NE TT Championships

by Jonah Tower

I guess there really isn't that much excitement in an ITT to talk about, but since I placed 29th overall and 10th in Cat 3, I figure I ought to post something. The course itself went from Colebrook, CT to Otis, MA and back. the first few kilometers, after the start, were mostly downhill (a bad omen for the finish). Then, a bit of flats with the wind blowing hard in my face, before pitching up and then climbing for about 12 km to the turn around. The only notable action in the whole event was that I traded blows with another rider all the way up the climb, before he descended away from me on the return trip (he had a few lbs advantage). I had never done a ITT of this distance before, so I was pretty happy with my results (finishing in just under 58 minutes), and if I shave 1 minute off my time, I would pop into the top 20 overall.

Wachusett Circuit Race—Chuckhole Hell

by Christopher Rehm

Not to much to say about this one. Basically the Road sucked big time. There were 28 flats in the 30 mile masters 40 race. The refs said that the 4/5 race was the worst crashfest in NE history. 12 quad guys started, like 2 finished, one in the 3/4 and one in the 4/5. The team spirit was there, just not the conditions.Jonah busted a nice wheel; I felt like hell as I could not sleep the night before; probably esp at work… About 1 km before the finish it looked like someone had taken a bulldozer and just totally tore up the road and then  didn't clean up. the DH part of the course was hidious as well…

I move to skip this one next season unless the road is fixed…

Mt. Sunapee Road Race — Cat 3/4 & Wells Crash :-(

by Brian Vickery

Mt. Sunapee ‘shined’ on us today.  I woke up on Saturday expecting almost anything.  In years past the weather at the Mt. Sunapee road race had been pretty bad.  This year was an overcast day but no rain, freezing rain, or snow (yeah it did snow on us one year).
I lined up for the Cat 3/4 46 mile road race with Shaun Landon and Chris Rehm.  The race itself is two laps with one hill of significance.  We deiced that for the first half of the first lap we let the field do its thing while we sat in the first 15 places.  Of course best laid pans do not last.  Shortly into the first lap a large group of riders went down cutting the field in half.  I was brushed by a falling rider but did not go gown.  Chris got caught up in the crash but was OK.  Shaun was right in front of me so he was good.  But in the confusion of falling bodies and bike parts about 20 guys were charging off the front.  I yelled up to Shaun to catch that group and I’d catch him. Thanks Shaun.  With Shaun’s help I bridged back up to the main field.  The rest of the race went OK.  Each time up the hill the field broke up but usually regrouped a mile or two down the road. For the final up hill finish I was lucky enough to still be in the main group.  Someone yelled out that the hill was long and there would be plenty of time to ‘sprint’ for the finish.  For some reason I let off the ‘gas’ (wrong move). That was the wrong thing to do because at that same moment 15 guys took off up the hill.  My lack of concentration lost me some places.  I felt good up the hill and reclaimed some of my places but I learned never to ‘back off’ on the finish.  In all a 28th place, a fine day of racing. 
 
As for Sunday I went to Wells Ave for some training miles and to help out.  Unfortunately on the final lap of the B race there was a massive pile up that I was in.  I went down very hard.  It took several minutes to get off the ground.  Dizzy and confused Chris Rehm came over to help out.  Big thanks to Chris that day as it would have been a hard ride home with out him. I never saw the entire crash but from what I can piece together a rider was leading a group off the front in a Tour de France or Giro sprint style train.  The lead rider when he was spent did not peal off enough AND he turned his head to see the main field.  As soon as he checked the main field position he drifted right back into the charging field.  I’d say about 15+ guys went down to of them had to be taken to the hospital via ambulance (broken elbow and brown collar bone).  I was very lucky.  If I was any closer to the front I’d be the guy with a broken elbow.
 
