Toby Walch, a resident of the central Massachusetts town or Marlboro, was featured in a story in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette on Sunday, July 6. The text of the article follows below.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Walch finding Pro 1 tough
LONGSJO NOTES
By Kevin O’Malley CORRESPONDENT
FITCHBURG— Following the third stage of the 49th annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, Marlboro’s Toby Walch seemed nearly as happy with his 107th-place finish as race winner Kyle Wamsley was with his.
Last year’s Category 2 champion, Walch was expected to compete to defend his crown this year, but instead moved up to the Pro 1 ranks with the Kenda/Raleigh Cycling Team. While Walch hasn’t enjoyed as much success running with the big boys, it certainly hasn’t hampered his enthusiasm.
“It’s been a whole lot of fun. The guys are really strong and it’s really great just to try to hang with them,” Walch said. “I just try to work hard and try to get some good results. Last year, I was a Cat 2 here but most of the races are Pro 1/2, so really I’ve been racing against pros for about three years.”
Despite his experience riding against professionals, Walch never has been in a field with so many pros or taken part in a race as difficult as this year’s Longsjo.
“This has been unbelievable. The quality of racers here is something we don’t often see in New England, to have all these pro teams,” Walch said. “It’s hard but it’s really fun, it’s really why we do this. Without a doubt, this is the best competition I’ve ever raced. This is on the national race calendar, so there is four full pro teams here. Typically, these guys come out and really hammer us.”
In addition to the quality of the competition, the swapping of the race’s second and third stages has been an added challenge to an already-brutal four-day stage race.
“This race is unbelievably hard — it’s the hardest race I’ve ever done,” Walch said. “Just from the start, guys were popping off the back left and right. The whole backstretch, your tongue would be on the handlebars and you’d look up and a gap would be opening, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You just had to hope the leaders would slow down enough for you to catch up before they got away.”
Walch got off to a good start in this year’s race, placing 28th in the time trial and 38th in the brutal mountain stage, good for 32nd place overall heading into yesterday’s Fitchburg State College Circuit Race.
Walch, who moved two years ago to Marlboro, where he works at Hillside School, credited long hours of training around the Montachusett region, and especially around Mount Wachusett, with helping prepare him for the first two stages.
“It’s been great,” said Walch, who only turned to cycling after an injury sidelined his collegiate track career. “I’m able to ride up here. I ride my bike from Marlboro to here and I ride around a lot, especially near the hill stage. Just to be familiar with it really gives me a bit of an edge. I used to be a runner. I ran track and cross country in college, and I got injured, so I started biking to stay fit. Then my school put on a little crit right on campus and I did that, and I was a whole lot better at that than I was at running.”
While Walch’s 107th place yesterday dropped him to 90th overall, more than 13 minutes behind the leader, he’s looking forward to today’s finale, as well as next year’s 50th anniversary race.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said.
© 2008 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
A separate story from the same issue included a couple quotes from Jason Beerman - the entire story follows below.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Spokesmen, spokeswomen
Cyclists offer views between races
FITCHBURG LONGSJO CLASSIC COMPETITION
By Paula J. Owen CORRESPONDENT
FITCHBURG— People came from far and wide to participate in the 49th Fitchburg Longsjo Classic bicycle race this weekend, drawing novice to expert cyclists from around the country.
Before the start of the pro race at Mount Wachusett on Friday, cyclists warmed up, geared up, prepared their bikes and talked about winning strategies. Teammates — some joking, some serious and intensely focused on the competition — were telling each other they were going to win it this year and take the top money prize.
Some talked about where they are staying, what they are eating and what they think of the area.
Douglas F. von Bushberger, 39, of team Organic Athlete, was preparing to race for the first time in the Longsjo. From New York City, he said he is “pretty low on the cycling totem pole.”
Mr. Bushberger said he is a Category 4 racer, upgraded from beginner or Category 5, after finally completing 10 open races.
He arrived Wednesday night and is staying at the Best Western in Fitchburg, he said.
“This is my first time here,” he said. “It is a pretty area.”
He said he has not had the chance to enjoy it much, however, because when he isn’t cycling, he is eating, sleeping and working. An entrepreneur, Mr. Bushberger said he continued his work while here for the race, getting his startup, environmental technology company off the ground.
He did make sure to find time to eat that morning. His pre-race meal was eggs, pancakes, fruit, coffee and toast at the hotel’s café, but he said one-fifth of the 25 people on his team are vegans or vegetarians.
“The team espouses that as a healthy way to eat to be athletic, but I am not one myself,” he said.
A lot of the other racers he talked to, he said, brought their own food because they are used to their “own kind of nutrition” and did not want to risk feeling sick while biking.
Racer Kerry L. Litka, 31, of Nashua, N.H., said Dunkin’ Donuts and Subway suited her just fine.
“It’s quick and healthy,” she said. “I am a vegetarian, so I can grab a bagel or a veggie sub.”
This was Ms. Litka’s 10th year racing in the Longsjo.
“I’ve had good results, bad results and no results,” she said. “I’ve crashed, had mechanical problems, been pulled out and almost won it.”
Ms. Litka, a former high school teacher, loves the variety of the terrain in the race, she said, with the mountains and the hills and then racing through the urban, downtown area.
“I think it is great,” she said. “I like the mix of some stages rural and some urban.”
Ms. Litka is part of a five-person team — all women. Two teammates could not make it because they were participating in the Canadian Nationals, she said.
Jason G. Beerman, 29, of Allston, was getting ready for his fifth Longsjo pro race with seven other teammates. He was staying with teammate Toby Walch of Marlboro. He said he ate in Thursday, but after the race the team was getting pizza.
“We are getting some huge pies to celebrate after the race,” he said. “We usually eat locally.”
He fueled himself that morning with a big breakfast of cereal and banana bread, he said.
Physically preparing for the race, as well as paying attention to nutrition, are at the top of most racers’ thoughts, he said.
A serious cyclist, Mr. Beerman — who said he doesn’t really like to drink, despite his last name — races every weekend from March to September.
He said he has participated in some disorganized, poorly run races over the years.
“The Longsjo happens to be a very well-run, very professional and organized race,” he said. “The community is super-supportive — from the police directing traffic, to the people having barbecues on the side of the road along the course. It is a really positive atmosphere.”
He added that the race was centrally located for him and many of his racing friends.
For cyclist Derek J. Laan, 21, of West Lafayette, Ind., it was a 16-hour haul. His teammate said Mr. Laan had also just learned to drive a standard transmission and stalled the car 10 times in front of a police officer in New York before they finally arrived Wednesday.
“Just getting here was an adventure,” Mr. Laan said, with a laugh.
Mr. Laan, a student at Purdue University majoring in nutrition, fitness and health, said he and his four teammates have been eating fast food at Chinese buffets, and Italian food.
The team members, from Indiana and Michigan, were staying at the Best Western. It was their first time in Massachusetts.
“We’ve been eating pasta and a lot of buffalo wings at least once a day,” Mr. Laan said. “But, we have to have some ‘clam chowda’ and a ‘lobsta’ while we’re here.”
His teammates joked they were going to buy lobsters with the prize money when they won.
When asked if he liked the area, he looked around and said, “I am looking at some sweet mountains right now.”
“I didn’t think there were going to be mountains here,” he added. “I thought it was just going to be farms, at first, but there are some cool mountains. It’s just a beautiful area.”
© 2008 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.