2nd week of the Crit Series

Week 2 of the Gorham Bike & Ski hosted Scarborough Crit series brought a few new faces and some nasty weather.  An unfortunate accident in the B race delayed the start of the A race, and as the group huddled to stay warm the sky  turned gray and the clouds began to open up.  Organizer Dave Palese kicked off the race with a bang and held a prime on the first lap.  Nothing like going from ice cold to flat out racing in a matter of meters.  With 4 members of Downeast Racing (Travis Kroot, Matt Moon, Dan Vaillancourt and Eliot Pitney) flying the blue colors, the team fired attack after attack until a move stuck. With the team represented in the first promising looking break, by Kroot and Vaillancourt, the race settled down and the gap grew.  Pitney was eager to join his DER teammates so he bridged across and the men in blue numbered 3 strong out of the 6 man break.  Dan drove the break hard into the driving wind and rain setting up Travis for the mid race points sprint.  The gap to the main field continued to grow with only Eric Follen able to bridge to the leading group of 6.  With Momentum now having 2 members in the break (Follen & Caron) Downeast Racing went on the attack again, sending riders up the road forcing the other to chase.  With 3 or 4 laps to go Eliot and Eric Follen of Momentum opened a slight gap on their breakaway companions.  Sharing the work load the 2 leaders pressed their advantage and with 1 lap to go they were comfortably ahead of the 5 remaining breakaway riders, and only a few hundred meters from lapping the main field.  On the bell lap Follen forced the pace on the back stretch trying to generate some separation, but Eliot clung to his wheel, forcing Eric to lead out the final 750 meters and placing himself in a fantastic position headed into the final sprint.  DER filled two of the top 3 steps of the podium with Eliot standing on the top step with Travis outpacing the remaining breakaway riders finishing third.  Dan sacrificed his individual results to ensure success of the break and Matt Moon separated himself  from the main field to finish 8th. It was another great showing of force and teamwork by the boys in blue.

-Eliot