Cambridge, NY; Auburn, ME; Bethel, CT; New York City. What do all of these places have in common? Spooky / NCC / Kenda was there this past weekend, racing hard, and getting results. The Spooky, it wanders.
Saturday was the Balloon Festival Classic in Cambridge, NY of Battenkill fame, and the Lake Auburn Road Race up in Maine. We fielded a full squad of 7 at Balloon Fest and a mini squad consisting of just Colin and Adam at Lake Auburn. Since we’re still waiting for a full report on Maine from one of our field correspondents, this report will focus on Balloon Fest.
Al, Mukunda, Purdy, Mainer, Jason, Nathaniel and new Spooky recruit, Neil Coleman (formerly of the UK Plowman/Craven squad) lined up in Cambridge for a typically sunny and hot day, though not quite the scorcher of years past. This race has only one significant climb, but it faces due South without a single leaf for shade, and it has been known to produce heat stroke and heart arhythmia in more than one hardy soul before now. Fortunately with temp’s in the high 70’s and Purdy’s dad ably slinging bottles in the feed zone, we had nothing to worry about. The atmosphere at this race is always groovy, and the community has really fallen in behind promoter Dieter Drake in the last few years and now really seems to look forward to the couple of times each Spring and Summer when the bike racers come to town. While it ain’t quite Europe, this course offers a rare opportunity for a trip through the town’s Main street on every lap, along with a couple of tight corners to add a bit of a crit feel to the finish of a long, hard road race. As for the rest of the course, this year some last minute road construction forced a change back to the original course used in 2004-’o5 which is a relatively flat, 13.5 mile loop with some minor rollers, and one nasty, steep climb called O’donnnell hill. This year we would be doing 6 laps for 81 miles, or what Al described as “the worst 6×2 minute workout ever” which is about what that climb feels like–it is essentially two 150 meter kickers around 12% gradient, separated by a false flat, in total less than half a mile, but it’s a real full value half mile. This is followed by a fun, fast descent, a sharp right turn, and a flat 5 mile run back into Cambridge, interrupted by only one highway grade roller of 3% or so that you hardly notice.
The race began more aggressively than in some years and with a small but stacked field of only 38 riders. There were several notable hardmen in attendance, including Jake Hollenbach (Empire); Josh Dillon and Justin Lindine (Bikereg/Cannondale); Mike Barton (Strava Velo); Roger Aspholm (Westwood Velo), and Will Dugan and Dan Cassidy (CCB), so there was plenty of horsepower to keep the pace high and not much of anywhere to hide. Early attempts were fast but not super threatening and most of the favorites seemed to be simpy feeling each other out. The field stayed together over the first trip up the hill at a hard, but not brutal pace, and remained together for a mile or two down route 22. This sort of thing bores Purdy absolutely to tears, so he attacked while the field was slacking, started nursing a small gap and was quickly joined by our new recruit, Neil. The two of them began pouring it on immediately and the race heated up in a hurry. They gained a gap of about 1 minute before anyone reacted, and then Dillon went to the front and rode tempo for 4 or 5 miles in an effort to minimize the damage. Coming through town on the first lap our pair was out of sight, CCB put two riders on the front and the field stretched out single file on the approach to the climb. This continued for the remainder of lap 2, with some more help from Dillon and some from other teams and individuals, as well, but the newly acquainted Spooky duet kept at it and stayed away for the next two trips up the hill, before being reabsorbed by the dwindling peloton somewhere along route 22 at the end of the 3rd lap. As the result of a large bridge attempt/second break, there was a period of about 10k on this lap when the peloton was split into two unequal halves with Al, Purdy, Neil, Mukunda and Mainer up front with all of the dangerous guys, and Nathaniel and Baer tailgunning in the second group. Due to efforts from various folks, the field regrouped coming back into town on the 3rd lap and the pace remained high.
