April 25, 2010
120miles
6th-Thom Coupe
9th-Josh Dillon
http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/04/25-Quabbin-Road-Race.asp
The Quabbin Reservoir road race took place on a cold and rainy Sunday morning, the day after Josh Dillon’s 3rd place finish at Turtle Pond (April 24th). This year, with an additional lap around the hilly and windy reservoir terrain, the challenging course, harsh weather and a strong field, made for a difficult 120 miles of manly racing. As Josh so eloquently stated about Turtle Pond, the Quabbin Classic seemed to have the same story line, plot, theme and players as the previous day of racing: “…The erupting volcano in Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull, dished up a good European thumping of the Americans...While the volcano… did close many European airports and forced some of our competition from the Battenkill UCI race the weekend before…”. Again, the British, Rapha Condor Sharp professional cycling team showed up in forces at the Quabbin Classic, dreary dark forces. Dressed in their black ‘costumes’ with dainty pink trim, Rapha’s strength, depth and numbers, couldn’t help but reminded me of some evil cult or a horrid, Darth Vader/Dark Side nightmare. I must re-state, that you truly cannot tell a racer not to race, no matter where they are from, so yet again, racers pedaled around the Quabbin Reservoir, 2 times, racing hard all 120miles.
From the gun, a flurry of attacks erupted, and the game of blue on black had begun. BikeReg.com/Cannondale riders, Josh, Justin, Jerome and Thom alternated attacking and following in the shadows of the dark British kits. Soon after the race’s first punches were thrown, a small group got away, forming the days main breakaway. In it, was at least 2 Rapha riders with Justin being the only BikeReg.com/Cannondale rider represented in the break. This situation was not ideal, and Josh and I were quite upset that we seemed to have missed the move of the day, and left Justin, high to dry, out numbered.
The break gained a good amount of time, but the pack was aggressive and it seemed that everyone shared the same frustration of missing the break as attacks continued and aggressive racing returned to full throttle. Josh and I were covering every move that tried sneaking off the front, hoping to catch a ‘free-ride’ up to Justin in the break, and we were not letting Rapha go anywhere. Nothing got away and no free rides were had but everyone was flexing their muscles, and with Josh’s ride the previous day, BikeReg.com/Cannondale was just as marked as Rapha Condor Sharp. Nonetheless, blue on black was in full effect until Josh and I were out-numbered, isolated, and eventually beaten up black and blue.
After both trying to sneak away and bridge up to the break, we realized that nothing was going to get away and that Rapha was again going to try and sweep the top 10 places for the day. On the steep pitches leading to the finishing climb, Josh and I were not going to let it happen without putting up a fight. Out numbered, 2 (blue) : 5 (black ), Josh and I executed some textbook teamwork as we worked together alternating attacks, covering moves, and playing off of each other to react and race very effectively, given the unfavorable match up. To our surprise, by the base of the finishing climb, we had blown the pack apart and ended up catching and passing the day’s main breakaway. The final climb up to the Quabbin Observatory is a consistent 2mile, challenging climb, and was the stage of the long day’s final shake down. There were 3 riders that had escaped the day’s main break, whom we never caught and who eventually won the race, so Josh and I battled the Raphas for 4th place on the line. Having already turned ourselves inside out for the last 30miles marking and matching the many Rapha attacks, in the end it was not the difference in strength that separated Josh and I from the British pros, it was the difference in numbers. Being out-numbered finally caught up to us, and although we played are cards very well, in the final run into the line we both were worked over by Rapha who had more players and cards to their hand. In the end, BikeReg.com/Cannondale did what we could, exhibited great teamwork, with no doubt comparable strength to the god forsaken, grim-reaper black, legit, European pro team.
