Hilly races for the past weekend...

Well now that you have the Wells reports ill offer up the "other races" reports for the weekend for those of you that missed the fun. Saturday was the Cyclonauts road race and Sunday was Housatonic Hills. I had never done the Cyclonauts race before but decided this year since I was lacking some fitness that it would be better to race than to ride alone. I figured it would also be a decent precursor to the new england classic Housatonic Hills.

Cyclonauts was a 60 mile race through some rolly hills. Nothing to steep or too long but some 4 or 5 mile ish drags that with some attacks began to hurt. The race for the 1/2 field was pretty much an attack fest from the gun with 9 fiordifrutta riders and only small teams of 3 and 4 other riders to contain things. From the gun 2 fiordifrutta riders attacked stringing the field out for the first 10 or so miles. Atleast enough to begin to shed parts of our maxed out field. After our field had made it's way to about 40 or 50 riders or so I was surprised to see that I had a teammate from the new jersey elite team visiting his brother. After putting in a little effort together to help bring back a break he went on the attack. Several miles later after the pair of McCormacks felt the race need to come back together for the finish, a smaller field of us were left. From there on out to the finish it was strung out . After putting in a last attack myself I scraped into the top 15 or 20 of the race with my teammate displaying his ex pro track skills in the sprint making his way into the top 5 I believe.

Unfortunately the next days race wasn't exactly his cup of tea with a total of 90 miles and of maybe 5-6 thousand feet of steep climbing... Our race filled to capacity as per usual I believe about 100 racers. The composition was as per usual as well with a handfull of nerac guys, and some other notable pros, plus full teams from all the regional elite squads including some mengoni folk from nyc. Each year our race proves to play out a little like the next. Hard from the parking lot, attrition starts on the first climb, the second climb, and all the way through till the last climb. By the second of the three laps we generally have half a field left. This year however the field was a little faster and more fit than normal so our group stayed much larger through the first lap strung out at times but still together. However the second laps attacks through the KOM proved to be a little more difficult splitting about 30 guys off the back of our field and there of through the last lap. Going into the second to last climb I flatted about a mile from the top; crosseyed at best I pulled my rear wheel off for sram only to realize the loud pop was my front wheel. After rectifying the flats and not flats I went on my way trying to catch a field who had already hit a 50+mph decent. My last 15 miles or so were filled with picking up on groups of stragglers and straggling in myself somewhere in the 50's. A little bumed at the overall outcome but still thankfull my flat was that on an ascent and a decent.

I am now looking forward to the COX charities crit which apart from my home town crit in Burlington (GMSR) is my favorite New England crit. I fully expect to see all of our local Van Dessel boys and gals out there in full color! Enjoy the week everyone and take care,

Adam in Vermont ... p.s hopefully our custom jerseys and such will come in?

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