Lap 4 was tough, but not decisive with the typical regrouping after the climb, but lap 5 produced a classic good-news/bad-news break with Mainer hanging in with the big acceleration from Dillon, Dugan and Aspholm over the top of the climb. By the time the field hit route 22, these 4 were long gone, and Mainer had his work cut out for him. Demoralized, hot, thirsty, and with the three major teams each having a rider in the break, the field lost any motivation to chase and slowed considerably for the first time all day. Not entirely loving the idea of leaving Mainer to fend for himself alone against three of the strongest guys on the East coast, we decided to try to get someone across to even the odds a bit. Following a sneak attack by Embrocation’s Peter Bradshaw that saw him slip away, permanently, Jason put in a good acceleration that strung things out a bit, and this was followed by Nathaniel going hard over the innocuous looking roller, looking less innocuous almost 3 hours into the race. He steadily put time on the field and came through the start finish about a minute and a half behind the break and the same distance in front of the field. Approaching the climb for the last time Nathaniel was joined by Mr. Adrenal Function himself, Matt Purdy, and CCNS rider Ron Larose, who had managed to get away coming through town.
These three worked well together and continued to put time on the field but never managed to get the break within site. Meanwhile, up front, Mainer had held on like the tough guy he is and survived the attacks within the break until the bitter end, where he ran out of gas in the sprint behind winner Dugan, with Dillon 2nd and Aspholm 3rd. Bradshaw looked catchable on the climb but turned on his afterburners on the run in and was never caught, claiming 5th place, though it was a near thing at the end. With 1k to go Purdy attacked, Larose obligingly covered, and Nathaniel did the only decent thing and countered to solo in for 6th place. While Purdy and Larose were setting up to sprint, Purdy got derailed by some dropped riders from the women’s field, one of whom lost traction in the corner and nearly crashed. So while Larose was sprinting, Purdy was rolling through someone’s lawn and cruised in for 8th, later promoted to 7th when Larose was DQ’d for a yellow line violation. Further back, Al jumped out of the field to solo in, and Neil and Mukunda won their respective group sprints from the now decimated field, with Jason not far behind.
At the end of the day, we would have been hard pressed to find better guys to get beaten by, and with 5 of our riders in money spots in the top 10, and the whole team finsihing in the top 14, we were pleased with ourselves for shaping the race. Hats off to CCB for some solid teamwork of their own and an impressive win by Dugan.
On Sunday, Nathaniel decided on impulse to head down to Bethel, CT and race the Connecticut Coast Criterium for a little speed work, and hopefully a little pocket money. He wound up teaming up with part-time Spooky adjunct, Dan Greenfield who is coming back into form these days, and scoring 3rd in the chaotic field sprint after a monster leadout from big Dan. Another Spooky win was in sight but a traffic stall on the inside curb botched things up a bit, and by the time he found a gap to jump through, up-and-comer Filip Capala from Brooklyn had the race won, and Chad Butts (Champion System) snuck past by a tire width for second.
While all of this was going on, Al was racing Mountain Bikes in a park in Harlem. His report was truly breathtaking, and inspiring:
“The MTB race was awesome, and like no other. Very technical single track in way uptown Harlem, not gentrified Gap outlet Harlem. There were 5 flights of stairs with a 90 degree turn after going down three of them, more glass than a cathedral, car parts and sharp, off-camber slippery rocks. There was a lot of running in the lap due to the technical difficulty, but it was fun, and hot. Zico coconut water was a sponsor, so I drank one per lap and won the expert 30-39 by a small margin. There was a ton of road climbing on the course. There were old homeless guys cheering me on and a pitbull. Some parts of the the woods smelled like piss, some like weed, and the dump that we rode through smelled oddly like trash. After the race we ate shaved ice from a lady selling it out of a shopping cart, and the transaction went down in my broken Spanish. Then we got kebabs a few blocks later. I passed out at a Mexican place before heading to SoHo for Spanish and Kati rolls. Beard Papa cream puffs for dessert round one, then the famous Magnolia bakery, at 10 PM with a line out the door, for round two.
One of the best races and days in memory.”
Nobody throws down like our Al, before or after the race. Remember this the next time he drops you in a road race. Word.
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