2006 Palmer

by Josh Preneta

Great course! The 4/5B race had 4 Quad guys in it - Chris F, Geoff B, Paul F, and myself. (Hope I got the names right). Phil raced in the A race.

Most of the ride was straightforward/easy. Some gentle rollers, a good 3 or 4 mile gentle decline, and a sprint finish on a slight incline. The B group started about 2 minutes after the A group, and we quickly cuaght them on the first of 2 laps. Geoff, Chris and I were mixing it up towards the front of the pack. There was one strong fellow that did 90% of the work for the rest of the field - I think he is the one person that made the race fun. I was coming off of some silly sickness that had me laid up in bed on Friday/Saturday, so I just sat in and waited for a good old fashioned field sprint. When it came, I was boxed in behind some Landry's guys, but managed to get out to the right. I almost locked handlebars with a guy from Providence, but stayed upright and ended up in 6th place. Not bad.

Great course, great support, safe. I'll do this one every year.

Turtle Pond Circuit Race

by Brian Schwarzentruber

What a beautiful course.  It was very well organized and great roads.  The volunteers were amazing. The race officials are making it clear that littering will not be tolerated. They will stop the whole pack if necessary. It’s about time.  Communities have not allowed us to race in them for this very reason.  The race was amazing.  But for me, I broke the three major rules of racing.  I didn’t recover well from hard hill training the previous Thursday night, I only get about 3 hours sleep the night before, and I didn’t warm up well.  It came as no surprise that I was dancing with myself after the first and only hill, slight raise really in retrospect.  Even though my name never made it on the results page, I did the miles.  Brian Vickery decided he like the race so much, he did an extra lap. Good job Brian!  Rhys finished in fine style as always.  Nice. 

They could run that race three times a year, I’d do every one.  Now that’s New England Racing!

Chris Newhouse Memorial Criterium (Ninigret) Cat 4

by Michael McKittrick

I woke up before my 7:30 alarm feeling good.  Ate a solid breakfast, packed the car and was on the road by 8:30 for a noon race. 

I drank green tea all the way down.  I felt a little cold coming on.  I wondered if I should take it easy in the race and cancel my plans to do Wells the next day. 

I got to the race, registered and changed.  I had over an hour to warm up.  I did my warm up on the street and was feeling really strong.  It was one of those days when everything seemed right.  My bike felt good, my legs loose and strong.  I did a few sprints, the hard efforts felt...effortless.  I rethought my plan to just sit in.  I was optimistic about my chances to have a successful race, even though I had no teammates in the race.  I was also thinking about how I wanted to redeem myself after getting my lungs torn out at Tufts last weekend.

I warmed up for an hour.  I showed up to the starting line 10 minutes early, sweating and ready to sprint off of the line.  I was in the second row in the line up because I had a little trouble with my left pedal when we were called to the line. 

Upon rolling out and trying to sprint, my left cleat popped out of the pedal (1st time ever).  I took my time and tried to get it back in.  I failed.  It kept popping out. It wasn't like I was hitting it on the wrong side, it just failed to fully engage.  It didn't click in, even though my foot seemed to be in the correct position.   

I decided to just sit in and play with the pedal when there were rests in the pace.  

My cleat kept popping out.  I kept putting it back in.  I held on for 3 laps like this.  Physically, I felt good.  It was no problem for me to sit in even though my foot was popping out every 1/4 mile.  I was concious of the fact that when it popped out, I would jerk around, I felt that I was a potential hazard in the peleton.  I decided that I should take a free lap adn try to fix it.  I thought that my pedal was messed up, so I put my head down and pushed to the front of the pack on the 3rd lap.  I was near the front ofthe peleton on crossing the finish line.  I pulled over to try to fix the pedal during my free lap.  I intended to fix the pedal and jump in near the front of the peleton.  I started yelling to the bystanders for a multi tool and a masters rider ran for one.  I inspected the pedal and could find nothing wrong.  I was winded, high on caffiene, sugar and adreneline.  In short, I was unable to think straight.  Finally a guy asked, "is the cleat alright?" It wasn't.  It had broken.  Someone suggested strapping my foot to the pedal.  I just stormed off, threw the bike on the car and drove away.  They rang the halfway bell as I drove out of the parking lot.  What a waste.  You should check your cleats. 

