The roses are being smelt. The days are long. The racing is hot. Kenda/Raleigh is on the coming soon marquee at your local nickelodeon. Perhaps. If you live in Attleboro, MA. Or Mt. Holly, NJ. Or Yarmouth, ME. Or Windsor, MA. Or Rochester, NY. You get the idea. The list goes on.
Yes: we race. We exist. Our tanlines are at their shocking peak of Oreo-extreme. Our lungs are seared with the heavy air of July. So much to catch up on.
Jason Baer doling out the pain during stage 2 (Photo ©: Paige McCall)
A small three man squad contested the Tour of Ohio from June 17-21 in and around Granville, OH. Toby, Adam, and Jason Baer went to the Midwest and tangled with an array of cycling squads over five stages, contested on the varied terrain of the Buckeye state. At various points during the racing, it shone, it rained, it gusted, it hailed, a deer almost took out the peloton, courses were 13 miles longer than advertised, there was a cobbled climb on a crit course, and there were mysterious team tactics are work. Throughout, Toby, Adam, and Jason spent the week putting Bernard Hinault’s words into practice: “As long as I breathe, I attack.” With only three guys, they tried to get in moves and utilize the numerical advantages of other teams to make the race, and they succeeded. Baer and Walch ended the week tied for 10th on general classification, and Adam raced selflessly at the pointy end to set things up on the final stage.
Toby Walch suffering in the long break of the day during stage 2 (Photo ©: Paige McCall)
On June 22, Mukunda contested the Whaling City Cyclone Criterium in New London, CT and came away with a solid 8th place.
June 28 had the full team in Providence, RI for the beginning of New England Race Week at the Cox Charities Cycling Classic. The big money race was celebrating its first year on USA Cycling’s National Racing Calendar and it boasted a prize list of $15,000 and a new course which snaked over the river twice and up and down College Hill in a blaze of pain. The boys represented well as the field got blown apart over the course of the day.
5 laps to go at the 2008 Cox Charities Cycling Classic
The following day was the Boloco Heartbreak Hill Grand Prix in Newton, MA, a brand new race and the second event of New England Race Week. The course basically bombed up Commonwealth Avenue’s Heartbreak Hill (of Boston Marathon fame) and back down Beacon Street. This race marked Jason Beerman’s return from the broken collarbone he had sustained at the Tour of Somerville on Memorial Day and he was very eager to race on roads that he passes on his daily training rides. Alas, a freak ultra-powerful thunderstorm cut the race short, and the final two laps were a bit sketchy in the resulting downpour.
Pre-race practice in Providence: a hopeful 1-2-3 finish
The Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic is synonymous, for bike racers, with the Fourth of July weekend. The list of past winners is a who’s who of domestic bike racing: Lance, Page, McCormack, Horner, Vogels, Wohlberg, Hamilton, Phinney, Schuler. And this year, the race returned to the NRC calendar after a brief hiatus, guaranteeing 4 days of pain for all who dared to race it. Eric, fresh off his upgrade, gave Kenda/Raleigh 7 guys in the Pro/1 race, and left Colin to fend for himself in the 2 race.
There seems to be a thunderstorm during the latter part of the opening day 7-mile time trial every year at Fitchburg, and this year was no exception. Toby managed the best result of the day for the team with an impressive 28th place, 58 seconds off the winning time.
The following day was the fabled 104-mile road race that ends at the summit of Mt. Wachusett, the highest point in eastern Massachusetts at 2,000 feet. Due to road closure issues, this road race is usually the third stage after the circuit race, but the switching of the stages this year had many racers questioning how it would play out. As it happened, the race was relatively settled, as a break of two got up the road while Colavita and Bissell rode tempo. The field was mostly together, minus a chunk, at the base of the finishing climb and Toby once again posted the best finish on the team, coming across in 38th place, leaving him in 32nd place overall, 2:02 off the leader.
Stage 3 was the 75-mile circuit race and it was inherently guaranteed to be the most difficult circuit race in the history of the Longsjo due to its new time slot after the grueling road race. It did not disappoint, as the field zipped up and down the roads near Fitchburg State College at an unbearable pace: guys were coming unglued on lap 1. The course is akin to a long crit course, complete with tight corners, chicanes, and a steep climb through the finish line on each lap. Groups tried to get away but nothing got more than 30 seconds on the steady Colavita-driven peloton. Unfortunately, Toby dropped his chain relatively early and lost time on the day, but the crew raced well.
Stage 4 is a fun crit through downtown Fitchburg with 2 corners, a chicane, and a horseshoe turn. Colavita once again put an impressive nine-man train on the front and controlled the race from the drop of the flag. Kenda/Raleigh had a hard-earned weekend toiling in an impressive NRC field, and the form and the experience gained will be a boon as the racing heats up again in late July and onward.
Check out the updated photos page to see the squad rolling around in style. And check out the schedule page for information and links to future races and past race results.