Casters Crit — Cat 3

by Jonah Tower

With a week to go, before the big race at Fitchburg, I wanted to get out and stretch my legs a little one last time. The weather was perfect at the Ninigret Park in Charlestown, RI with the usual wind blowing and we lined up with a healthy field of about 45 riders. The race had spunk from the get go and several attacks went off right away. Then, after only a few laps one break of two or three guys got away and it look juicy enough for me to join, so I jumped off the front of the field and went to work trying to bridge across alone. Somewhere along the line the break fell apart and I decided to keep going it alone, until I made it all the way to the lead guy. He and I joined forces, after a prime that he stayed away from me for, and then the two of us worked very hard to stay off the front for nearly half the race.

A nine-man chase group was working to catch up to us, but we continued to work to stay away with a lot of racing left and hoped that one or two riders would come across to reinforce our efforts. Unfortunately my partner cracked and headed back to the 9 with about 12 to go, and so I stayed out alone for about 3 laps hoping someone might finally come across. But, after looking back several times, it was clear no one would, so I also went back to the now 10-man group to finish the race. Once I was recaptured, the attacks began and lasted until about a lap an half to go, but no one got away. So, in the last laps we setup for the sprint and I worked to position myself against the riders that had teammates with then (3-4 teams actually), but left myself a little too far back in the last sections, before the final turn and was only able to grab 5th. But, I felt good all race and was able to work very hard, so I was happy with the result.