Plainville Crit #2

Saturday morning, a North Eastern is blowing rain around. That'll get an interesting day. The night before Py found a bad cut-all-through in his rear tire and as this one was about at it's end either way with >5200km plus all winter trainer hours he put on a new GP4k. Also he serviced/adjusted the headset&play on his old Tarmac. Getting up early to catch the 6am boat from PJeff to BP. This already was getting to the first exiting part as the ferry left the harbor and turning strait into pretty rough sea -- the North Eastern was blowing waves strait into the Long Island Sound. The boat turning from more rolling more into it crashing across the waves, water splashing in big washes over the front and hammering the windows! Alright... fun to watch. At 3/4 of the trip the boat changed direction towards BP harbor and was rolling nicely left and right -- good Py does not have any problems with that :-)
The ferry arrived about 10 minutes late, possibly due to the wind and not strait course.

The 45min drive up to Plainville was less exciting, just wet and windy. Guess that washed the salt spray off the car again.

Signing in and getting ready, a few more riders were around but hiding in their cars...

20 minutes to go, finding the portable bathroom and testing out how the kit feels in the rain, luckily a little less windy up here.

Taking a couple of warm up laps, chatting with some of the other riders, testing out the grip/turns -- felt alright.

Approximately twenty riders lined up at the start and rolled out, few more easy warm up laps counting down from 40. Some slight speed tests up to 42+km/h, but nothing of trouble for Py, staying most the time with the front five or six and working a bit together, they got a little break at about 27 to go and towards the 1st prime. Py was happy to keep his position and went over on 5th position at lap 23 (??? if he remembers right). After that the break away they got a bit too lazy and the field caught up -- except a few riders who were already lapped.
Still hanging in around position 2..4 for several laps, it happened Py got in front for one and half lap, but not too bad -- feels good in front, not so wet... but soon merging into at the front part of the pack -- thanks for being so nice to all!

Sitting there around 2..5 and holding his position made the last laps flying by so fast that soon 3 laps to go was on the lap counter board -- every one was doing fine. Speed was picking up and with the bell Py was happy holding his spot, at the short sprint on the last strait into the wind just a few passed and he came in at 9th. One lap to obligatory lap to finish/cool down.

Every one has happy and no slide outs in this race.

Good getting back to the car and out of all this soaked stuff. Having a brief look at the 2nd race:

Py is puzzled how this poor guy can ride in shorts and short sleeved jersey?!?!?!?

Just about time to get comfortably to the 12 o'clock ferry. The boat was 20 minutes delayed. No wonder. And one even little more exciting sail.