Road Bike Racing - Cyclonauts RR 2008

Against all odds, it looks like I'm getting at least one road race in before Fitchburg! Cat 4/5 was full, so I'll be racing Cat 3/4. I have no real aspirations for this race other than to get back into the 'feel' of racing after a month and a half off - I won't be killing myself to place well. Finishing without getting dropped is good enough, anything else is just gravy. So, who else from BF will be there? Say hello if you spot me - I'll be the short guy with the beard on the old red Univega with funny-looking shifters, navy and light-blue kit that says "NCC" all over it. See you there!

Have you done this race before? I'm probably going to do it, just wondering what the course is like/

thanks

I haven't done it before, but judging by the course profile, there are some hills, and the finish line is way up a hill. Should be fun!

(No, I don't like climbing, either).

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/992931

Nice course, rolling hills mostly, the start/finish hill is relatively significant.

I did it the 4/5 last year. Other then the climb, it's an easy course. The climb can be hard for the shorter races because the stronger guys are going to punch it the first time around to try an make a selection.

Also, there's a train track you have to cross so be careful. Last year, a train going by actually stopped the race for several minutes. The one guy who went on solo flyer early on, got ahead of the train an won the race. It was a bummer.

Thanks for everyone's input. This would've been a fun race, had I not waited!!!! I just re-read grolby's original post stating the 4/5 is closed so I'm SOL. As someone else is fond of saying, "pay attention".

Good luck to everyone racing, looking forward to the reports.

Tour of the Hilltowns.

Okay, maybe I'm showing my newbi-ness but I rode the [Monson] course last weekend, and it's "easy" [note sarcasm] except for two major hills - actually two series of hills. The first bunch comes in the first mile or so - be forewarned. The second "bump" is at the end of the first loop, and (the first part of that) is repeated for the finish. It should be interesting.

IIRC that race has a pretty long neutral start. At least it did in the past. The start/finish hill usually creates a selection.