Myles Standish State Park Road Race — Cat 4

by Ian Sutton

What was supposed to be a cool and overcast day transformed itself to perfect cycling weather with temperatures in the low seventies and abundant sunshine. This coupled with a very civilized start time (Men's 4 at 11:50AM) sweetened the pot even further.

With such a short race of only 20 miles (32km) we knew it would be fast from the gun without the usual chit-chat that seems to make the first few k's go by faster. With Ken Han, John Naegle, Eric Martin and I representing Quad for our field we formulated a simple plan of shutting down any breakaways and trying to set it up for a sprint finish.

Right out of the gate we tore off up the first hill past the start/finish and down hill into a sharp, sandy right turn which would make quite the nightmare if you weren't the first few wheels through the corner having to brake hard and then chase up the next hill. Almost immediately, one kid rolled off the front and after a quick chat John and Eric went up to cover the move and after a moment I found myself up there as well. I guess the first Jens Voigt of the day didn't want a Quad sandwich for lunch and he sat up immediately and went back the field to think about what he had done. Wanting to stretch the legs and help drive the early pace, I kept it rolling at around 25mph (40kph) while John and Eric slowly sat up and went back to the field to try and slow them down. With such a short race and a rolling course, I didn't have the strength nor the intention of trying to TT my way to the finish but simply to keep the pace up and maybe if we were lucky, force a selection and split the field up (This seemed to happen in all the finishes we watched previously). After just under a lap of this pace I was swallowed up by the field and spent the next ten minutes recovering about ten or twelve guys from the front. The benefit of being off the front on this course was being able to apex every corner as well as picking your line over the pothole riddled course. Of course the downside is that you're taking all the wind and trying to pace yourself so that you're not going flat out but just tickling your red zone - something I still need to work on.

The next lap went by without too much excitement and of course positioning was key to staying near the front and by lap three, you could really feel an uneasy, nervous energy throughout the field while a few sketchy moves by other riders in the field forced me back a little further than I would like and it took some work to get myself safely back up to the front. It was not uncommon to be on the side of the ride trying to keep it upright in the fallen pine needles etc. (Cyclocross skills pay off here). At this time another attempt at a solo breakaway happened and the lack of organization from other teams compounded with what seemed like a lack of knowing how to paceline made this move especially nervous and frustrating. By now Eric is driving at the front setting tempo to keep the breakaway attempt in sight and get him back to the field before our next Jens Voigt gets too much of a gap and sticks the move. Eric signals the next rider through to take his pull and he declined touting that it was someone else's responsibility to do the work. Sensing Eric's frustration and my thin patience I opted to burn through a few matches and just drilled it up the right side of the road, dragging the field right up the breakaway up one of the few hills on the course. After going full gas for about 30 seconds, I went into the red and needed to head to the shelter of the field to recover but had successfully put John and Eric near the front. In hindsight it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, energy wise, but sometimes the quick and dirty is the way to git 'r done. Coming through the turns to the start finish the field seemed to be soft pedaling, perhaps gassed from all the accelerations that had been happening since we rolled out of the parking lot 40 minutes before.

On the fourth and final lap, the nervous energy was at an all time high while people who have been sitting on are trying to get near the front for their shot at victory while the group already at the front were trying to keep the pace high and then it finally happened. The sound of carbon hitting the ground. What sounded like a pretty big pileup happened near the back likely due to a touch of wheels and some sketchy group riding, of which there was plenty to go around. I conducted a quick headcount to make sure none of our guys went down but didn't see Ken (dramatic pause…). Thankfully he was in front of the crash just behind me but unfortunately he eventually had to abandon with a loose headset - not the type of mechanical you can live with on this course, not with the condition of the road surface.

With about 2km to go I was fourth wheel hoping that the three guys in front of me were willing to keep the pace high and take turns pulling. Of course this would provide a safer finish and discourage attacks from the field. Unfortunately the lead wheel wouldn't pull off and his pace consistently slowed into the final km. By now we've been swallowed up by the field and I was unable to find a hole to get back up to the front when magically what seemed like the entirety of the field folds over to the left side of the road and I promptly thanked Charlton Heston for the timely move. With the whole right side of the road open I upshifted a few gears and took off up the side of the road. Sadly, I was caught almost immediately but not to worry, John and Eric were near the front of the field where they would hopefully be able to organize themselves into a sprint. We head into the slight downhill right before the uphill finish and things started getting very dicey. Some riders punch drunk, others just appear crazy, thinking they can still win from 50 spots back start sprinting it out for 30th place. I just sat up and let them all fight it out for the finish. John slotted in 9th place, a fantastic result on top of his brilliant 4th place, just off the podium at Saturday's Ninigret criterium while Eric finished in the top 20 and I was about 25 guys back.

