So many Cox
As you may have seen by Austin's previous post, we finally got our first win of the season at the Cox Charities Crit in Providence on Saturday in the 2/3 race. A fantastic course (that ran right near RISD, so there were all sorts of cute hipster girls that I'm sure were checking me out the entire race...) that was a little technical - a gnarly climb, some interesting corners and a nasty headwind on one of the longer straights.
It was one of those courses where it was a good idea to have a front or near-front row start.
Naturally, I got a second to last row start after taking a final lap around the course. Yay! So I got to spend the first eight or ten laps working my way through the field as the rest of the NorEast team was on the front throwing down. By the time I got up there, a small group had gotten away.
Then I saw Gavin "I'm 16 and weigh 120 pounds but put out more watts than a 175 pound 23 year old" Mannion launch off the front with Isaac sticking right to his wheel as they began to build a bridge constructed solely of watts up to the five-man move.
Yes.
And of course they got up there.
Then, it was time for me, Austin, Duncan, Rossman, Rudy and Vinnie to sit in and shut people down. And did we EVER shut people down. We certainly didn't make any friends during that race as we (along with a few Targetraining riders and another Hot Tubes kid) jumped on every wheel that tried to initiate a chase. It was pretty much textbook.
Rudy had a few lap solo flyer, nabbing himself a prime, so that was great.
And then Isaac won.
Then we ate indian food:
FREE BURRITOS
The next day was a circuit race in Newton (The Boloco Circuit Race, to be exact). It was just Austin and I heading there (Rossman was busy getting 9th at a crit in East Hartford, everyone else was relaxing or busy living in Northern Vermont) and it was a pretty stacked field - basically all the guys from the Pro/1 NRC race at Providence the day before. And since this was day two of a week of racing, we decided to just hangout, go with the big splits and make mom jokes to each other during the race.
The course was, again, great, but a little dicey at times. There was this interesting, fast and tight turn thingy going on after the start finish that I was sure was going to either launch me over the curb or send me skidding along the pavement (thankfully, neither happened). There was also a long, gradual hill that was going to get annoying after a while.
So, we lined up for the race, waited for Richard Frieze to call up olympians, former national champions, etc. and then we were off.
And my sitting in began! I spent most of the race moving around slow people on the hill and generally doing very little work - at times it was much easier than an Exeter ride. Occasionally the group would string out, but then it would bunch up. Eventually a group of 12 got off the front - and then that was the race, basically. Almost everyone had someone in the move, so there was no real organized chasing.
Then there was a downpour that would make Noah go "Holy shit!", along with some lightening. And we went from 6 laps to go to 1 lap to go. Which was sort of nice, because my brakes weren't working that well and the three manhole covers per corner were getting a little scary.
The only thing of real note during the race was that Tim Johnson pretty much sat up on the long descent that led into the finish...and I went around him.
So I beat Tim Johnson.
After the race there were free burritos. I had three. I was also soaking wet. Our friend John Lamb came out to see us race.
Then Josh and I drove back to New Hampshire.
So...that's that!
Maybe I'll write about Exeter in a bit?
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