Keep the rubber side down!  BTW I need a new race kit…

Owasco SR — Cat 3

by Jonah Tower

After a solid week of training and feeling weel rested, I was looking forward to a good weekend of racing in Auburn, NY. We had a hotel in the middle of town and all three events were within 5 minutes of driving, so it was a very nice situation in a quiet corner of New York state. Friday evening we headed out to take a look at the 16-mile TT course, and then on the way back to the hotel registered for the weekend. Then, it was time for food and bed.

Saturday morning was a bit grey and a little on the cool side, but over all a fine day for the ITT. I drove Chris out to the staging area, so that he could warm-up and get going, and in the process discovered that they were going to have a 20-minute delay in start times. The course itself consisted of two long "false flat" sections going south along Owasco Lake, before turning to the east, going down hill for a bit and then flat until the turn-around at about 8 miles. I had a start time of about 10:30, and by the time I got to the start house the sun had broken through and with that there was a STRONG wind coming from the south. So, I had to plow through a tough head wind for the first several miles on the false flat sections, and then after making the turn, I really was working hard to keep the bike upright as the cross wind battered me from the right and then from the left, after I made the turn around. In the process I caught a few guys but was also caught by a guy from a minute back. On the stretch leading back to the finish line he and I traded back and forth while we had a tail wind (he was a bigger rider and probably was better built for TTing in the wind than I). And, for the final sections I was fully in 55-12 gearing and hauling @$$ to the finish line. The end result put me in 12th position, which I had mixed feelings about, because I was looking to be in the top 10 and the top rider had nearly 2 minutes on my time.

Once the TT was done and I had cooled down a while, we headed back to the hotel for lunch, self-massage, and a nap to get ready for the downtown crit that eveneing. The weather was really warming up and by mid afternoon it was certainly in the 70's, but as I was warming up, before the 18:15 start time that the Cat 3's had, the rain came and I was left under the gate of my Xterra thinking "this is going to be interesting." The crit itself was a "6-curve" course around the town center with two lanes of road just for us and a small finiahing hill… in general it was FAST! However, with the pouring rain that we now were suffering the officials decided not to have the intermediate sprints for time bonus (of which there were going to be 7 for 5, 3, and 1 second each) and, while I was a little disappointed about the lost oportunity to move up in GC, I think it was the right decision. In general the pace was pretty fast, but the course itself was not at all very decisive and without the sprints the field hung mostly together. However, not just once or twice, but three times a vehicle wandered on to the course, and we all had a few close calls trying to avoid on-coming traffic at 35 mph. In the end I finished with the field, when I got hemmed in on the inside of the final sprint, but two of the GC-guys ahead of me somehow lost time, and I eneded up in 10th.
Pasta, oatmeal, and a pear… then, to sleep.

After closer inspection of the GC situation I saw that the next guy was only 1 second up and less than 10 seconds in front of him was #8, so I was certainly looking to grab some time bonuses on the cheap if I could. Thinking that maybe with a 75-mile RR ahead of them and with two event already in their legs the field my let me go on a solo flyer for a little while, I warmed up really well and hit LT from the line trying to get to the first KOM (at 7 miles) alone. However, my gamble did not pay off with great visbility and the field caught me with about 500m to the top of the KOM, and I was hurtin' bad to get across it myself. From then on the plan was simply to keep a good eye on all the GC guys that were near me, while trying to recover from my initial effort. Two guys broke away, shortly after the first KOM and the field let them go a little while knowing we could easily catch them however, we missed our turn to the approach of the second KOM and ended up having to U-turn in the middle of the race to get back on course so the two riders took it uncontested. While I had nothing to really contest the 1.2-mile, 6.5% climb, I was able to make it across in relatively good shape. For the rest of the race I really couldn't do much but sit in, so I stayed near the front making sure that I didn't miss any splits that might occur, but the course had long sections of flat or down-hill, where one could see for miles literally, so the field stuck together for the most part only sheading a few riders here and there. I had worked out a deal with ECV to get a feed, but that got a little boched-up and one of their riders is now all upset with me for "being in the way." Then, in the final miles I became totally focused on the guy ahead of me and trying to position myself to take a second from him, if the oportunity should arise that I missed a small break that got away with only a few miles to go, but was able to hold 50 seconds on the field, because everyone was goofing around with GC placings in their mind. The finsh was super fast with a down hill approach to the last 200m, but again I eneded up just somewhere in the field. Because I didn't cover the break two guys snuck in ahead of me in GC and I eneded up back in 12th for the weekend.