Overall it was a great early season race and it was apparent that Quad was one of the only teams that was able to ride as a team and execute a plan to the best of our ability. With that in mind, it's not hard to notice our results are becoming more consistent and I am confident that they will only get better as the season progresses. Very nice work everyone!


Results on BikeReg.com

Tour of the Battenkill Race Report — Cat. 3

by Christian Eager

Saturday, April 19, saw high temperatures one-degree off the all-time record (82°) in Salem, NY. Three members of QuadCycles made the trip for the early-season epic, the Tour of the Battenkill (née Battenkill-Roubaix).

Eric Silva and I did the category 3 race, which started at 11:30 a.m. Toby Phillpotts did the Masters 30+, which started 10 minutes later.

The Category 3 field was nearly full with 96 starters. While Eric and I knew that we probably were not going to place very highly, we were looking forward to the race, which had a reputation for being difficult, rewarding, and one-of-a-kind.

All three of those ended up being true. The most difficult parts of the race were the three main un-pavé (a.k.a. dirt road) sections, as not only were they unpaved, but the majority of the climbs, and certainly the steepest climbs, were all during these sections.

The group stayed together, and the race was not too difficult until the first of the off-road sections, on Juniper Swamp Road, about 10 miles in. The final climb of that section, before a long, fast descent, was .35 miles with an average grade of 9.4%. The majority of the dirt section was well-packed, but the last 100 meters or so was quite loose, and many people ended up needing to dismount and run to the top. I was one of these unlucky folks, and even though I managed a decent cyclocross-style remount, the group was well down the descent by the time I crested.

Thus began the middle section of my race, the group chase. A group of about 6 riders, including myself, Eric, and Jeremy Dunn of Cambridge Bicycle, collected at the bottom of the descent and began a smooth, rotating, paceline for the next 10 miles or so. We caught a few riders who joined us, and by the end we had about 10 people working together trying to chase back on to the group. It wasn’t meant to be, though as we didn’t catch them before the next set of unpaved climbs, which in turn shattered our group.

During the second or third climb of 5 in this middle un-pavé our group had dwindled to 6, and Eric and I were lagging behind the lead 4. After cresting this climb, we tucked in for the fast, negative-5%-grade descent. Just before descent ended, I heard a BANG, and looked behind me to find Eric had gotten a flat. Luckily, we had just passed the second of two support vans for our race, so he was able to get a wheel change without waiting for too long. I pressed on, unsure of how long the wheel swap would take, and still hoping the group would re-coalesce after the dirt section ended.

It didn’t. Or, at least, I wasn’t a part of it. In fact, for the rest of the race I never was able to work with another Cat. 3, and only saw another 3 or 4 people from my race. The 13 miles to the next dirt section were relatively uneventful. I passed several riders in other races, and ran out of water around mile 42. Luckily, this was just before a neutral feed zone (thank you, Greenwich!), where I was able to get a bottle of water to tide me over ‘til the end.

Just before the final dirt section, on Ferguson Road, I was caught by the Masters 30+ field. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, but for two things. Firstly, and frustratingly, there were a few Cat. 3 riders mixed in with the group. Although before every road race, competitors are warned not to work with other groups, it seems that inevitably a few people mix in with subsequent fields when they’ve been dropped. “What’s the big deal? I’m so far back,” they’re probably thinking. Well, it’s a little annoying to have worked for 10 miles by yourself, only to have people you dropped an hour ago ride by on the coattails of another group. You’re not helping them, but they’re certainly helping you.

The second thing was that it meant I was entering the section shortly after the field and their follow cars. The third dirt section was much dustier (mostly unpacked, and between ¼- and ½-inch of loose dirt) than the previous two sections. In fact, visibility at the beginning of the section less than 25 meters there was so much dust. A couple of people passed me on this section; the loose dirt proved to me more challenging for me than it was for them.

On the published course profile, the last climb, about half of which is dirt, looks steep and, well, mountainous. In reality, it’s a long, steady, shallow climb, about 3% for 2.5 miles;the first 1.75 miles is dirt. After the crest is a long, fast descent, and then it’s mostly flat and about 4 miles to the finish. I had one Cat. 3 pass me on this stretch, the last of only four to do so legitimately after our chase group shattered around mile 30.

