2011 Concord Criterium Junior Team Race Report
August 8, 2011 By mkr
Conditions:
The conditions for the race were dry and on the comfortable side. The recent break in the hazy, hot and humid had made for some much more reasonable and pleasant conditions. As the day progressed and the sun got higher in the sky, it warmed into the 80′s. A good day to be on a shady course or done racing early on.
The Course:
The Concord Criterium course has historically been run in both directions over the years. However, with the advent of a small rotary at the top side of the course on Auburn Street, the course can really only be run clockwise, which is typically considered backwards from what was once the norm. The course is about a mile long loop that starts with a fast flat into a right hand turn into a long shallow ascent and a couple of fairly gentle right hand turns in it. You climb through the rotary and over a very shallow roller onto the top stretch, a slightly downslope fast section bringing you into the 90 degree hard right downhill, immediately into another 90 degree right quickly into a 90 degree left followed shortly by a 90 degree right onto the flat finish stretch.
Results:
Excellent work to the team on what was really one of their first official team events. Everyone had a great showing and the results for the NEBC Junior Development Team were incredible. This race included all of the major players in terms of Junior team racing and everyone was there. Much of the competition had very impressive race resumes, experience and lineage but our boys held there own and more against them. We should all be very proud of them.
Junior 15-18 18 Starters 15 Miles
Place Bib Name Team Address Age
- 6 577 Brian Gugger NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Tewksbury MA st 18
- 11 579 Aidan Kesner NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Lexington MA P&P 17
- 13 588 Ethan Young-Kershaw NEBC p/b Cycleloft Westport MA P&P 15
- DQ 578 Brandon Holden NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Boxborough MA 17
http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/08/06-Concord-Criterium.asp
[Aidan Kesner]
Leading up to this Saturday I had been very nervous due to the fact that there were some other juniors who were in higher categories then myself and the other NEBC teammates that raced that day. Those of which consisted of Brian, Brandon, Ethan and myself. With some early morning stress to leaving a little later then expected I then didn’t get to do a complete warmup before the race.
As the race began, around 20 other juniors from various different teams rolled out towards the first climb with a very surprisingly slow pace and it stayed relatively steady until the end of the first lap where there were minor attacks. This continued for another 3 or so laps, and I was feeling really good with how the race was going. I didn’t feel any stress on the legs and felt pretty loose.
Around 10 laps to go, a rider on the Hot Tubes Development team attacked on the first climb pretty hard. I was about 2 riders back from him when he took off and I stood up and grabbed his wheel, as I was doing this my handlebars slipped down because the bolts attaching the stem to the bars weren’t tightened properly. By the time I had looked down, straightened the bars, and got back up to speed, the pack was already at the top of the climb. For the next 4-5 laps I fought to join back in the pack and had them within sight for that time. It was very mentally and physically draining and I was unable to rejoin the pack. I then worked to keep a steady speed throughout the next few laps. During one of the laps when I was on my own, I heard Mike and Cathy telling me to look back because there was another rider about 50 meters behind me trying to catch me. I then sat up and let him catch up. We started taking turns pulling, and he told me that he had dropped off during one of the first few laps and had been working to keep up the entire time. He had worked much harder and was much tireder then myself. I tried to keep the pulling time between us relatively even, but I wanted to be sure to not get lapped to I kept the speed up when he seemed to slow up a bit. We worked well together for the rest of the race and on the last stretch, I said to him that we should go hard at the end and he was all for it. I started sprinting and he tried to slingshot off of my slipstream and unfortunately for him I beat him in the sprint.
Although I had a very frustrating mechanical, I felt pretty good about my performance. Especially knowing that I was able to keep up with some Cat 4/Cat 3 racers when I am only a Cat 5. It was a good experience overall and I learned a lot. One of which is to check EVERYTHING on my bike before racing.
[Brian Gugger]
In Concord this past Saturday, I had never seen so many junior racers together at the same time. I was looking forward to seeing whether I could stay with them. Some of these kids looked super fast, and if I stayed with them it would tell me my training is going well. With that said, the race proceeded with no incidents until I think lap eight. Going around one of the corners, I was forced to take the inside, and I clashed with a rider on the outside. I could have easily stayed upright had I not been leaning on him, but I had heard this advice only recently and not yet tested it in a race situation. Now, after acquiring a painful road rash, I know not to lean.
Despite crashing, I eventually found out what I wanted. I was able to get back in the race and be one lap behind everyone else (another thing I learned: had i recovered more quickly, my free lap would have put on the same lap as the main field). The only way I could see whether I was as fast as these guys was to lead a breakaway, so I did. It was incredibly difficult, but I stayed with the group that broke with me. In fact, the rider who first joined me in the break ended up winning. I’m satisfied with my performance.
[Brandon Holden]
Going into Concord I was a little nervous about racing some of the best juniors in New England but I was also excited to test myself against them. I had hoped to arrive an hour before the race started but I ended up getting their only about 35 minutes ahead of time. As a result, my warm-up was rushed a bit but I still felt pretty good when we all lined up. The first half of the race or so seemed slow overall but repeated attacks popped some people of the back. The pace started to pick up and the attacks mostly stopped about half way through the race and as a result the field started to get strung out into a single line. With about 7 laps to go on a downhill section leading to the front straight my teammate Brian got clipped and went down. Luckily he got back up and later rejoined the race but when he went down he split the main field in two. A few others and I were able to cross the gap to the lead group but the crush did cause a few more to be lost from the main pack. A few laps later after getting a new wheel Brian rejoined the race a little ahead of the peloton but was down at least one lap. A few riders, though, attacked Brian as if he was the leader of the race. This caused the main peloton to split into about 3 or 4 groups of about 4 riders each which is how the race ended. I ended up crossing the finish line in 9th or 10th position but the result will not count because I failed junior rollout by about 6 inches. Getting disqualified for that doesn’t bother me much, though, because this race was all testing myself against the best juniors in the region and not earning points to upgrade. By that measuring stick, I think I had a pretty good day and I can’t wait to go up against a lot of the same guys next week at Tokeneke.
