Sunday turned out to be perfect weather for racing. By 2:15 and the start of pro/cat1, the temps were hovering around 50 degrees with partly cloudy skies. The course had only one wet spot. It seemed to be improved over my only other foray there two years ago to the extent it had more singletrack and excellent flow - a high speed ripper throughout with three very short rises/climbs. I came with no ambitions other than to make a solid effort, get in some high HR work and be around the racing scene renewing friendships. Kevin Hines decided to race pro rather than demolish the field by 20 minutes so that left a Cat 1 50+ field of 17 guys, the biggest I've seen except for the Nationals. Ken Welch blasted his way through everyone to take the win - I never saw him after his bull-in-a-china-shop start - but I did have the unexpected pleasure of racing most of New England's 50+ best- "The Most Hated Racer in Cycling" Paul Curley, Steve Arsenault, Mark Virello, Bob Bisson, Andy Chambers and more. On lap two Steve came around to pull after I'd done much of the work early on. He was tearing it up- lean, quick and skilled through the tighter parts with Chambers and Bisson somewhere up ahead. Steve got us back up onto Chambers' wheel by lap two and we became 4 in a line - 4 to 6 feet off one another's wheels for a lap and a half. It was surely a highlight of the 2010 season for me to feel that level of flow and trust between riders so closely matched as we streaked along after so many years of racing one another, and with Curley as the hard core tactician waiting to strike. I was tense, blissful, wary. Last lap and we were hammering when with 1/3 of the lap to go we came into a small rise and everyone slowed a bit up the rumbly roots with soft organic matter around. The odds of me beating all in a sprint was low and I knew I'd have to make a move at some point. The opportunity presented itself at that moment, so I drilled it up and over and through the top, separating myself from the bunch until Curley was able to bridge across on the next section of doubletrack - sneaky, quiet, looming. We hit the gravel hill and Paul signaled to two Bike Barn guys as he killed it at the bottom, positioning himself to use the two other as blockers. Then he ccame all the way across the 8' wide trail left to right to block me out- riding me into the leaves toward a tree - enough to elicit a few choice words and amazement at his level of aggression. Paul is a 29 time national champion and used to make a living back in the 80's and early 90's as a professional racer, living in Switzerland as a part of the UCI World Cup scene. He is no slouch and doesn't have his dubious reputation cuz' its a joke, it's because he is a shrewd and fierce competitor who knows how to win and will do anything to get the result. I figured I could learn something from him tactically. Watch , learn, employ. He held me off and then after the last steep, proceeded to block at about 3MPH, forcing me around so he could draft and come around me on the final sprint. We rode at 3MPH for a hundred yards before I jumped, and sure enough Paul came around me at the end by a bike length- but he made a critical mistake, finishing in the lap ride-through area instead of the finishing chute. I used his own tactic of using the course to the advantage of the front rider, keeping left in the field as I sprinted, but still straight as an arrow without impeding him - using the course to challenge. Jill had explicitly directed everyone had to go through the finish chute when we were waiting to start, but Paul had been so focused on taking the sprint that he goofed, handing me the last podium spot when he crashed his way through the separating tape, pulling out two stakes and screwing up the chute areas to get back over the finish chute. Had he looked up, or otherwise kept a clear mind, he would have come around OK. It was a moral victory and I couldn't contain my huge smile. We left the venue grateful for a great day of racing.
