Nutmeg State Games 45+ Criterium Race
by Michael Benson • June 25, 2021
Really hot at 90 degrees
12:15 race start on 6/5/21
Walnut Hill Park, New Britain, CT
Wonderful flowy track. Minimal breaking unless the group slowed after a hard push. The course was a mile? It was flat except for one small kicker after a slight chicane after the back straight away. The road was good with a few glide cracks and one nasty metal grate.
Wonderful flowy track. Minimal breaking unless the group slowed after a hard push. The course was a mile? It was flat except for one small kicker after a slight chicane after the back straight away. The road was good with a few glide cracks and one nasty metal grate.
The race started off a bit slow as racers warmed and got the feel for racing together. It's been a while coronavirus keeping everyone solo. Lap 3 had me pinned against the curb and almost crashed out as a guy decided he needed to go right instead of forward. Pissed me off. The same guy was all over the place all race. He was strong but not smooth but everyone expects that since we haven't raced in over a year. I was lucky to squeeze in 4 training races this spring (2 at Wells Ave and 2 at NH motor speedway), but that's another story.
My plan was to see what the big dogs were doing. Myerson, Hilldebrand and Billings were who I marked at the race start. I wanted to watch their moves because they are proven winners and with zero experience racing here I needed to understand what moves were dangerous and ones that would be pulled back by the peloton.
At around 30 minutes into a 55 minute race, a break of 4 got away and got around 20 secs on the main group. I was trying to stay near the front to see if a break to catch might get away which ended up happening. A cyclonauts rider went hard around the front and I was holding his wheel. It was only after 30 seconds that I realized that we had a gap. I took my pull to only realize we were 10 seconds shy of making the bridge to the break. I thought we would have made it but it would have ruined both of us. Instead we both agreed to retreat back to the peloton. I recovered in the back and pondered my next move. After a few min of recovery I worked my way to the front to see what was happening. Nobody wanted to do the work to pull the group back. Attacks went unanswered and making a bridge solo would be very difficult. I drifted back a bit and finally people started working as we hit 10 laps to go. When we hit 6 laps I was too far back to follow Billings who ended up making the bridge. Things really got fast at 3 to go. My goal was to be in position 10-12. With one to go, I was on the front, exactly where I didn't want to be as I knew I would be swarmed in the sprint. I moved back a bit to the left side but that meant I needed to take the brunt of the cross wind and possibly get boxed in. As we hit the last slight downhill and swing to the left towards the sprint stretch I was pinned to the curb with nowhere I go. I sprinted for 13 in the
