Team Quad

by John Naegle

Everybody was nervous about turns 3 and 4 (a narrow left-right combo
about 300 meters after the start). We lined up 20 wide and 5 deep on
a road that would only support 6-8 wide after 50 meters and then 2-3
through the left-right combo. I started in the front row and jumped
hard to take the hole shot and stay out of trouble. Ended up second
and able to go through without braking on the first lap. For the next
4 or 5 laps, I settled into a good rhythm and stayed top 15 for the
rest of the race. I ended up going a little over threshold each time
up the hill, but wasn’t losing places unless people were punching it
hard, in which case I either cornered better or used my greater mass on
the downhills to move back up. With 3 to go Collin Huston from
CLNoonan put in the only real attack of the race. He dangled 10-15
seconds off the front for 1/2 a lap. I bridged across to him on the
downhill (proving that breaks were doomed in hindsight) and traded
pulls with him for a little bit. We were pretty quickly absorbed,
but at least it felt like a bike race — so many races go by without
any attacks. Toby was looking really strong the whole race, so I
decided to try and lead him out if I could get into good position.
Lost a few positions the last time up the hill. Toby was probably top
6 at this point and I was around 15th. Somebody in a Caisse d’Epargne
jersey ended up leading the group through the last corner… He ended
up braking really hard and dangerously slowing the whole group down.
After the last corner it was slightly uphill for 50 meters than about
a 1km downhill to the finish. Somebody took a flier and almost held
it to the end (he took second). It was basically impossible to move
up on the downhill so I couldn’t do much to help Toby. I sat right on
the yellow line until we had the whole lane then jumped (at 40+ mph, I
don’t think it was much of a jump) but was able to move up from around
15th to 7th. Somebody drifted into me during the sprint and we
almost locked handlebars, but neither of us panicked and we held it
upright. Toby ended up 4th and I was 7th.

by Eric Martin

My first lap I was mid pack sitting in and getting the feel for what was a
sketchy set of initial turns due to some bad bike handlers near my flanks.
At first, I didn’t go for the hole shot even though I had good position b/c
I still felt wonky from the Thai food of the prior evening and the
subsequent dehydration I felt at the start. Still, it felt good to be at the
races and confident I could regain my early season form. At about lap two,
something felt funny. My right felt funny and my pedal efforts did not
translate the usual accelerations/power that I can generate and had
difficulty hanging on. I literally was spit out from around 20th to off the
back on the top of the a climb that usually suits my style of riding.
Finally, after my third time into the chicane while leading a chase group of
maybe 5, my pedal shot off of both my pedal spindle and then my cleat. I
looked for the hay bales and/or a soft landing but managed to stay up
and slow to a stop.

From that point on, my race was over as I pedaled with one leg with my tail
between my legs over to Eager, Silva, et al. I am lucky that I didn’t go
down, and I felt shaky for at least 30′ afterwards. I suspect, and in
retrospect, that the failure occurred on the downhill where we were going
~40 mph, and that my cleat was sliding along the spindle into the first
series turns.

Yes, these are the recalled Time pedals, and yes, they have failed once before
on a very fast descent. I did add Loctite to the threads following my 1st
failure, but this was not enough.

I can no longer recommend Time pedals to others.

Results on VelocityResults.net

by Ian Sutton

What was supposed to be a cool and overcast day transformed itself to perfect cycling weather with temperatures in the low seventies and abundant sunshine. This coupled with a very civilized start time (Men’s 4 at 11:50AM) sweetened the pot even further.

With such a short race of only 20 miles (32km) we knew it would be fast from the gun without the usual chit-chat that seems to make the first few k’s go by faster. With Ken Han, John Naegle, Eric Martin and I representing Quad for our field we formulated a simple plan of shutting down any breakaways and trying to set it up for a sprint finish.

Right out of the gate we tore off up the first hill past the start/finish and down hill into a sharp, sandy right turn which would make quite the nightmare if you weren’t the first few wheels through the corner having to brake hard and then chase up the next hill. Almost immediately, one kid rolled off the front and after a quick chat John and Eric went up to cover the move and after a moment I found myself up there as well. I guess the first Jens Voigt of the day didn’t want a Quad sandwich for lunch and he sat up immediately and went back the field to think about what he had done. Wanting to stretch the legs and help drive the early pace, I kept it rolling at around 25mph (40kph) while John and Eric slowly sat up and went back to the field to try and slow them down. With such a short race and a rolling course, I didn’t have the strength nor the intention of trying to TT my way to the finish but simply to keep the pace up and maybe if we were lucky, force a selection and split the field up (This seemed to happen in all the finishes we watched previously). After just under a lap of this pace I was swallowed up by the field and spent the next ten minutes recovering about ten or twelve guys from the front. The benefit of being off the front on this course was being able to apex every corner as well as picking your line over the pothole riddled course. Of course the downside is that you’re taking all the wind and trying to pace yourself so that you’re not going flat out but just tickling your red zone – something I still need to work on.

