Memorial Day Weekend Races

what a long weekend. weddings, wedding showers, and cookouts. oh, and some bike racing too. saturday was the big day for ryan as he and grace finally made it official and tied the knot. it was a great ceremony and reception, and we were very happy for those two great people.

so the plan for the weekend was to get our man two wins on sunday and monday. beside being ryan's wedding weekend, of late he's been riding like his chamois are on fire grabbing big result after big result.

first up was the West Side Ride road race in Bar Harbor, ME. perhaps the most beautiful race in the country, riding along the coast's winding, rolling roads. i had last done this race in '02, and since then they have slightly changed the course, including adding a brutal 1 mile climb to the finish. usually just the local maine riders show up for this race, along with a stringer or two who are in the area on vacation. but this year there was a college outting in the area, so we were inundated with about 30 collegiate riders from about 4 teams. needless to say, we were quite outnumbered. ryan and i attacked early and often, but apparently our reputations preceded us, as no one would let day light open behind our rear wheels. given that fact, i decided to lay low and sit in the pack, but ryan was relentless, staying at the front, attacking, chasing, pulling, and attacking some more. coming into the last 2 miles i moved to the head of affairs to get things set up for ryan. 1 mile to go and we hit the climb. i gave it all i had, climbing at about 20mph, then we took a left up to the last 1/2 mile. we were hit in the face with a vicious wind. i pushed to about 300 meters out and sent ryan on his way. unfortunately, my pull wasn't hard enough to drop 2 of the collegiate riders who just sat on ryans wheel and were able to nip him at the line. so we had to "settle" for 3rd...not bad for a guy the day after his wedding!

today was a bigger race in Kennebunk, ME. the cape able road race has continually grown over the years, from being a "secret" race to locals, now riders from all over new england come to contest this fast, sketchy race. the race started fast with lots of attacks. i took a flyer on the first lap that lasted about 3 miles, but was soon picked up by the field. several more attacks went and were brought back before finally a group of six rolled away, including ryan. he was doing a lot of hard pulls in the break and they were looking good to stay. there were many hard chases to bring the group back, but i did my best to sit on wheels and bring the chases to a quick stop (i didn't make any new friends today). the gap was brought down to about 3 seconds two or three times, but the break never gave up and stayed off. in the sprint, ryan jumped on the wheel of a former national champ and blew by him at the line, but again, unfortunately, formerly #2 ranked jr in the country, and former u.s. national team rider with lots of european experience, Oliver Stiler-Cote, showed up for his first race in 5 years and proved he is still a man to be reckoned with as he beat ryan to the line by less than a tire width. Ryan's 2nd was followed by me coming in 10th. ryan also took two of the four primes, making it a very nice pay day for him.

in CT Shawn entered his first ever crit, finding that he has the legs, but the experience he's gaining in his first season will prove to pay off in the future, and lessons learned from getting dropped today will turn into knowledge to get him wins by the end of the year.

so great job to ryan this weekend on his 2nd and 3rd and his marriage!

adam was in NJ this weekend to race, so i'm waiting to hear how he did.

i'll be doing the tuesday night world championships tomorrow (a large, fast ride leaving from the park across from wells ave (the parking lot beside the charles). hope to see some V jerseys there.

thad

The MacDonald Express Rolls On

Well, this was a race where it definitely paid off to not be stupid. I took a hint from that that a winning breakaway could form early in the race, since there were several well-represented elite teams, so I stayed up from and went with any move that I saw had some potential. Needless to say, it seemed like nothing had worked. I probably spent a little too much effort to stay out front but then all of a sudden there was a small group that had just detached. The crappy weather must've caused a split and I found myself in a group of about 18 or so guys out in front. This big lead group worked pretty well together for the next lap, nobody really felt like taking a flyer off the front and most people were pretty content to do the paceline thing (although there were 5 or 6 guys who just sat in the back and wouldn't pull through). Halfway through the last lap people began getting annoyed at those just sitting in the back and not pulling through and our pace slackened, at about which time Mike and Ed took off and we never saw them again (I'm glad to see Mike lost the sprint because he was one of those sitting in the back while Ed King was one of the hardest workers out front). The rest of the race was just pretty mild, most people still working together in the break and happy to let the final hill see who takes 3rd. Several miles out, the two remaining Boston Scientific guys kept trying to break but they were pretty well watched, and for the last mile or two they were stuck doing all the pulling since they were the only team with two guys and one out front. Going into the climb, a who bunch of riders made what I would consider a 'Cat 4' mistake, sprinting at the beginning of the climb and being totally shot with a half kilometer still to go uphill (This included both Boston Scientific guys and the guy from Nerac, Myerson I believe). I pretty much sat at the front, saving energy for the 'sprint', and somehow managed to be the 4th guy to cross the line from the lead group. It seems as though the straightforwardness of Cat 1,2 races definitely seems to favor my riding style than the almost frenzied Cat 3 races around here.