Tufts Criterium - Cat. 4/5

by Eric Silva

This was my fourth race in two days, so I was a bit beat but felt OK.  The course is a very technical 6 corner criterium with one steep rise.

I got the hole shot into the first two corners thanks to the call up and Speedplays.  The field stretched out in tow.  The first few laps went off quite fast and the field fractured into many small groups.  After about 30 minutes I was settled into the lead group of 12-15 people.  There were a couple of UNH guys, guys from ECV and BRC, and an assortment of other teams.

With about 10 of 30 laps left and going into corner #1, I was near the back of the group when the rider in front of me appeared to lock up his rear wheel permanently (Chain problem?  Who knows.)  He went straight instead of turning left and I was on his outside.  He wedged me into the corner and I stopped abruptly.  I didn't contact him, the curb, or the pavement, but I came to a dead stop.  I now had to chase.  (There's no free lap if you're simply stuck behind a crash.)

I went into time trial mode for 2 to 3 laps in an attempt to make up ground, but it wasn't enough to catch the lead group.  My race was over.

4th Annual Chris Hinds Memorial Criterium - Ninigret

by Brian Schwarzentruber

Rain and Pain.  This would describe this race.  A small field so no protection. Small attacks came early, but it wasn't until the middle of the race a small break stuck.  I did try to bridge the pack back, but no one was will to help. So Rhys and I remained patient.  In the final lap two bozos thought the race changed into a cross race and took to the grass.  They took Rhys off my wheel and on to the grass. I ended up placing 10th in my very first Cat 3 race.  We would have placed better if Rhys was able to remain on my wheel.  Next time Rhys….

Marblehead P/1/2/3 Race Report

by Brian Vickery

The weather was perfect for my first race of the season. Lots of sunshine and no rain in the forecast.

Unlike last year I flatted on the warm up so this year I packed my trainer and warmed up in the parking lot.  After a good warm-up on the trainer I took down my shinny new bike (Cervelo R2.5) for its first race this year.  I did not get a chance to race the bike a lot last year b/c of a frame problem so I was excited to race it.

100 riders showed up at the start line.  The only other Quad rider was Rhys Gibson. We had 18 laps for a total of 37 miles of racing.  The first few laps were quick, but after 5 laps things settled down and real racing started. McCormack was in our field so he went off the front and was away for most of the race.  What surprised me was that the field was all back together with about 4 to go.  I felt good and was working my way up the field for the final sprint.  3 to go and I moved up 5 places.  2 to go, another 5 places.  On the final lap I was about 20 back (yeah to far for any podium but hell it was my first P/1/2/3 race and I felt pretty good breaking the top 20!).
 
During the last 4 laps the race officials were really trying to keep the double line rule in effect.  To be honest the officials were totally absent for the first 14 laps of the race when racers were all over the place (several riders were over the yellow line).

And you guessed it.  On the final lap about 1 mile to go the officials were really pushing the field back over the yellow line (to enforce the rule) and someone got boxed in. A touch of the bars and BANG (tire blow out) and 25 guys were on the pavement.  I was right in the middle of it.  I went down on my left side crashing into a pile of 6 bodies and bikes.  Once on the pavement people were crashing into me.  I jettisoned my bike and covered my head.  A few more guys plowed into me but I was the lucky one.

Some road rash and a very sore knee.  Other guys were taken away by the medics. My bike took most of the impact.  My shinny new Cervelo was not shinny any more.  My Easton fork snapped off.  Yes, snapped! If you are in the shop this week what’s left of my fork is there.  Rustem is getting replacement parts and should have it functional in a week.  I went back to the car patched myself up and went home.  :-(

For those of you keeping track I also crashed at Marblehead last year!  At least this year I was in the race until the last lap.  Last year I crashed in 1st lap.  Its now been three years since I finished Marblehead, but I have my 2006 crash out of the way (knock on wood).  Time for some real racing!
Rhys finished the race, keeping Quad on the map for the day.  Nice job Rhys. Out of 100 starters only 53 finished the race.

Keep the rubber side down and see you all at the races!  

Charge Pond Training Series

by Brian Schwarzentruber

It was the first race back in nearly a year for me.  The legs felt good the entire race.  A small break got away. I came close to bridge the gap, but engine shut down.  Early in the season I guess.  At the finish I sprinted about 300m away, I coasted over the line with no one within 100 feet or so.  Ah…good to be back.