Team Quad

by Michael McKittrick

Yash, Emily and I raced at Wells Ave. this Sunday.  Yash and I had made a plan to start a break on the lap after the a prime that happened after the 20th lap.  I was hoping that since, Yash was wearing a Hup kit that maybe no one would suspect a team effort.  On the other hand, I hoped that maybe a couple of guys may come and work the break. 

Upon lining up at the start line, I couldn’t help but notice that 3 teams were at least 12 deep.  NEBC, BRC and Landry’s brought crews.  My strategy was going to be to try the break and if that failed, mark a wheel to follow and hope for the best. 

The race started fast.  Yash didn’t feel so good.  I felt really strong and as always, Emily was a powerhouse.  I went off with a couple of early breaks, just to get the heart up.  At one point before the halfway point I chased and caught a break by two Landry’s riders.  As I was overtaking them at the start line, they rang the prime bell.  The Landry’s guys ratcheted up the pace, but I was able to recover slightly. The first guy peeled off and the second tried to shake me.  He wanted me to pull.  I refused.  He slowed a little and I told him that he had better pull or niether of us was getting the prime.  He stepped it up.  I held his wheel until I was in sprinting position and swung out.  I was able to leave Landry’s but another couple of guys overtook us going too fast to catch.  I may have been able to take the prime had I started sprinting sooner.  Next time.

Yash and I initiated a break after the afore mentioned prime.  He led me out like a champ.  There was one NEBC up the road and Yash tried to get me up to him.  He got me about halfway and I took over.  I got stuck in the middle.  I had a small jump on the field, but I was hurting.  A Colavita rider bridged and towed me the rest of the way.  We got swallowed up right as we caught the one off of the front.  In total, I had stayed of of the front for two laps.  I was completely spent.  I thought that I was going to vomit.  I wasn’t seeing straigtht. 

During this dark period in my race, they called a women’s prime.  I am ashamed to say that I was unable to be of any help to Emily.  She took the prime by stealthily following a woman out and swinging around and outsprinting her. 

Someone initiated a break after the women’s prime and Emily was in it.  I was unable to block for her, I didn’t have the juice to get up there even.  She worked it until it faded. 

Luckily, the peloton was mellow for the next two laps.  In three laps I had recovered totally and I started looking for me wheel with 5 or 6 laps to go.  I marked a muscly BRC rider and stuck to him like glue.  So I am thinking that I’ll hold his wheel until the last lap and try to sprint and he goes on a break.  I followed because he looked strong and had been sitting in.  I figured that this was it.  There was only four laps to go.  He was just playing.   The break never even got far off of the front. 

I sat in for the rest and sprinted from the back up until maybe 20th.  I have not perfected my sprint and don’t yet know how much road I need to spin out a gear. 

All in all it was a good race.  I was able to chase down some breaks, hurt some other riders and represent.  This race really got me thinking that since we are a small club, we need to be very organized and really ride as a team in order to maximize the talent that we have. 

by Eric Silva

I decided to race Wells Ave at the last minute.  I was very late.  The official was announcing “B racers to the line” before I even had my shoes on.  I got to the line for the B race with absolutely no warm up (Wells Ave usually starts pretty mellow that wasn’t such a big deal) and a hastily pinned number.  Another Quad Cycles rider, Jacob, was already at the start.

The race was typical of Wells Ave.  A few people off the front early possibly looking for primes.  One break got a gap of half a lap.  It fell apart and the riders were reeled in one at a time.  During that break, I noticed one Providence Velo rider was doing a particularly good job blocking for his teammate.

With 7-10 laps to go, a Gus Kelley from BRC and the same Providence Velo rider produced a gap of about 20 meters on the pack.  Because of the Providence Velo rider’s previously demonstrated speed and his blocking teammate, the 4-6 BRC racers in the pack, and another Quad Cycles rider in the pack, this looked like it could be a winning breakaway.  

I sprinted away from the pack, taking no one with me, and spent one-third of a lap bridging the gap.  

