New Britain Criterium

The team was well represented at The New Britain Criterium on Sunday. It was another in a seemingly endless line of recent "Championship" events. This time, the New England Regional Championships for Cat1\2's. 

Pro1,2

Hunter, who has been taking it easy on the crits this year, started out well in the top event. There were 2 Pro teams in attendance, Mountain Khakis and Kenda Geargrinder. Also there was a Garmin Development Team Rider. Throw in a bunch of Bikereg.com guys and you have a fast fast event. Average speed was a hair under 26mph. Hunter, knowing that his chances at the sprint finish were slim, got a couple of decent looks at breakaway groups, but speeds were high enough so that no break got more then 5 or 6 seconds for all 40 miles of the race. The last 2 laps were full gas and gaps started to open in the field just 15 guys deep in the pack. With no advancing wheels to follow for the last lap Hunter rolled in 49th out of 80.

Cat 3

Joe K, fresh off a family vacation started this one. With 6 laps to go Joe went deep in the red to get into a break that had some strong guys in it. Cyclonauts and CLR Racing were represented in the group of 7. Even still, the break had some lazy legs in it, and Joe couldnt pull the group by himself. They got swept up with 1 to go and Joe hung around the front to finish 18th.

Cat 4

Dillon, Peter K, and Antontio. Antonio was racing in his 2nd race of the day and still managed to chase down a lot of attacks and even bridged up to a couple of breaks. Dillon hovered around the front all race and was riding "prototype" wheels ( more on those in a few days ). For the finale, Dillon managed 11th and Peter was at 19th.

35+ Race

Tim Ratta was out in another very fast race and finished 18th.

45+ Race

The highlight of the day for the Team was Antonio taking 5th in the 45+ race. Great Job Antonio! Here is a recap from him: The first 2 laps wore very fast and then we start getting attacked by some of Cyclonauts. I was trying to stay on the wheel of Rich Foley, since he all ways places well on most races. But it was still very hard for me to do that, sometimes I had to chase and bridge to the leaders. I asked Miguel how he felt for the end,  and to watch for me with like 2 laps to go and get on my wheel. I was feeling good and as one of the cyclonauts was away for like 4 laps solo the bells was rung for a prime lap. I turned and looked at the peloton and to me it didn't look like they were going to chase, since that leader had a 15 second gap. So I went off the group with all I had and I almost had it at the little hill. The peloton was like 10 or 12 yards back pedaling hard. On the last turn the guy had like 5 seconds difference between  me and the peloton and we catch him up in the first turn. At that point I was tired so I decided to get in the back and rest for the big sprint. With 5 laps to go, I re-started my game again to look for Rich Foley's wheel. On turn 3, last lap, I was like the 12th or 13th guy so we start sprinting I hear a crash in the back but I got 5th with Rich Foley behind me in 6th. So I placed 5th overall & 4th in the State. As for Miguel and Bruce, they did a  good job Miguel finish in the middle of the pack Bruce DNF do to his previous race where he finished in the pack.  

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