tried to help Corner Cycle close the gap. All I accomplished was to blow myself off the back on the descent, even though Kurt Gustafsson eased up and tried to let me grab his wheel just as we approached the turn onto Rt. 140. My first thought was to give up, but I decided to ride tempo as hard as I could, and hope for the best. I chased solo and kept the field in sight all the way through the turn onto Rt. 31. But then the 3’s started to approach (and Kinnon gave me some word of encouragement as she passed in the lead vehicle, which I really appreciated) and I eased up to time it so I could ride the climb and the feed zone with the 3s pack, out of the wind. Then, as I let them go by me on the false flat…MERRY CHRISTMAS IN JULY! They neutralized our field to let the 3’s through. I finished the race with the main field (or what was left of it) and managed to hang on to all the surges and splits until the final wall before the finish. Came in 28th, 11:40 down on the winners, and about 30 seconds behind the first rider in the field. I honestly wished we had gone up the mountain as usual. Think I would have done well with that to finish the day off.

Went to the church potluck as usual, and then had a beer with some of the Williams and GHCC boys and girls at our hotel.

Sunday, Criterium, 19 miles

Maybe I’m good at this stage racing thing because my legs felt better today than any other day. Rode down to the start and then around and around on the back streets to warm up. The plan for me today was just to stay out of trouble, and help Gary if possible.Turns out Craig and I weren’t able to do much more than sit in, so Gary did it all himself and pulled off an impressive ride on his own’ 9th place. Just too short of a race, too fast, too many points laps and primes for me to do much but sit mid-pack. I had been riding near Gary starting about 8 to go, and was going to try to help him get to the front as best I could in the last 3 laps. But the 5 to go points sprint did that notion in.

Final tally was two top-10s and a top-20 for Gary, good rides for Craig and me, overall GC places of 29th for me, 34th for Gary and 48th for Craig out of 59 finishers. Not sure how I fared in the 45+ rankings; there’s no notation on the results like they said there would be. I see at least a half-dozen guys ahead of me who are 45 or older. I’m sure there’s more.

http://www.longsjo.com/Results_files/Stage_Four_Results.pdf