In a cyclist’s arsenal of cycling clothing, the plastic rain cape is akin to the last square of toilet paper in a port-a-potty: you’re happy it’s there to use, but its very usage indicates that unspeakable things are afoot, you’re out of options, and things are only going to get worse.

116 plastic rain cape-clad riders shivered at the start of the Shaun Thornton Memorial, better known as the Jiminy Peak Road Race, now in its 25th incarnation. Snow was still visible on the slopes of Jiminy Peak, a vestige of the long winter that seemed to resurface today, with temperatures in the mid-40s and a cold rain pelting the huddled mass of cyclists. Kenda/Raleigh had a squad of seven in the race - Mukunda, Adam, Colin, Sean, Eric, and Jason-squared - each bundled in warm Champion System clothing with warm legs courtesy of Greyhound Juice Super Strength salve. The plan was to let the race unfold in the raw conditions, watch for the splits in the strong windy sections, and start racing when the distance (the race totaled 150km) and the weather forced a selection.

Road-grit accentuated tanlines

The first 30km lap was group ride pace, as no one wanted to stick their noses in the wind on the long headwind slog leading away from Jiminy Peak. Two riders dangled up the road, but they were mere carrots on sticks and no one really gave them much thought. The course is essentially a 1.5km descent followed by 13.5km of false flat rolling descent followed by 13.5km of false flat ascent, punctuated by a 1.5km 7-percent climb to the finish. The entire peloton crested the finish hill on lap-one together and descended quickly into a steady drizzle. One lap down, four to go.

On the second lap, a large blob of a move got a little gap into the headwind on a slightly rolling section after the descent. Jason Beerman saw two Fiordifrutta riders, two Empire riders, two Targetraining riders, two Nerac riders, and a smattering of others in the move so he surfed a couple wheels with eventual race winner Toby Marzot of Fiordifrutta and tacked himself on the back. A move of this size (15 riders) was exactly the ticket to get away today since the conditions and the wind were so brutal. Anything smaller would certainly not last the 100km to the finish.

Beerman rolled through, but was greatly outnumbered so he was a bit wary. The move was all business, and everyone seemed to be working, especially the teams with multiple guys. The laps went by, and by the penultimate time up the climb, the SRAM car gave a time gap of over four minutes. By this time, the move was down to 13 riders and it was obvious that the winner was coming out of the group.

On the descent and into the rolling section, riders from teams with multiple guys in the move kept countering each other and dangling up the road. When it appeared that sufficient guys had beat themselves up, Beerman attacked up a small rise and drew out a perfect combination of riders: Fiordifrutta’s Marzot, Empire’s Mike Margarite, and Nerac’s Al Donahue. With depleted and unorganized chasers left behind, this was the move. The four traded pulls to get the gap up until Donahue ran out of gas and it was a rotation of three into the brutal headwind ascent that never seemed to end. It was steady all the way into the final turn and most of the way up the climb. It was clear that the three were gassed since no one took the initiative until the final 200m when Marzot started the sprint and neither Margarite nor Beerman could come around.

The spoils of near-victory

Beerman took third on the day for another podium placing for the team. The team will race next week at the Sterling Classic Road Race and at the Bear Mountain Spring Classic.

Full Jiminy Peak results are here.

Kenda/Raleigh Tip of the Week
If you race and your better half is able to precisely identify the strains of bacteria residing in your water bottles or, even worse, in your chamois, it’s time for a bundled race weekend/vacation. This phenomenon, known as a race-cation, marries the best of both worlds: you’re able to race for a day or two, but you’re also able to share the bounties of the region in which you’re racing with your love interest during your non-race time.

For example, the Jiminy Peak Road Race was a prime opportunity for a race-cation: it’s nestled in the heart of the Berkshires! Nothing says “Thanks for trekking out to Nowhere, MA and standing in the feed zone in the rain for 4 hours” like a night at a local B&B, followed by some prime time on the porch swing with the Sunday Times in one hand and a coffee in the other, and capped off with a trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Did you miss your chance? Not to fear. There are plenty of opportunities down the road. The king of all race-cation opportunities is, of course, the Green Mountain Stage Race, but if you get creative and your partner is somewhat oblivious, even an industrial park crit can work. Or not.

Forget everything you think you know or remember about Raleigh bicycles. Remember the Super U Raleigh that Laurent Fignon rode in the 1989 Tour de France? Neither do I. Nevertheless, you can bet Le Professeur would do a double take if he caught a glance of the sleek machines that Raleigh USA is producing in 2008. The Team frameset is Raleigh USA’s crown jewel in a wide-ranging line of bikes for all occasions and for all types of riders.

