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Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic

July 1, 2007


Andrew Boone: 2nd place on GC


Sean O'Rourke = Great Success!

The Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic is the New England cycling scene's mid-summer classic with four days of racing across the varied terrain of central Massachusetts. Stage 1 of the 2007 edition consisted of a 10km time trial on a new course in Fitchburg that featured a steady stair-step climb for 8km before a 2km descent to the finish. The neon green skinsuits came out for the occasion as the times from day one often define the general classification for the weekend.

In the Category 2 race, the team had Colin Murphy, Jonathan Husk, Sean O'Rourke, Jason Beerman, and Andrew Boone lined up. In the Pro/Category 1 race, Jason Baer and Mukunda Feldman were the team's representatives. Boone hammered the course and finished with the second best time, a scant 5 seconds behind the leader and Beerman finished in 11th, putting the team in good GC position.

The circuit race almost resembles a long criterium, with a technical section, a fast back stretch, and a power climb through the finish. The Cat 2 squad was hoping to keep things together for a possible throwdown by Sean O'Rourke on the final lap. The team drilled it up the right side coming into the final turn before the finish, but were a few wheels too far back for optimal position for Sean who still managed a 5th place on the uphill sprint. The GC remained wholly unchanged after the stage as everyone finished with the same time. In the Cat 1 race, the pace was high throughout as a dangerous break dangled off the front. Baer and Feldman rolled across the line safely and were ready for the long day ahead.

The road race is always an epic event, as the 11-mile loop never relents. The Cat 2s do the loop 8 times and the Cat 1s do it 9 times before finishing with a brutal ascent up the steep down road of 2,000 foot Mount Wachusett. In the 2 race, a break went early, but none of the GC hopefuls were in it so the field displayed little concern, letting the gap get as large as 7 minutes. With about 3 laps to go, the squad calmly began to reel in the break. In an impressive display of control, O'Rourke, Husk, and Murphy each took monster pulls at the front of the pack, stringing it out and shedding riders in an attempt to bring down the gap. Boone smartly bided his time in the pack, watching and waiting for the right moment. Unfortunately, Beerman flatted at this moment and had to wait 20 minutes for a wheel, as neutral support was up the road, effectively ending his race.

With a little less than a lap to go and his lieutenants having done their job, Boone attacked out of the field to bridge up to a GC rival. He found himself in a small group of the strongest guys in the race and they quickly began working together, picking up the remnants of the early break before hitting the bottom slopes of Wachusett. Boone and his 3 companions had about 1 1/2 minutes on the peloton as they began the climb and they played a little cat and mouse up the ascent. As they crested the tree line approaching the finish, Boone sprinted, but was pipped and came in 4th on the stage. It was a solid ride, but Boone was disappointed because he remained in second place, a mere 10 seconds behind on GC. The rest of the team rolled in valiantly soon after. In the Cat 1 race, Baer withstood the barrage and came in 36th against a strong field.

The final stage - a downtown criterium in Fitchburg - is a 3-corner sufferfest. The Cat 2 squad wanted to ideally lead Boone out for the sprint finish, which would conceivably give him 10 bonus seconds and vault him into the GC lead. Therefore, they raced with this in mind, keeping things together as much as they could and conserving Boone. Things were going well with 5 laps to go: O'Rourke had smartly gotten himself into a 4-man move off the front and Boone was prepared in case the race came back together. Murphy and Beerman were getting ready to shepard Boone to the front, but then disaster struck as Boone got entangled in a late crash and went down. In the chaos of the late race atmosphere, neither Murphy nor Beerman immediately noticed that Boone had gone down and he was gapped off the back, putting his GC position in jeopardy. Meanwhile, O'Rourke sensed that the break would succeed and began to ascertain his options. With the field bearing down, he had no time for cat and mouse games, and he jumped out of the last corner, gapping his break companions and leaving nothing to chance as he rolled across the line with the decisive victory.

