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Norton Commons Race Report

Jul 18

Written by: WebGuy
Friday, July 18, 2008 10:26 AM

First off - this was a great venue for a crit. We arrived early and stayed all day and had something to do or watch or eat or whatever the entire time. The whole main street alfresco cafe style start/finish area and the fans throwing parties and picnics on the backside of the course gave the place a pretty cool feeling.

Many of the other racers I talked to thought this race was pretty cool too. Even the Race Director for Toyota United told me his guys thought this was one of the cooler courses and formats they have been to this season.

For those that didn't make it to the race, the course was a short course (3/4 of a mile) with 6 turns. 3 of the turns on the backside were in short succession and each turn rolled onto an increasingly narrower road. Turn 5 was the most technical turn. It was a left hander with a curbed island on the right and a greater than 90 degree exit (the exiting road curved back in on itself a little) At best you could go through 2 at a time, but this series of turns really rewarded the single rider or small single file break. Like LMPD it was a good bet that the first three riders through this turn would be on the podium. Our goal/hope was to train up TL for a sweep before this turn.

The race started well for me this time. I got a spot on the line and clipped in right away with no problems. In all honesty I think this was because I was just WAY more relaxed on Sunday than at LMPD. For some reason, LPMD was a pressure race for me and Norton was a "fun" race.

In any case, right from the gun TL started working hard. Duane and Logan executed our pre-race plan perfectly and jacked up the pace in those first few laps. They launched some great surges while Tim, Ike and I just sat on. We'd let a few guys go up after them and then grab onto their train. Logan and Duane took some turns and then came back to rest for a while. Ike, Tim and I then started working the front about midway through the race. I couple of other guys launched up the road from time to time and rather than just covering it we'd wait, force riders around and then catch on.

After a while Ike and I took some full laps on the front. It was pretty hard getting anyone else up there. Bolla took some short pulls and few of the others too but just when we needed it - and out of nowhere - Logan shot up the right side of the course and slowly drifted in front of us. He pulled an entire lap, giving all of us a much needed rest and then fell off. (I later learned he flatted but man his timing for that pull was just perfect).

With about 4 to go Tim took a flyer for a while and Ike and I sat on the chase. They caught Tim and he settled back into the line. Based on John's advice for the LMPD and our experience the previous day - the plan was to get together around 4 to go and jump with 1.5 - 2 to go. On the backside of the course Ike and I could not find Tim so we just jumped up the little incline and got to the series of turns first.

I still can't believe how fast we went through there, but we started really stringing out the chase and gapping off a little. Things we working perfectly and we sailed through that technical turn. Ike used all of the road, and stood up to pedal coming out - but stood up maybe one pedal stroke too soon as his rear wheel hit the lip between the asphalt and the gutter. He hopped his wheel up (think bucking bronco) and dropped his chain but managed to stay upright.

I passed on his inside with two other riders in tow. I knew Ike's bobble would slow the chase in that narrow turn so I just jammed it down the straight and then "encouraged" the other guys to pull through. One guy looked at me like "there is no way I can stay here" but the other guy came around and pulled through the first turn and up the little incline. I caught my breath and heading into the last series of turns jumped around him. I kept the first two turns as tight as possible and gapped off the other guys. Setting up for the final turn I heard a bike coming up my left side. It was Tim.

Now, this turn had pretty much one fast line through it. It was outside to inside. It's hard to explain just how hard this turn was to judge at speed unless you've ridden it - but suffice it to say that more than a few crashes happened there yesterday and a few even happened on warm up laps.

Tim came up and shot into inside of that turn super fast. About halfway through the turn he (and I) realized he wasn't going to make it so he leaned it over just a smidge more. Well - his rear tire slipped out and he slid into the curb hard.

I locked up both wheels and did a little Tokyo Drift for a second. There was a moment when I started picking out a nice section of grass to land on - but I scrubbed enough speed to clear Tim as he basically slid out of the way. So I was still upright - but had lost all of my momentum on a bike geared for a sprint. It was an all out sprint to get back up to speed from there.

The guy we had gapped off (was running in fourth when Tim passed me) got to that turn last and just rolled past all of us into first. The guy behind me grabbed my wheel and I basically brought us both up to speed by the stop sign on the downhill finish (gave him a hell of a lead-out). He passed me there and got second. I could see more guys coming so I just TT'd as hard as I could from there and held onto third at the finish.

Despite Tim’s crash and Ike’s mishap – I think this was one of best races the TL 4/5 squad has had this season. We had a plan and we executed it. Our teammates Duane and Logan gave themselves up for the overall team. We all rode smart (instead of hard) worked as a team and even with everything that went wrong in the final laps we still got a podium. While there are bunch of things we coulda’ shoulda’ done I have to say this was one of my favorite rides with TL this season.

Thanks to everyone who raced. I could not have made the podium without everyone’s amazing efforts.

I made sure to thank the folks from Norton Commons and as many volunteers as I could find for hosting this event. We need more communities to open up to bike racing right here in town.

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