Read the full rundown in the Equipment section.

Eat your heart out, cyclingnews.

The topography of the Palmer Library Road Race defies all logic. The course features constant, highway-grade descents where speeds in the peloton hover between 40 and 45 MPH, but the corresponding uphill sections don’t seem to exist. The course is a 20-mile loop that’s done four times, and at the end of the race, you half expect to be marooned in some barren valley 3,000 feet below sea level, but instead, you’re back at your car wondering why you don’t have the bends.

On a cool and cloudy day, Kenda/Raleigh toed the line for the longest race of the season so far. The first lap was uneventful, save for the USCF official in the follow car pulling the entire peloton over to demand that everyone remove their vests so race numbers could be seen. This turned into a mass nature break before the group began rolling again. Most of the course lacks any semblance of a selective section so the first lap was like a large group ride, and everyone was able to catch up with old friends while rolling along the beautiful roads of central Massachusetts.

After the first pass up to the finish line (which does, in fact, feature an incline), the race began to heat up. Little moves would go on the few twists in the road, but they would come back on the fast descents since 70 cyclists descending en masse can overcome wind resistance on a downhill section with very little effort.

On the penultimate lap, Mukunda Feldman drew out the first significant split of about 12 riders. The group remained in sight though and individuals and small teams in the peloton who had missed the split slayed themselves to bring it back. Going through the finish line on the bell lap, Adam Sullivan went hard and the peloton started to string out. Jason Baer countered and the peloton started looking like a scatter plot. This is peloton-speak for “uncle!” so when Jason Beerman attacked after Baer, he got a gap and rolled a steady pace until he was joined by a group of nine, which included teammate Colin H. Murphy. This front group immediately started trading hard pulls and it was clear that this was the winning move, as it contained strong riders from well-represented teams.

With 5km to go, Fiordifrutta’s Josh Dillon, in an attack that was frighteningly similar to his winning attack two weeks prior at Turtle Pond, rolled away and took advantage of the hesitant chase to time trial his way to victory. Colin kept Beerman in contact with the group, but neither had the legs to do anything more, and they crossed the line in sequence, for 7th and 8th place.

The team continues to race aggressively and will be in attendance at the Jiminy Peak Road Race next weekend. Thanks, as always, to our supportive parents, wives, fiancées, and girlfriends for the cheers, the feeds, and the support this weekend!

Full results are here.

Sturbridge, Massachusetts is home to Old Sturbridge Village, a mandatory field trip destination for every New England child. Bordering on creepy, campy, and educational all at once, the Village P.R. machine implores you to “Take the whole family for an outdoor experience that is sure to excite and astound them all.”

The Sturbridge Road Race does its best to emulate the exciting and astounding outdoor experience that Sturbridge Village provides with a 15-mile race course (new for 2008) that assuredly goes through Sturbridge at some point. The course features undulating terrain and a 4km stairstep climb into the finish that is a welcome replacement for the downhill finish of years past, since it makes the race safer and vastly more interesting.

With around 1,000 feet of elevation gain per lap, the plan was to be attentive and aggressive as soon as the neutral parade up the finishing hill was complete and the racing began. The team started the attack yo-yo, with each move staying out a bit longer than the previous one until Jason Beerman was able to go clear at around mile 10 of the 60-mile race. He got out of sight and rolled for a while until Nerac’s Ward Solar and Targetraining’s Matthew Baldwin bridged up to complete the break of the day. The three riders went steady around the course, trading even pulls and staying as efficient as possible. With two to go, the three had 2 minutes on the shrinking peloton and with one to go, they had a little less than a minute on a burgeoning chase group that was chomping at the bit.

The three were caught with about 10 miles to go in the race by a group that numbered around 12 riders, including Kenda/Raleigh’s Toby Walch and Adam Sullivan. This new front group kept hesitating and never fell into a steady rhythm, as no one wanted to expend themself too much before the decisive finishing climb. When the climb actually came, the group burst apart, with wreckage flowing out the back like a proctologist’s worst nightmare.

When the dust had settled, Adam had gritted his teeth for 9th place.

Full results are here.