I was quite pleased to cross the finish line at 2:46:11, in 63rd place. I knew Battenkill-Roubaix was not my race from the beginning. However, I’m glad to have done it and gotten to see a

Congratulations to Toby and Eric for finishing, too, 20th and 76th in their respective races.

Results on BikeReg.com

Rick Newhouse Memorial Criterium — Cat. 4

QuadCycles’ First Win of 2008

by John Buchheit and John Naegle

Under sunny skies on the coast of Rhode Island, the Category 4 men made another impressive showing at the Rick Newhouse Memorial Ninigret Criterium. Nessim Mazrahi took the win and John Naegle placed fourth. John Buchheit finished with the pack. Here’s the way it unfolded:

The race was a timed race. It was advertised as 55 minutes, but ended up being closer to 45 minutes. It began at noon. The course was a dead-flat 7 corner course built on an old airstrip with a right-to-left cross wind on the finishing stretch. The wind direction meant a headwind coming into the last corner of the race. We arrived at 10:30 am and had a quick team meeting. Everyone was relaxed. We decided that because the course was windy and open (the pack can almost always see any breakaway), the race would be decided by a field sprint. As John N felt good, Nessim felt tired from training and John B had yet to race this season, we decided to lead John N out for the field sprint. We decided Nessim would take the first leg of the lead-out and John B the second. John B wanted to see what he had for a sprint and told his ‘mates he’d compete for an early prime. Nessim offered a lead out.

After a good thirty-five minute warm-up and some stretching, we met on the course and discussed the details of the lead-outs (where each lead-out should begin and end, which side of the track would be best for sprinting and which way the lead-out riders would pull off). We felt confident at the line.

After a few laps, a rider from the Blue Hill Cycling Club attacked and with the help of a teammate stayed out for three or four laps. His one teammate in the race moved to the front of the pack to block and chase down anyone trying to bridge to his teammate. The attacker never got far enough out to make the pack uncomfortable. In fact, the pack seemed to understand that this tactic was making two riders put forth a lot of effort with little chance of success. The single attacker, on a windy course and in full view of the pack, was not going to stay away for 30 minutes and his teammate was working hard reeling people in (when his teammate would probably have been better off if he had been joined by some other riders). The breakaway failed as the rider seemed to just wear out.

The first prime was the called and Nessim checked in with John B. They agreed to try and take it. Nessim provided a strong lead-out and soon he, John B. and another rider on John’s wheel were in front of the pack. However, John B was having trouble holding Nessim’s wheel and Nessim opened up a gap. John B., realizing he did not have much in the tank, directed Nessim to try to take the prime. John thought that even if he could come around Nessim, his efforts would only bring the rider behind him in for the win. The rider on John B’s wheel did come around him and looked like he might take it, but Nessim accelerated before the line and beat him. After this event, John B told Nessim and John N that the order of the lead out should be changed so that Nessim gave the final lead out. It was clear that today Nessim would provide the stronger lead out.

Soon thereafter a couple of riders attacked to create a three man breakaway. After a few laps, a fourth rider bridged and for a while they looked strong, building up perhaps a fifteen second lead on the field. The Quad riders remained in the shelter of the pack, riding conservatively. The break’s advantage decreased to around 6 seconds, but it was getting close to the finish and John N. and Nessim agreed that the break posed a threat, enough so that Nessim went ahead to either break up the rhythm of the group, or, in the alternative, allow the break to pull him to the finish. Nessim quickly bridged and when it became his turn to pull, he just soft pedaled. One of the riders in the break told him that if he was going to be part of the break, he had to work, at which point Nessim delivered the bad news: he was not there to help. This seemed to demoralize the break and it soon fell apart.

Before we knew there were two laps to go. John N. and Nessim were in good position, in the front third of the pack. John B. was not, but began moving up to see if he might be able to start the lead out as planned. Approximately five hundred meters before the finish, before the second to last corner, John B. pulled up alongside Nessim and John N., put did not have the energy to contribute. Nessim accelerated through this corner, slipping between two riders, and opened up a gap on the field. John N. lost Nessim’s wheel when Nessim made the move. Nessim continued to open up this gap coming around the second corner and was able to hold it all the way to the finish. John N. took the inside line sheltered from the wind by two riders to his right sprinted for fourth. John B. was in decent position, but after making his way to the front in the final lap, had nothing for the sprint, and was passed by many riders coming down the final stretch (I felt like I was going backwards).