Overall I am happy with how I felt and how I raced physically. I would have liked to have been at least in the top 10 places for GC, if not the top 5. But, the gambles I took did not pay off. Still, the weekend was great, and I even had enough energy to make the drive all the way home. Next year I hope that we can make this a big QuadCycles event, because it is really very fun and great preparation for other stage races during the year.

The Owasco Stage Race

by Christopher Rehm

So it was a great weekend. We left Friday at about noon got there about 530. Rode the TT course, ate and then bed. Saturday Am was the TT, it was borderline cold but warmed up as things got going. They were about 20 min late starting. Long course, 16 miles, windy windy windy. I broke a spoke in my aero wheels 5 min before the start, bummer.  Got 42 in the TT, then back off to the motel for a nap. It actually got sunny for the crit, easy 1.5 km course, in the center of town, no corners. Now thats my kind of crit, only one acceleration at the beginning and then just pedal like mad for 30 min and 12 sec. We did 28 km in that time, you figure out the speed (I’ll give you a physics quiz on this the next time I see you…)  33rd in the crit. 3-4 nice crashes, really bizzare, and a lot of surly riders, there is something about New York racing… Right after the masters crit the rain started, I’ll let Jonah tell you all about that lovely race,  and then a quick meal and off to bed.

Next morning we went to the RR. Nice sunny day. Oops forgot the sun screen, oh well. Race gets started about 20 min late, we ride about 2 miles and as is the norm in masters racing one guy goes off the front and all hell breaks loose. We were strung out single and double file for about 6  miles. He gets caught, and then another break goes, this ones not a threat to GC gone up the road, until they miss a turn. The leaders slow the field down for the break to get back on, and take a nature break. Then as soon as thats done the break goes mad again, same guys, up the road, and then we are all going 30 on the flats. First KOM was trival.  About 10 miles on get to the second, I do ok on that, but about a mile up the road on another roller two guys in front of me let a gap open and then another attack from GC contender goes, no way to close the gap. Me and 2 guys, different than the ones that let the gap opened chased the field all the way to the town at the bottom of the lake, about 30-45 sec behind but couldn't close it.

Then third KOM comes up, and pack blows sky high. I got dropped and started looking for another masters rider to work with, none in sight, so I rode about 10 miles on my own (hey I obviously needed the practice after Saturday why not start right now I think) until a little group of  5 masters and 3 cat 4s shows up, we ride to the finish together, more or less, with one lunatic from the cat 4’s attacking the group every 5 minutes. Then he goes to pick a fight with one of the masters riders. They are pushing and shoving and one older guy is looking at me and saying “you wouldn't believe it, it’s been like this for 30 miles—that kid is nuts” etc etc. Well he was nuts, by appearances. The funniest part was him trying to hook a masters rider and failing miserably and then having the masters guy  who he was arguing with and who was his intended hooking victim show him how to do it right…Ah the joys of racing in NY, I love it. Anyway we got to the finsh , got about 42 in the RR. All in all a really fun weekend of racing. I’ll be back next year,  for sure, hopefully  will be able to last until the third KOM in the field and stay out of the twilight zone groupetto…

Jiminy Peak RR - Cat 3

by Jonah Tower

Driving out we were all rather concerned about the pending weather conditions (predicted to be low 50s and raining), so I was pretty happy when the weather proved to be in the higher 50s and only cloudy at Jiminy Peak. And, as usual I signed in and got to warming up on the trainer, because my bones still did not like the cool air that much at all.