Meanwhile, the field rolled in sans Boone, and panic quickly appeared on the faces of the team, as precious seconds were ticking. A tattered Boone came into sight about a minute later and rolled across the line, clearly distraught at the sudden turn of events. The team gathered and hoped that the officials would make a fair decision. Fortunately, in 2006, USA Cycling enacted several rule changes, one of which states that:

"4E3(b) A rider who suffers a mishap in the last three kilometers of a road race stage or after free laps have ended in a criterium stage shall be given the same finish time as the riders he was with at the time of the mishap, provided that the mishap was observed by a race official. The rider shall be given his actual place across the finish line, or last in the stage if he is unable to cross the line."

Boone had gone down in this 3km "safety zone" at the hands of another rider and the officials adhered to the rule change and awarded him the same time, thereby cementing his 2nd place on GC. The team is thankful for the professionalism displayed by the race officials and by other teams vying for GC placings in their respect for the rule of law.

So, at the end of the day, the team had managed the stage win, courtesy of Sean O'Rourke, and a podium spot on general classification, courtesy of Andrew Boone. The mid-summer classic had indeed lived up to expectations. All results can be viewed off the "Schedule & Results" link above and photos from the weekend can be viewed at the "Photos" link.

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Kenda/Raleigh Featured in Kenda Tires Summer Ad Campaign

June 28, 2007



Kenda/Raleigh Racing is honored to announce that co-title sponsor, Kenda USA, has chosen to feature the team in its summer print advertising campaign. The ad will be featured beginning in the July issue of various cycling publications, including VeloNews and Road Magazine. If you want to see the team in all of its glossy glory, get thee to a local newsstand immediately.

 

Racing in the shadow of the solstice

June, 2007

To cyclists, June represents the beginning of summer, when knee warmers are shed and arm warmers are rolled down into puffs of lycra on the wrists. The bite of early morning chill is gone from the air, replaced by the coming haze and the smell of cut grass and warped heat mirages rising off the asphalt. It also means that the truly untethered racing begins.

June has been a busy month for the Kenda/Raleigh team. It theoretically began on Memorial Day when Mukunda Feldman scored a podium spot with a 3rd place at the Cyclonauts Racers Criterium. The team raced the following Saturday in Auburn, Maine at the Lake Auburn Road Race. Mukunda and Chris Hrenko, after a series of attacks, both made the decisive break and stayed away for 7th and 8th place, respectively. On Sunday, Chris Hrenko and Sean O'Rourke tested their legs in the field sprint at the Great Falls Criterium in Lewiston, Maine and came in 10th and 11th, respectively.

Jason Baer represented the upper New England crew at the Cambridge Ballon Festival Road Race on June 9 and made the decisive break, scoring a 6th place result. The following Sunday, after a brutally hot and difficult 81 miles at the Housatonic Hills Road Race in Southbury, CT, Jason Baer showed his form again with a solid 10th place.

Mukunda traveled down to the Ninigret Criterium in Charlestown, RI on June 23 and just missed the podium with his 4th place finish. The next day in Providence, RI at the Cox Charities Cycling Classic, there was $15,000 of prize money on the line and the lime green squad dipped into the pot, courtesy of Sean O'Rourke and his strong sprint for 15th.

The team is getting ready to tackle the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic, a 4-day stage race this weekend in Fitchburg, MA and its environs. It begins with a time trial on Thursday, June 28 and wraps up on Sunday, July 1 with a criterium in downtown Fitchburg. A full report will be posted when the dust settles.

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Lake Sunapee Road Race

May 19, 2007
Andrew Boone

For a moment I thought that maybe we'd be getting through May without a wet and cold bike race. However, Mother Nature had other plans and Saturday morning was a cold, soggy mess. A medium sized Kenda/Raleigh team of Baer, Tremble, Peters, Murphy and Boone headed over to the Lake Sunapee Road Race for a nice early morning start. You could tell that no one was too keen on racing because there was no rush to the line in staging. Everyone was lined up almost single file, as if they were trying to hide from the steady downpour.