Anyway, that's how it all went down. I hope everyone else did the smart thing and tried to stay dry this weekend.

cheers, Ryan

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"Thad LaVallee" writes:

a few hours ago Ryan MacDonald continued his amazing season by grabbing the biggest result of his racing career, a 6th place at the Lake Sunapee RR, one of the biggest and most prestigeous races on the New England calender. in only his second race since upgrading to cat 2 (11th place at the Palmer RR), Ryan was only beaten by a Priortiy Health pro Ed King, Boston scientific's Mike Barton (25th in the '05 tour of ireland) who had broken away, then just getting ahead of ryan in the chasing group's spring a fruitty pebbles rider, Housatonic espoir's rider, and one other. Ryan easily beat out all the Nerac pro riders as well as all the Canadian pro team riders. do we see a fitchburg win in the future?

to go along with Ryan's happy days on the bike, he's also getting married next saturday! and can you believe that his to-be wife is then going to let him do the West Side Ride road race the next day and the Cape Able road race monday?! i'll be there to give ryan a hand (like he needs it) at both races. if anyone else is interested in doing either of these races in maine, let me know and i'll give you the 411.

so big congrats to ryan!

t

Race report

First off, congrats to Ryan for the strong finish yesterday at Sunapee. I was going to do that race but I had to work the night before, so I decided to do the North Stonington RR instead. I finished 17th of 39. Not sure what the final total was but it was at least 39 

Anyway the start was a nuetralized to the start/finish which is at the top of a hill- approx. 1km long and with a  4-5% avg. gradient. A nuetralized start up a hill climb?   The race was 3 laps of 6 miles of rolling terrain  with the hilltop finish.  The pace was moderate. I was about 5th-8th during the first lap. One rider tried to break away after the first lap. We could see him up the road. I was feeling good. Then all of a sudden the pace really picked up. Nobody was attacking but I think they thought  that the rider might get away. But with 2 more laps to go and we could still see him up the road, I couldn't figure out why we were chasing him so hard.  Why chase? Besides he ended up getting dropped and I passed him on the last lap anyway. I don't get it. There weren't many teams in the group. Just a lot of individual riders. So nobody was really working together. I was hoping that at least a few riders would be working together. 

Needless to say, my body was not ready for this sudden surge, and it only being the beginning of the second lap. I could have (should have) went along, at least hopped on a wheel and stayed at the back, but I foolishely (beginner mistake)  let the peleton slip by up a hill, then down and around a corner and never saw them again. So I didn't necessarily get dropped because of the pace- I more or less let myself get dropped.  I did however manage to catch up with some other riders  during the last lap that were dropped and attempted to get a paceline going in an attempt to get back to the peloton. However they were either too beat and couldn't keep up, or really didn't know how to work a paceline. Cause' I was third in line and the the 1st rider finished his pull, then cuts in front of me!  Anyway, I ended up dropping these dudes because, they were wasting my time. There were only three of us Keiran, don't worry, nobody was going down. Got to the the finishing climb and saw some more riders that were dropped. I passed about 3-4 on the way up, and sprinted past one last rider to the line. So I managed to finish a race this year and keep the rubber side down. So I'm happy with my results.

Next race for me is the Hartford crit next week. Anyone planning on going? I'll also be doing some other crits in CT. Then the Housatonic Hills RR in June. Has anyone done that one before? I'll also try to get to Wells, if I'm not racing and I'm off. Did anyone do Wells today? Oh and by the way, yes I did race on the new Rivet! It is one freakin sweet ride! Very light and responsive. Transfer power very well.

Sorry guys for the long post.

Cheers,
Shawn W

wells race report

alas, wells ave finally had its first race since april 7th...which was also the last time mark, bob, kieran, and i raced. after being cancelled due to traffic so many times, today's downpouring rain couldn't keep away boston's racing faithful.

for my personal story, i overselpt this morning. however, i was ready to go to make the 10:30 start. however, i decided to pump up my tires before i flew out the door, only to blow out my rear wheel. so having no time to change the tube, i grabbed the wheelset that came with my Rivet and threw it on, and off i went (this will be important later).

while making the 20 minute drive, mark calls and informs me that the race will start at 10:15, not 10:30. thus began my (name a nascar driver here)-like driving. i made it to the race just in time to hear them call the riders to the line as i was putting my number's last pin in my jersey.

the rain was really pissing now. and kieran was the first person to be smart and stayed in his warm, dry car to watch us fools.

off we went, at a pretty good clip too, despite not being able to see a thing thru the tire spray, the traffic (which was too much, in deed), and totally soaked kits. about 1/2 thru bob was the next smart one and fled to the safety of his car.

mark and i stayed mostly near the front of the ever shrinking group. with 3 to go mark found me and we made a plan for him to lead me out with 1/2 a lap to go. the last three laps were attacked filled, and knowing that at wells any attack near the end can disappear quickly, mark and i stayed glued to each move.

at the bell, the pack slowed and began to bunch up, at which time i yelled to mark to rev it up, for fear i'd get boxed in and, with the rain, a crash would be certain. mark did awesome cranking it up. i was 5 wheels back, but still right where i wanted to be. around the final turn mark pulled off and the sprint started. however, with these new wheels i was unable to get into my 11 cog, so trying to sprint in a 12 is like treading water, i wasn't able to accelerate ahead of the guys in front of me and could only hold my position. so i finished 5th, happy to get my first top 5 of the year, but upset at what should have been my first win. big thanks to mark for the amazing pull at the end.

next weekend i'll be racing with ryan in bar harbor, ME, and then monday at the cape able race in kennebunk, ME. any one up for those?

how did everybody else's weekend go???

thad