We produced a 20 second gap and held it until the end of the race.  The result of the final sprint was: Providence Velo, Boston Road Club, Quad Cycles.

by Jonah Tower

With a week to go, before the big race at Fitchburg, I wanted to get out and stretch my legs a little one last time. The weather was perfect at the Ninigret Park in Charlestown, RI with the usual wind blowing and we lined up with a healthy field of about 45 riders. The race had spunk from the get go and several attacks went off right away. Then, after only a few laps one break of two or three guys got away and it look juicy enough for me to join, so I jumped off the front of the field and went to work trying to bridge across alone. Somewhere along the line the break fell apart and I decided to keep going it alone, until I made it all the way to the lead guy. He and I joined forces, after a prime that he stayed away from me for, and then the two of us worked very hard to stay off the front for nearly half the race.

A nine-man chase group was working to catch up to us, but we continued to work to stay away with a lot of racing left and hoped that one or two riders would come across to reinforce our efforts. Unfortunately my partner cracked and headed back to the 9 with about 12 to go, and so I stayed out alone for about 3 laps hoping someone might finally come across. But, after looking back several times, it was clear no one would, so I also went back to the now 10-man group to finish the race. Once I was recaptured, the attacks began and lasted until about a lap an half to go, but no one got away. So, in the last laps we setup for the sprint and I worked to position myself against the riders that had teammates with then (3-4 teams actually), but left myself a little too far back in the last sections, before the final turn and was only able to grab 5th. But, I felt good all race and was able to work very hard, so I was happy with the result.

by Jonah Tower

So, with the NE Crit Championships going on in RI somewhere, and a race for the hill-nuts the day before, it was indeed a field made up of about 20 climber-types. The course was a 1-km rectangle with a slight uphill finish and one steep, yet short, hill, and we had something like 19 miles to accomplish in the blazing sun (just below 90 degrees I figure). For a bunch of skinny guys we kept the pace going pretty good and there were a lot of attacks going and the field was continually reeling everything back in. But, after about half the race the field was getting a little cooked and more and more folks were suffering their way up the short climb. On the last prime (5 to go) another rider and I got a little gap on the field at the top of the hill and decided to go for it. However, the next time around he cracked, and I was left alone with 4 to go. Figuring “what the hell” I put my head down and pushed my HR to the “red line.” But, with 4 guys in the field (the only team with more than 2) UNH was hot on the pursuit and was not letting me go. With 2 to go I was all but caught, so I sat up to go back and try to salvage something for the sprint however, then I took another look and the field had done the same, after seeing me sit up, so as I came around the next corner I went back to work and opened the gap again. At this point I was going all out for the last 1.5 laps, and thus I didn’t noticed that UNH had launched someone off the front of the field in the last lap that came screaming by me with 1/2 lap left. He took 1st, but I did manage to hold off the field and take 2nd with a little gap, after being out for 4 laps alone.

by Christopher Rehm

So I have been doing a couple of these. They hold this at the NH International speedway racecourse, on the GP road course, usually. 2 good little hills in the course, nice road. Thursday was all the usual suspects for them, NHCC people some good juniors, sunapee bannagans people etc a ccb rider etc. I rode the A race,  points format, 15 laps, sprints every 3 laps. After first sprint 2 of the juniors and a bannagans guy, and 1-2 others got off the front and made the break stick, so all the points were eaten up by them. We got some people together and chased but could never really get organized enough to catch them. When we started it was pretty wet, as the track dried out it got slipperier from the oil, at 3 to go one of the B racers crashed hard, broke his collar bone and they pulled the rest of the riders off the course. proboably finished about 10th in the field sprint. This is a really nice training race if its not raining even if the drive is long. They have showers there which is really nice after 90 min of hard racing.

by Brian Schwarzentruber

The weather was great and not too windy, but this is Ninigret.  For the first race of the year I chose the Masters 40.  You know, Skip Foley, Mark Luzio, Mike Norton and Paul Curley.  Yah, those guys.  What was I thinking?  As you can imagine the race was fast and smooth.  No brakes needed.  My goal was simply to finish and stay in the pack.  Basically pack fodder.  I was able to do that and the laps just ticked off.  The last two laps were different.  They were extremely fast for already burning legs.  I thought I was going to blow chucks.  I was able to finish in the back of the pack.  Glad that’s over…