Throwing Down Watts in Rhode Island

Lloyd Ranola’s on vacation in Rhode Island…he brought his bike and his A-game with. Here’s his report from the East Coast:

I brought my bike on vacation w/ me like I’ve done in years past. This week though, rather than bringing the bike to train, all my riding was planned to be spontaneous, and a bit of a break from the training and racing I’ve done so far this year. Vacation riding, with no ‘epic’ rides planned either. But throwing in a local group ride sounded like a good idea too. So I checked out the calendar for this area, and it turns out NEBRA (New England Bicycle Racing Assoc.) has a pretty busy little calendar with crits as early as the 1st week of March, every weekend, and often double booked just like our calendar. So, with the exception of winter base training on the bike, they’re just a month behind our calendar. Basically, another good part of the country for bike racing.

Knowing I didn’t have time on the weekends to do any local races, I stumbled upon a weekly training criterium. The course is in the middle of a large park/recreational space called Ninigret Park in Charlestown R.I. where on an old airstrip, they built a 9/10th of a mile paved course specifically for criterium racing.. imagine that? well here’s a POV video I found of the course (funny thing, a team Spine rider shows up a few minutes into it)

There’s an A and B race. B is cat 4/5.A-race is open to Cat 1,2,3 and 4. It’s $8 bucks to enter, and the promoter is super cool. Lot’s of beer and coffee primes. When I got there I chatted up a few guys and they said usually the race is about 60 to 70 riders, mostly cat 2 and 3. Local regular ‘fast guys’ include Mark McCormack (ex Saturn Pro, now Team Fuji/Clif Bar). I asked if breaks stay away, they said it’s about 50/50. Excited about the fast race, I didn’t even bother w/ the Cat 4/5 race, but sat in a few laps to warm up and get used to the course… well unfortunately, the weather sucked (cold and damp), and only 30 riders howed up for the A race.

Once we got rolling.. it was a hour long race. And right from the gun riders attacked. Not knowing this field at all, I followed every threatening looking break for the 1st 20 min or so. That hurt. Plus, they didn’t know me for at all, so I didn’t want to be a lazy *ss, and took my share of pulls to show I was willing to play. Single file racing was a hoot but I’m used to 40 minutes of sitting in til the finish, so my back was starting to kill me (need core work!). Everyone’s bike handling was great out there too.

With 8 laps to go, I stopped playing in the wind knowing there had been some guys now sitting for an end result (there were lot’s of 12 packs of beer and prizes the top 5 finishers). They didn’t like the cat and mouse too much with me pulling off quickly when I got to the front, but I wanted to save some legs (guys were like “pull threw” in their New England accents). Last 3 laps, the teams started to do their lead outs.. great racing. Last lap a couple guys go for it. They stuck it for 1st and 2nd.It’s a field sprint for 3rd, and I get schooled on the long head wind sprint for sixth of that group, finishing 8th place.

That was easily some of the funnest training/racing I’ve done. It’s like the Port ride, only organized with prizes (and no semi-trucks). And w/o the ‘real’ fast guys showing up.. I’m sure it was slower than the Port, but no where to hide, and much much faster than any Cat 4 races I’ve done too. I thanked the promoter, and he thanked me for showing up..
.. damn good time!