Another great result for the team!

Results on BikeReg.com

Tufts Criterium Race Report — Cat. 3/4

by Christian Eager

Synopsis: 2nd place

I hadn’t planned on making the Tufts Crit only my second race of the season. However, no matter how many races I wish I’d done, I couldn’t have hoped for a much better result. The weather threatened until the very start of the race (we actually had some showers pass through the area around 12:30), but the course was dry, with overcast skies and temperatures in the low 50’s when the race started. There were about 20 starters, four from QuadCycles—myself, Eric Silva, Toby Phillpotts, and newcomer Jeremy Jo, a graduating senior from Tufts.

The race started briskly, as usual; you don’t want to be near the back the first time through turn 2. You can’t be sure who will negotiate it well the first time, and who will take a dive into the wall of hay bales.

Luckily, the group was small, and relatively experienced to boot, so the race was pretty smooth. In fact, I can only recall one crash, involving our own Jeremy Jo, which happened on the long straightaway between turns 6 and 1.

All in all, our team worked well together. We launched multiple attacks, trying to wear down the people we marked as dangerous before the race. Eric attacked about a third of the way through, and one of our marked riders chased him down. Toby and Jeremy took turns riding second wheel, keeping their eye on the group while keeping themselves out of the wind.

During the third quarter of the race, I was feeling a little antsy, so I put in small attacks on several laps, usually so that I could take turns 2-4 by myself, since there were a couple of competitors who weren’t as skilled cornering, and I could maintain a gap without expending as much effort.

With about 10 laps to go, I tried to create a gap with a rider from MIT, who had won the collegiate B race earlier in the day. He clearly had the talents of a time trialist, as he took several strong pulls, but we weren’t able to make a gap stick. This move did split the group, with a lead group of 8 forming for the final 5 laps.

As the bell rang with one lap to go, I was in good position, second wheel. Because I didn’t have much of a problem riding at the front during the first 29 laps, I was confident that I’d be able to pick my position for the final lap. Coming out the final turn, however, I was a little further back then I would liked, in fourth. The eventual race winner, Steven Gauthier, was second wheel, and when the lead rider jumped with about 200m to go, he was on it. I was too far back to ever reach Steven’s wheel, but I maintained the gap through the finish. If I’d been on his wheel, I’d like to think I could have passed him, in spite of his well-known tenacity in the sprint. In retrospect, I should have known his was the wheel to be on if it came down to a sprint, as I raced against him many times at New England Velodrome last summer.

Still, I’m very pleased with second place. My thanks to Eric, Toby, and Jeremy for working for me in the race. The plan from the beginning was to set me up with a lead-out, if possible, and, in any case, to wear down the competition with multiple attacks, and covering any attacks key riders made during the race, which they did admirably.

Results on BikeReg.com

Below is a video of the finish, taken by my brother. You can’t see the final move, but you can see the result.

2008 Tufts Criterium on April 13

Presented by Boloco, the criterium is the last event of the Boston Beanpot Classic race weekend. The morning is filled with collegiate races; the afternoon is when USCF racers take to the course.

The USCF Men's Category 3/4 race is at 4pm and Women's Category 1/2/3 race is at 5pm. Both consist 30 laps of a fast, technical 1.0km course on Tufts University's campus. Additional information is available on the criterium flyer.

QuadCycles will provide marshaling and neutral support for all races.

Register at BikeReg.com.

Spring?

It was 60° today in Boston—is spring finally here? I think we're all ready to ride in shorts again. Even the QuadCycles member in this photo.

The New York Times covers rapid growth in domestic cyclo-cross racing

You know something is popular when the New York Times finally gets a hold of it.

Photo courtesy of the New York Times

The article documents the significant growth of cyclo-cross over the past few years:

“We’re seeing a cyclocross phenomenon of sorts in this country,” said Stuart Thorne, a former professional cyclocross rider from Wenham, Mass., who now runs the online publication CyclocrossWorld.com. “A race in Oregon last month drew nearly 1,000 cyclocross racers, which was one of the biggest showings ever.”

About 40,000 cyclists registered to race in a cyclocross event last year, according to USA Cycling, a Colorado Springs organization that sanctions competitions. That’s up from 17,000 registered racers in 2004.