Boston Road Club Wells Avenue Criterium

Raced the last Wells Avenue Crit of 2009 yesterday. The field was pretty small, probably because of the Portsmouth Criterium being run on the same day. The A and B races were combined and we had about 35 riders in total. Not surprisingly, there were pretty large differentials between the "A" racers and the "B" racers, and a group of six riders was able to shake free at about the halfway point. I missed the break, so I and a few others tried to chase, but there were not enough of us who were motivated to catch the break. (OK I really wasn't that motivated myself--hard to get into the painful task of chasing down a break in a training race when you're not really training for anything any more.) It was immediately clear that this break was going to be very dangerous, as there were six of them and they were most likely all A level racers. Despite a few (half hearted) chase efforts, the break slowly moved up the road and once they were out of sight the main field settled into a somewhat slower pace. In chase mode we were all strung out averaging about 26-27 mph; once reality settled in and we realized there was no catching those guys, the pace in the main field slowed down to a very comfy 24 mph. In fact, we were so slow, we actually got lapped with about three to go. Not sure who won it but I heard he was 50 years old. If that's true it's pretty unbelievable. There was no field sprint as we did not want to interfere with the lead group's finish. Kind of an anticlimactic finish to the season, but still a lot of fun.

Any way, much thanks to my teammates at the Boston Road Club for putting on a very successful racing series at Wells Avenue this year. This series provides invaluable experience to beginners who are just getting into the sport and is a great training opportunity for everyone who participates.