Mid week criteriums don’t happen too often ..so when Salem MA, home of the infamous 17th century witch-hunt , opened it’s doors for a “triangle-shaped” ..”track-like” 1KM course around their central common area, top racers flooded to the Greater Boston location for some high speed, closely matched racing. A field of over 100 Pro 1,2,3 racers lined up on Wednesday August 12th to have “at it” .. MetLife started Brad Sheehan, Tim Mitchell, Ryan Fleming, Chris Coutu and Corey Mason along-side the likes of Mark McCormack (Team Fuji), Adam Myerson (Team Mountain Khaki), Tim Johnson (OUCH) to name a few notables…The race was pretty fast as criteriums go (roughly 28mph !) but the course wasn’t quite technical enough to shell any of the top end riders within the field..other than the pure speed of the race, mostly developed off unsuccessful attacks in the front, the night was relatively uneventful .. in the end about 40 riders got pulled by officials for falling off the pace and a field sprint of the remaining 60 or so racers ensued. With our best sprinter, Nick Bennette resting @ home in preparation for the US Criterium Nationals this past Sunday..MetLife managed to sneak Tim Mitchell off the front in the closing laps while Brad, Ryan, Corey and Chris jockeyed for position to potentially mix it up if Tim got caught .. well the speed of the race forced Tim back but he managed to hang in for a top 15 placing by staying at the front..a few significant shifts in the field in the final few laps boxed in the rest of the MetLife crew , who finished safely with the pack .. next stop is Beverly MA and Salem would prove to be excellent warm-up “grounds” for Ryan Fleming to cash-in a top performance.