With several fields at full capacity and something like 135 rides in the Cat 3 field the roll off was quite a site as hundreds of cyclist staged to head out for a day of racing. And, as was to be expected with a 90-km race the early miles were rather low key in the field with time for everyone to catch up with friends (and foes). But, soon the attacks began and the Cat 3's raced a good fast race for the most part.

For the first two laps nothing serious formed and I concentrated on conserving energy on the climb, while staying comfortably with the lead of the field. On the second climb we were able to create somewhat of a split and then some of us attacked in the flats, but the field quickly responded and caught the group.

Then, with a few miles to go before the less steep part of the climb, I got involved in a break of about 7 that had in it 3-4 guys that could work and included a couple of the "stronger" teams. So, things were looking pretty good with about 10 miles to the finish. Several of us worked very hard and we managed to put some good time on the field

however, a rider from Cycle Loft (who was certainly strong enough) was very disruptive to the break and offered no reason for this. As several of us in the break became frustrated with this individual we began to attack to get ride of him however, he just kept "sucking wheel." At one point I soloed off the front of the break in an attempt to lose this guy, but all I did was spend too much energy in the effort. Just before the final steep climb the field caught us again, and I was chucked out the back, after my legs said "no mas."

Personally I think that I really lost my cool with this guy in the break and so I spoke to several people about it and received some good advice as to how I should deal with it. So, despite my frustration with the final result I feel that I learned something as well as raced hard.

Jiminy Crickets! Err, Peak!

by Emily O’Brien

Jiminy Peak is a great race. It's the biggest womens' field of our season outside of Fitchburg, with sixty signed up for Women 1/2/3 and 57 for Women 4. While the weather wasn't quite as sunny and balmy as last year, we did narrowly miss out on the nor'easter that hit the rest of the state. So considering it wasn't cold and pouring, we were counting our blessings.

The course has a kind of rolling, more or less downhill section for the first half, which had the headwind from heck, followed by a couple of not-too-steep climbs (with the tailwind from heaven!) and one last climb after the feed zone with the finish at the top. Then there's a pretty nice (i.e, a total blast to go rocketing down!) descent before you get back to where you started.

I cruised along with the big pack for the first half, barely having to lift a finger as I was being sucked along by the draft. People were even mostly good about the yellow line rule. I started having to work when the road went uphill for the second time. I hung in there though, until I got shelled on the last climb. I figured I'd probably catch on though, got to the top, and then took off down the back side. I picked up some other drop-ees, and we eventually accumulated about twelve people, which incredibly enough, even managed to organize into some semblance of a paceline (with some effort). The main field was within reach; we could see them up ahead when we got caught by the lead group of Women 4 who were on their second of two laps. We had no choice but to back off so they could pass. Once they'd gone, we picked it up again with the intention of passing them. There was a bunch of backed up traffic behind them, which we had some difficulty getting around. We ended up leap-frogging with the 4's a few times before we passed them and stayed ahead of them for any amount of time. We had lost a fair amount of time on our field, and we were going pretty much all out into the wind. We eventually got overtaken by the 4's again before the climb, and never saw our field again. By the time we got to the top, a number of our group decided to call it quits and just turn in. I went off down the descent again for my third and final lap, and having passed the start, was almost nervous that I'd missed something when I saw several riders from my field heading in the other direction (presumably they'd pulled out and were spinning down). I met up with a dude from the club hosting the race, and rode with him the rest of the lap. It was great to have him as a motivator, even if I wasn't working with him. We picked up Cindy Ma from my field, and eventually she and I dropped him on the final climb. She finished probably 30 ft. in front of me, but after chasing as hard as I had and riding into the wind by myself as hard as I had, I just didn't have much fight left in me.