Adam Sullivan

The Myles Standish State Park in Plymouth, Massachusetts is a maze of small roads. They snake up and down and around ponds and trees, and once you enter, you are instantly lost. Home to the Charge Pond Training Series, its roads have also hosted the erstwhile Adelphia Grand Prix (now the Myles Standish State Park Road Race - Presented by the Town of Plymouth Services Board) for dozens of years.

The race flyer describes the course thusly: “The roads are not perfect, but good for racing.” After multiple equipment woes at yesterday’s Tour of the Battenkill, this rendered us all wary yet excited, like smokers who read the Surgeon General’s warning on a pack of cigarettes and light up anyway.

We lined up Adam Sullivan, Jason Baer, Jason Beerman, Eric Tremble, and Colin Murphy under sunny skies and perfect spring conditions. With relatively large numbers in the race, we wanted to always have guys up the road until something stuck so we took turns out of the parking lot. Eric went and was followed by Colin and Adam and Jason Baer and Jason Beerman. The latter Jason’s move seemed to come at the right time since he hit a winding section and was quickly out of sight. After a few miles, he was joined by evergreen legbreaker Mark McCormack, Rite Aid’s Robbie King, NEBC’s Todd Rowell, and Sakonnet’s Danny Estevez. The five rolled a very hard pace for three of the ten 5.1 mile laps to establish the gap and then kept the tempo high with even pulls. With four laps to go on the the 500-meter eight percent hill, the pace lifted and Estevez was dropped. The lead four continued at a steady pace until the final lap, when Beerman tried to get away from the two excellent sprinters (King and McCormack) in the group. The attack dropped Rowell, but King and McCormack came back and the three trackstanded and surged, trackstanded and surged, until the finish line was in sight and it became a drag race. Beerman ended up in the 3rd spot again.

Behind, the team patrolled all the dangerous chase groups, and Eric and Adam were in the first group back. Unfortunately, Eric flatted with 3 laps to go, but Adam rode strongly in the group for an 8th place finish. It was a day of redemption, of sorts. The team will race the Sturbridge/Palmer double next weekend.

Myles Standish results are here.

When cobblestones and long sections of dirt loom on a race course, cyclists try to negate any notion of chance in their minds. It is said that you don’t need good luck; you just need to avoid bad luck.

We didn’t heed that nugget of wisdom. So it goes.

The team lined up with Eric Tremble and Colin Murphy in the Cat 2 race and Jason Baer, Jason Beerman, Sean O’Rourke, Adam Sullivan, and Toby Walch in the Pro/1 race. The key, with a relatively small squad in each race, was to to conserve and have as many guys available when the final selection was decided. With temperatures in the 80s, the naturally selective course, and the presence of a handful of teams with double-digit numbers in the race, it promised to be a long day.

Unfortunately, when the dust had settled, the team’s equipment had taken a battering and any tactical plans took a backseat. It was a frustrating day for everyone, but we look forward to next year’s edition, where we hope to avoid any mention of luck, good or bad.

The Turtle Pond Circuit Race is like New England’s version of the Omloop Het Volk: a subdued first test of the classics season. Comprised of 6 laps of an 11.4-mile loop with a 1.5km climb done on every lap, the distance and the topography seem stratospheric to a peloton whose collective memory still contains fresh images of 3-hour trainer rides done in dank basements.

Kenda/Raleigh brought a squad of seven to Loudon, NH to contest the race put on by the MetLife Cycling Team. Although the weather report had initially signalled a raw and wet day, it was actually relatively nice, albeit a bit chilly. After liberal applications of Greyhound Juice warming salve and a quick team powwow, the team lined up and clipped in for the long day ahead.

After a leisurely climb up the finishing hill, the race seemed to begin almost immediately on the rollers on the back section into a biting headwind. After a few attempts by the team, Eric Tremble managed to plant himself in a move that quickly gained time and headed up the road. Seeing an opportunity, Jason Beerman bridged up and the large move of nine was out of sight, with two Kenda/Raleigh riders ensconced within.

The thought that then circulated through each of the minds of the riders in the break was this: 65 miles to go. With that in mind, everyone did an even share of the work, and the efficiency of the paceline quickly led to a three, then a four minute time gap back to the field. As the laps ticked away, riders slowly fell off the pace, especially when NERAC’s Aidan Charles pushed the pace up the finishing hill at the end of lap four. Lap five saw a further whittling of the break, as the front group went over the top of the climb on the bell lap with only five guys. After even pulls for half a lap, Fiordifrutta’s Josh Dillon put in an acceleration and a 5 second gap opened up. This dropped the other two riders in the group, and Charles and Beerman waited a moment too long to respond. For the final four miles before the finishing climb, Charles and Beerman chased Dillon, who was maintaining his five second advantage. At the base of the hill, Dillon had a ten second advantage and that proved to be enough as he held off Charles and Beerman at the finish.