As the race began, spirits lifted and attacks began flying off the front. Kenda/Raleigh was racing well, with Tremble, Baer and Murphy doing the lion's share to make it into the early move. Some groups would get a few seconds, but nothing seemed to be getting away. Meanwhile I (Boone) was at the back of the field trying to figure out why I felt so bad. At one point, I looked up and there was a major split in the field and I was about to get dropped. Knowing that it was now or never I put in a hard effort and bridged up to the field by myself. Once I made contact I was able to sit up and when I looked back, my former group was no where to be seen! At this point I started to worry that this race may be a very ugly one! However, the hard effort seemed to wake the legs up and I started feeling a lot better.

As we came around the loop for the first time the group was still together and Teddy King put in an acceleration which a few guys followed. This group of about 8 looked pretty good and unfortunately Kenda/Raleigh had missed it. At this point I was watching very closely to find a wheel to take me across to the break. A couple of guys shot off the front and I was able to take a free ride up to the move. The break worked together for a while and we established a nice gap, but then things started to fall apart. No one wanted to take pulls and it started to look like we'd be caught. Sensing this, Teddy King attacked on a steep hill section and I was quick to follow. Mike Barton of Boston Scientific joined us as well. The 3 of us worked pretty well together for about 8-10 miles. The remaining break could sense that this was a serious threat and they managed to work together to bring us back. That effort though was probably the reason we were able to stay away from the chasing field behind.

About 12 miles from the finish, Ted King and Mike Barton went again and I missed that move, which ended up staying away. Knowing that I couldn't bring them back on my own, I decided to try and sit in for a shot at the podium. Sunapee has an uphill finish that is steep at the bottom with a false flat for a while and then it gets steep again right before the finish. I forgot how long the climb actually was and I attacked at the bottom section. I got a small gap, but the guys were able to get on my wheel on the false flat and I ended up leading out the sprint finish. Exhausted from a long cold day I was swarmed at the finish and ended up in 8th place. Shortly after the break finished, the remnants of the field rolled in with Colin Murphy and Eric Tremble looking strong. The conditions were brutal and it took a toll on many riders, and less than half the field made it to the finish. Let's hope that was it for the May rain and may we ride in sunshine for the rest of the season!

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Jiminy Peak Road Race

May 5, 2007

134 starters lined up for the category 1/2 Jiminy Peak Road Race, another New England spring "monument" that draws - due to its equidistant location from New York City, Boston, and Montreal - a diverse collection of teams and cyclists. Starting from the Jiminy Peak ski area in Hancock, MA, the course is a straightforward ~18 mile loop with a climb through the finish area that serves to slow the sprint down and make it a hard-man's slog. The 1/2 field tackled the course 5 times for a total of about 90 miles and, with temperatures in the 50s, it was a nice day for some bike riding.

The pace out of the parking lot was moderate for a while, as Kenda/Raleigh's trio of Mukunda Feldman, Colin Murphy, and Sean O'Rourke tried several times to make the race happen early. With a strong headwind on the back section and generally negative racing, breaks were simply getting a few meters before being nullified by the strung-out field which would then promptly sit up. Rinse, repeat until 2 guys got away and out of sight.

On lap 3, Fiordifrutta sent their guys to the front and split the race with some pacemaking that also happened to bring the race together again. It stayed this way until lap 4, when a CCB rider got away solo over the finish climb and was thought to be left for dead, dangling off the front. Another break of about 8 subtly rolled off on the headwind section, with several teams missing the move entirely. Disappointingly, Kenda/Raleigh was among those who missed it. The CCB rider impressively stayed out for the solo win and most of the breakaway stayed out of the grasp of the remains of the peloton, which ultimately sprinted for 8th place.

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