I rode hard today, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. Maybe I was just happy it wasn't raining, but I was having a blast. The big paceline we had going wasn't very neat, but the times I was with smaller groups we got rotating very well. The main issue when we had 12 or so people was that not everyone was pulling through at the same rate. There was one rider who would always gap the person who pulled off before her when she pulled off, there were a couple who just didn't pull through until someone yelled at them, etc… basically, the usual problems. I definitely did more work than necessary on a number of occasions, but I didn't really care that I was wasting energy since I was so far off the back anyway. All in all, I had a good day of bikin'.

Jiminy Peak

by Christopher Rehm

Hard to believe but true. As we drove out it was pouring cats and dogs. The temperature was about  42, and everybody in the car was dreading it (except maybe Jonah…) We got there and the rain had stopped, got numbers, came back to car, got dressed and lo and behold the temperature goes up 10 degrees, now its almost pleasant out. Warmed up and then went to the starting line,  I rode the cat 4/5 race, Jonah the cat 3, BV the masters 35+. Races rolled off a little late, the cat 4/5 was pretty squirrelly on the first lap. I will never understand why people are fighting for position on the downhill leg of a 55 mile race with 3 long climbs in it 5 min off the start; not attacking off the front, just fighting for field position in the narrowest section of the road. Weird. Got to the climb, dropped about half the field and suddenly it was nice and smooth. There was a nasty headwind on the down hill stretch so I sat in. We did the climb again, didn't drop anyone It seemed like, it was a little easier over the top the second time.  Did the climb the last time, it was much harder, and I paid the price for not moving to the front half of the field in the last km, got about 60th place, maybe, about 30 sec- 1 min behind the leader. Note to self make sure you are in top 30 in last 5 km…

The funniest part of the day was the guy who kept attacking alone off the front on the down hill stretch. He did it at least 3 times, never got more than 15 sec up the road, and wasn't visible anywhere at the finish. Moral of the story, attacking on the downhill does not usually work…

BV and Jonah can tell you about their races… Emily already told you about hers…

It was a great drive out with Jonah, Emily and BV, nice team bonding :-)

Turtle Pond Masters 35+

by Christopher Rehm

So it rained again. Brian V and I did the masters 35+. about 60 maybe 65 starters. rolled out and all hell broke loose after about 5 min. People attacking like mad. After about 15 min we get to the hill. Pound up it in the bing ring, FLY over the top, scream down the other side as more breaks try to go, just screaming on the back stretch. Pretty much the same on the second lap, except I have this beautiful image of  passing Mike Norton (in MCRA leaders jersey no less) going up the hill; I felt like a motocycle hanging on to the wheel in front of me, while he looked like he was pedaling backwards. Never saw him again for the rest of the race. Watched BV sitting about ½ way up the pack, hanging tough most of the time. By this point it was pouring buckets of rain as usual. I did my normal rain trick of making sure the spray from the wheel in front of me hit me right in the eyes, so I know I'm drafting at just the right distance. Third time up the hill I got stuck behind a slow group, and then couldn't close it going over the top, got dropped in a NY second. Pack went roaring off down the other side, never saw them again. Did another lap with a Sunapee rider and Brian Blondin then they took it easy up the hill , I went as hard as I could go , as I was getting hypothermic and needed to warm up, it helped only a little. Very little. Sandy rang the bell when I came by so Then I figure Hell now I gotta try and finish this thing. Got lapped my Mark " Im a human Ducati" McCormick about 3 miles from the finish, and then I finished the race. Rode back to the start freezing to death shivering like mad. Got in the car and sat for 15 min with the heat full blast trying to stop shivering, same as Brian V, then once we warmed up a little we put the bikes up and the tent. Brian hung on longer than me , got 22nd, I got 30th. It was another day in Belgian racing hell but seeing Norton get dropped before me made it all worth it…

Emily did the pro123 womens race, I know she finished but as usuall the results were screwed up.

Boy I sure hope this fine weather keeps up , I cant imagine what it would be like racing on a warm sunny day… how boring…