August 8, 2010

East Hartland, CT

Team: Justin Lindine, Steve Weller, Alister Ratcliff, Jerome Townsend, Josh Dillon

Result: Justin Lindine, 2nd

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/08/08-Tokeneke-Classic-Road-Race-New-England-Regional-Road-Race-Championships.asp

The team went into Tokeneke with a plan that covered all of the usual scenarios:  Early break, followed by hard racing that results in a smaller late race break of the contenders, breaks merge and the gloves really come off.  To this end, we designated Steve, Josh and Jerome to cover the early moves, while Alister and myself would race conservatively for the first half in preparation for racing for the win later on.  However, sometimes the best laid plans go awry.  The first few miles saw the race fall into the predictable pattern of attack and cover with our guys at the front making sure that any move with even the slightest chance of going off the front had us well represented.  Around the nine mile mark though, things suddenly got serious.  The hills on the backside of the 22 mile course kicked in that the attacks from the serious race contenders started to splinter the field.  I saw Alister quickly move to the front to cover a surging Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly) and Emerson Oronte (IF P/B ORA) and figured I had better move up into the top ten of the race.  Sure enough, a second surge from Emerson snapped a group free off the front consisting of myself, Powers, Sean Smith (Champion Systems Racing), and Emerson.  Surely the winning move wouldn't be from ten miles in to this sixty-six mile race?  Well, sometimes that's how it plays out; As we drove the pace in the break gradually extending our lead to a maximum of 2:30 it quickly became apparent the Emerson was the man to beat, as his surges on the climbs shot out Powers and then Smith as the end of the race drew near.  When it was down to just the two of us and the final miles of the course I put in a dig on the final descent and opened up a small gap.  Unfortunately he caught me on the initial slopes of the two mile finishing climb and was then content to sit on my wheel as I led up the climb.  Reluctant to dawdle too much for fear of getting caught by the field (the gap was now 1:30) I put in several surges as we neared the 2K to go point to no avail.  As we ticked off the meters my mind was racked with how to win the race.  400 to go, 300, at 200 I opened up the sprint on the right side of the road as hard as I could spinning out the gear and sitting down to shift before sprinting again.  In the last 50 meters I almost thought I had it until I saw in my peripheral the creeping of his green form.  I threw the bike for the line but knew that it was lost by half a wheel....just a few meters later and the jump might have worked.  There's always next time.....

August 16, 2010

Will Goodfellow, 2nd Overall

http://pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=18850 

The team was confident going into this race that we could come out of it with a really good result. The start of the 250km. RR was marked by many attacks coming out of Montreal. Steve courageously covered them and got into an early move. Once that was brought back Steve and Josh got into the day’s main move. They both rode very strong in which was a pretty fast race. Once the break was caught, Jerome and I were the freshest of the team. They delivered me perfectly to the bottom of the major climb. I rode it as hard as I could and re-attacked at the top of the climb. The only one who could follow was Aurelien Passeron from Garneau who has ridden Grand Tours in Europe.  He outsprinted me for the win, but I was very pleased that the race played itself out exactly as we had planned the night before. Hopefully this is a sign of late season success for the team.

Salem, MA

August 11, 2010

Team: Luke Keough, Jerome Townsend

Result: Luke Keough, 2nd Place after lapping the field

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/08/11-31st-Annual-Witches-Cup-Criterium.asp

Mid Week crits. People in New England love to race them, and Witches Cup was no exception. With a full field and some strong riders the fast and straight forward coarse would prove much more exciting than anticipated. We got under way and the racing was on from the gun, attacks we flying and the field was not willing to let anything go. But after twenty laps there was a big move by Adam Myerson for a prime and with a tired field it set up the counter attack by Jesse Anthony. Once Jesse and three others were off the front I followed Robbie King and Tim Johnson across to the move. Everyone was sort of working and we were clear of the field. At five to go there was a prime that I went for but I didn't realize that we were so close to lapping the field and that set up Jesse Anthony for an attack on our group. He made to the field with two laps to go and Tim, Robbie and myself hit the back of the field at the Bell. I rode through the field as fast as I could and was nearly to the front when we crossed the finish. Jesse made it to the front in the extra lap that he had and I was no more than a bike length behind at the end. I ended up not catching Jesse but in the effort to get to the front beat Tim and Robbie through the field for Second place.