I Hate Ninigret

A fitting title for my most highly loathed bike race in the world. What's the reason I hate this race so much? Is it the the 3 hour drive from the Berkshires on the most despotic highways in the Northeast? Is it the 40 mph, relentless winds that drop kick you in the face after that corner where I always strike my pedal? Is it Ben Wolfe putting everyone in the gutter on every lap whilst expelling a million watts? Or is the fact that I have terrible, stupid legs every time I show up for this race?  I had a terrible race at Ninigret on Saturday. I had just come off a rest week and thought my legs would feel great. I quickly realized they did not. I only lasted about 30 minutes of the race, got dropped, went in the woods, cried, and screamed to the bicycle contest gods. My teammate Stephen Hyde got into the break and finished second behind Luchiano Pavan, Nice W Luch!!!!!

Ok, lets bag that race in the past. Every year I swear I won't race Ninigret and every year I show up, get crushed, and cry for 3 hours on the drive home. Sunday went MUCH better. I actually had my big boy legs on. It was just me and Hyde on Sunday, we showed up ready to be agressive, B, E, agressive.
and agressive we were. From the gun we were trying to get something to go. The problem with a 1,2,3 race is that whenever anyone tries making a move happen, all the 3's go berserk and pull the move back but then won't pull through to make anything stick.
So after this nonsense, something finally went and neither me or Hyde were in it. We knew it was going to stick and we had to be in that move. On the next lap we attacked HARD and made a split from the group and eventually bridged up to the break. With ten laps to go we started attacking the break and making people hurt, it was awesome. I would throw down an attack at the top of the hill and make the group chase me while Hyde sat in, and when they caught me Hyde would attack and I would sit in. We did this a few times and hurt peoples legs a bit. We ended up 8th and 9th which I'm happy with, but we could have played it smarter and finished a bit stronger. I learned a LOT about bicycle contests and had a solid finish in a pro/1/2/3 race, so I'm content with it.

Next week is Quabbin road race and it will be quite painful!

Check out our awesome new matching team shorts!!!!