Kenda/Raleigh finished the weekend with two podium places and looks forward to next weekend’s Tour of the Battenkill, the largest single day race in the US.

Full results are here.

The Chris Hinds Memorial Criterium is a fitting tribute to a monument of the Rhode Island cycling community. Chris Hinds passed away in 2002, and the eponymous race held to benefit his family has become a New England institution in the years since.

Kenda/Raleigh brought a team of six to Ninigret Park, the fabled stomping grounds of the team’s sole Rhode Island resident, Adam Sullivan, on a day when peeks of sun commingled with fog, a cool ocean breeze, and hints of thunder. When the gun went off, Mukunda Feldman rolled off with two others in tow and dangled in front of the peloton for a few laps. This set up a strong counter by Sean O’Rourke and a counter to the counter by Adam Sullivan at minute 25 of the 90 minute race.

Sullivan’s move drew out a viable group and the move looked like a good one to be in so Jason Beerman bridged up. With two Kenda/Raleigh guys up the road, the rest of the team patrolled the field and plotted a counter in case things came back together. The break rolled along but slowly, ones and twos bridged up and the move got too big for fluidity. Beerman attacked and drew a group of three others and the four rolled a steady pace for a few laps. This break was eventually caught by a hard chase from behind, as the front of the field split latched on. Sensing a lull, Beerman immediately countered and once again drew out three others with six laps to go. The four gained ten seconds and rolled through steadily. With one to go, Beerman attacked into the headwind section to try and forgo a sprint, but he was caught at the penultimate corner and was forced to lead out the tailwind sprint, holding on for third place and a podium spot.

The team, at the behest of Adam Sullivan, had agreed before the race to donate any race winnings back to the race promoter to augment the monies raised for the family of Chris Hinds. Thanks to Jonathan Lowenstein, Arc en Ciel Racing Team, and Providence Velo for a great race for a great cause.

Full results are here.

Founded in 2003, the Kenda/Raleigh Cycling Team has graduated seven team members into the professional cycling ranks, and the team continues to nurture talent by providing a fertile environment for development. The formula is simple: Kenda/Raleigh populates its roster with racers who demonstrate a commitment to cycling at an elite level while maintaining a sense of balance in their professional and personal lives. The team races a full schedule that begins in March and ends in October, from the Green Mountains to the Alleghenies, from Maine to the Empire State. The team’s 2008 schedule features regional races, National Racing Calendar (NRC) events, USA Cycling National Championship events, and UCI events.

The 2008 Kenda/Raleigh Cycling Team is:

• Jason Baer (Cat 1)
• Jason Beerman (Cat 1)
• Mukunda Feldman (Cat 1)
• Chris Hrenko (Cat 2)
• Colin Murphy (Cat 2)
• Sean O’Rourke (Cat 1)
• Adam Sullivan (Cat 1)
• Eric Tremble (Cat 2)
• Toby Walch (Cat 1)

Returning veterans Jason Baer and Mukunda Feldman anchor the team, as both have been on the squad since its inception and are leaders on the road. Jason Beerman, Chris Hrenko, Colin Murphy, Sean O’Rourke, and Eric Tremble return from last season, and all are excited to continue the team’s proud tradition in 2008. The new additions for 2008 are Adam Sullivan, who previously rode for Boston Scientific Cycling, and Toby Walch, who previously rode for Mechanical Services/Cycle Mania.

In addition to the legs and lungs of the individuals on the squad, the success of the team is reliant on all of its sponsors; thank you for your support.

• Kenda USA (Tires and tubes)
• Raleigh USA (Team frames)
• Easton (Handlebars, stems, forks, and wheels)
• The Bikeway Source (Official team shop)
• Blackburn (Pumps and bottle cages)
• Champion System (Clothing)
• Clif Bar (Nutrition)
• fi’zi:k (Saddles)
• Green Mountain Stage Race
• Greyhound Juice (Warming salves and skin care products)
• Rudy Project (Sunglasses and helmets)
• Speedplay (Pedals)
• Spiuk USA (Shoes)
• SRAM (Component groups)
• Zipcar (Car sharing services)

Please visit the team site throughout the 2008 season for frequent updates and photos.