Thursday, August 21, 2008

Plan B

I had a post summarizing the Fall River Criterium almost ready for public consumption when I stupidly hit the wrong key and lost it all. Sorry, but I don't have the patience this late at night to do it all over again and it is time to pack up for this weekend's race in Saco.

Suffice it to say, Frank McCormack (TEAM Fuji), who "retired" two years ago, ripped the legs off the Pro1/2/3 field for a fine solo victory.

Both women's races were won by Cody Harris (National Capitol Velo). Unfortunately the Women's Pro1/2/3 race was cancelled due to lack of pre-registered riders.

The most impressive victory of the day was certainly Bill Yarbroudy's Cat 3 win. He got into a break away with three riders form Exodus Road Racing (aka the men in black). The four of them got more than a half lap lead on the field with half the race to go so their was no real worry about getting caught. Still, the Exodus guys (did I mention there were three of them?) didn't try to shake Yarbroudy until one lap to go. Any savvy tactician would have expected the Exodus guys (all three of them) to take turns attacking Yarbroudy (the only NBX/Narragansett Beer team guy in the break with, did I mention, three guys from the same team) until he just couldn't respond any longer. Yarbroudy is good, in fact very good, but is he really better than the combined strength of three opponents all from the same team? Probably not, but still they couldn't shake him. Yarbroudy out sprinted the three from Exodus (names withheld to protect the tactically inept) to take the win. The one Exodus guy who had a good excuse was Ernie Toutkus who had worked very hard chasing all the break aways in the Masters 35 race only minutes previously.

I promise to never hit the "back" key again while posting. Hopefully my race report from Saco will be more comprehensive. Check back next week to see if I have actually learned my lesson.

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