Liam Somers (Cat 4) has been dominating the Scarborough Crit series over the past several weeks. Liam placed 1st in the last four races. Liam now is currently sitting in first place in the overall series. Seth Haskell (Cat 4) has been helping Liam maintain his overall standings. The two powerhouses have been working together putting on a great show in the series demonstrating their strength and speed.
Race Report Provide by: Liam Somers (Cat 4)
The 8 week crit series is raced on a four corner, 1.1 mile course, that is famous for the brutal headwind on the backstretch. The field typically consist of 25 riders racing at speeds up to 30+ mph, with many rapid accelerations. The first few weeks were spent getting our legs back under us for Crit racing and figuring out who we wanted to attack in the series.
From there we have raced tactically to ensure no favorites were able to make any breaks that we didn't counter and we have tried to keep the pack broken up as much as possible to get us more room on the final sprint. Seth has been doing hard man work on the front, drilling the pace for 3-4 laps at a time, stringing out the group and making the other teams work to counter. I have kept up front and maintained a watchful eye on the top 3-4 riders to make sure no gaps occur. The last sprint has been close each week with all of us taking turns leading it out from about 700 meters to go (coming around the final turn). Final sprint speeds hit the high 30's (I hit 37.8 mph last week) and we have had 4 very close finishes that I have been fortunate enough to get my wheel across the line first each time.
Right now I have a 3 point lead (at 28 pts) going into the 7th week (points are awarded for the top 6 places as follows 6 pts for 1st, 5 pts for 2nd, 4 pts for 3rd etc..). The second and third place riders have 25 pts and 18 pts respectively. I need to try and win this week to ensure a victory in the series, as I am unable to race in week 8 (as is the guy in 2nd place, so that helps). If I can get a first place finish I will wrap up with 34 pts which will solidify my series placing.
So, we have a big week coming up with two other teams hungry to put an end to the New England Colavita Team's domination at the front of the group. We'll do our best to put the final nail in the coffin though ;)
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