The C.C.R. bike scene

Well here is the blow by blow of the day...

Starting the night prior....spit shined my rig for an hour...got all
the dried up worms off from the Plainville series. She was looking
HOT! Bag was packed, bottles ready, I was more prepared than usual.

Morning of....left promptly at 9:55am for the nice ride up to Warren
MA. took about 1:15min. Still feeling a bit congested and chest was a
bit tight from my cold but otherwise I was feeling ready to go.
Registration was a piece of cake, got dressed, and went for a short
warm up. This event was huge...... tons of riders.... parking lots
were packed to the gills! All the main guys were there, Eric M., Ron
Larosse, Bob German, and many others. Weather was perfect, blue skies,
70F, no wind.

The race started promptly at noon, not sure where Chris B is but I guess
he's here somewhere. We were led out by the lead
vehicle for a 4 mile neutral start. 2 miles into the neutral start the
lead vehicle made a wrong turn and the entire peloton had to double
back...pretty funny! At this point I see Chris B playing catch up.....must
have been late to the start.

The course was very nice rolling terrain with a hilly finish, each lap
was about 17miles with about 1200ft of climbing. The first lap was
pretty easy going but fast, a few attacks but nothing stuck, speed was
fast about 23-24mph avg with some max speeds reaching near 40! I was
in a good position up toward the front but not doing any real work,
just following wheels. 2nd lap saw some real attacks, one of which I
tried to get into but again we were brought back by the start of the
last lap. I was feeling pretty good but could definitely feel the legs
starting to get tight. The last lap was faster still and a solid break
of 4 got away. We reeled in two of the 4 about 10 miles into the last
lap. 3 miles to go! We are on the hills....legs are feeling OK but
not great. I feel like I can stay with the leaders but not strong
enough to attack. The remaining break away riders were caught.
I was sitting about 7th position with 500m to go
when suddenly a CCNS rider goes down right in front of me! CRASH!! I
ride right over his rear wheel! I go down hard! over the bars,
tumbling and rolling a few times into the woods. A chain reaction of
downed riders behind me! This guy took out a good 12-15 riders! Two of
which were seriously hurt. My adrenalin was pumping, I quickly grabbed
my bike and untangled it from the CCNS guys bike and rode to the
finish. Chris B was involved too but not as badly, we rode to the
finish together. Dazed and hurt I crossed the line, knee bleeding,
shoulder hurt and scraped, helmet cracked in 3 places, and a flat
front tire to boot. For the most part I was OK and my bike was too. Major
Bummer!! I got a SRAM front wheel to get back to the parking
lot/school. There were two guys still down in the rode, looked like a
broken leg and not sure what the other guys problem was. Ron L took
2nd and Eric M took 3rd. I'm sure I could have been right up there
with these guys had I not been involved in the crash. Results were posted today
and it turns out I came across the line in 32nd place.

Joe