Myles Standish Race Report

 

Ta Herrera mixing it up 

Hank Pfeifle work done - coasting home

 

Ta and I ventured to Plymouth, MA to contest the 45+ Myles Standish road race. The race is conducted within the Myles Standish State Park which allows the benefit of racing on a closed course. Being only 4 laps of a 5 mile fairly flat circuit, the racing in all fields was fast and single file from the gun (very fun racing on a curvey narrow road). Our goal was to get one of us in a break and if that didn't happen, to keep things "compacto" so we could set Ta up for a sprint finish. A 3 man break did develop after lap 2 and when things were really winding up in lap 3 to reel them in, the race (and all other races) was neutralized due to a huge crash in the 4's field. I think every ambulance in the county came to scrap up the carnage - not pretty. So we were told to go back to the start/finish and wait for things to be cleaned up. We would do one lap to determine the results and the break was determined to be at 25 seconds. And wait we did - for 45 minutes. Unfortunately, many in our field had to leave, so the 45 starters was reduced to a field of about 30. One of those who couldn't stay was Eric Weinrich who was one of the guys in the break. Very unfortunate that his hard work would come to naught. The race resumed, with the 25 second lead reestablished, and I went to the front to be a worker bee trying to catch the 2 remaining escapees. No dice. Break out plan B which was to string things out fast going into the final corner (safer that way) about 400 meters from the finish, but I ran out of gas before the corner (uh-oh) so couldn't keep things single file as best for Ta. But Ta can maneuver through dicey situations like crazy (loves it!) and elbowed and banged his way to a hard fought 7th. Divorced from the mayhem, I rolled in at the back of the field. The venue was fun, the racing was fast and the guys all knew how to ride their bike - all in all a good day.