The next lap went by without too much excitement and of course positioning was key to staying near the front and by lap three, you could really feel an uneasy, nervous energy throughout the field while a few sketchy moves by other riders in the field forced me back a little further than I would like and it took some work to get myself safely back up to the front. It was not uncommon to be on the side of the ride trying to keep it upright in the fallen pine needles etc. (Cyclocross skills pay off here). At this time another attempt at a solo breakaway happened and the lack of organization from other teams compounded with what seemed like a lack of knowing how to paceline made this move especially nervous and frustrating. By now Eric is driving at the front setting tempo to keep the breakaway attempt in sight and get him back to the field before our next Jens Voigt gets too much of a gap and sticks the move. Eric signals the next rider through to take his pull and he declined touting that it was someone else’s responsibility to do the work. Sensing Eric’s frustration and my thin patience I opted to burn through a few matches and just drilled it up the right side of the road, dragging the field right up the breakaway up one of the few hills on the course. After going full gas for about 30 seconds, I went into the red and needed to head to the shelter of the field to recover but had successfully put John and Eric near the front. In hindsight it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, energy wise, but sometimes the quick and dirty is the way to git ‘r done. Coming through the turns to the start finish the field seemed to be soft pedaling, perhaps gassed from all the accelerations that had been happening since we rolled out of the parking lot 40 minutes before.

On the fourth and final lap, the nervous energy was at an all time high while people who have been sitting on are trying to get near the front for their shot at victory while the group already at the front were trying to keep the pace high and then it finally happened. The sound of carbon hitting the ground. What sounded like a pretty big pileup happened near the back likely due to a touch of wheels and some sketchy group riding, of which there was plenty to go around. I conducted a quick headcount to make sure none of our guys went down but didn’t see Ken (dramatic pause…). Thankfully he was in front of the crash just behind me but unfortunately he eventually had to abandon with a loose headset – not the type of mechanical you can live with on this course, not with the condition of the road surface.

With about 2km to go I was fourth wheel hoping that the three guys in front of me were willing to keep the pace high and take turns pulling. Of course this would provide a safer finish and discourage attacks from the field. Unfortunately the lead wheel wouldn’t pull off and his pace consistently slowed into the final km. By now we’ve been swallowed up by the field and I was unable to find a hole to get back up to the front when magically what seemed like the entirety of the field folds over to the left side of the road and I promptly thanked Charlton Heston for the timely move. With the whole right side of the road open I upshifted a few gears and took off up the side of the road. Sadly, I was caught almost immediately but not to worry, John and Eric were near the front of the field where they would hopefully be able to organize themselves into a sprint. We head into the slight downhill right before the uphill finish and things started getting very dicey. Some riders punch drunk, others just appear crazy, thinking they can still win from 50 spots back start sprinting it out for 30th place. I just sat up and let them all fight it out for the finish. John slotted in 9th place, a fantastic result on top of his brilliant 4th place, just off the podium at Saturday’s Ninigret criterium while Eric finished in the top 20 and I was about 25 guys back.

Overall it was a great early season race and it was apparent that Quad was one of the only teams that was able to ride as a team and execute a plan to the best of our ability. With that in mind, it’s not hard to notice our results are becoming more consistent and I am confident that they will only get better as the season progresses. Very nice work everyone!

Results on BikeReg.com

by Christian Eager

Saturday, April 19, saw high temperatures one-degree off the all-time record (82°) in Salem, NY. Three members of QuadCycles made the trip for the early-season epic, the Tour of the Battenkill (née Battenkill-Roubaix).

Eric Silva and I did the category 3 race, which started at 11:30 a.m. Toby Phillpotts did the Masters 30+, which started 10 minutes later.

The Category 3 field was nearly full with 96 starters. While Eric and I knew that we probably were not going to place very highly, we were looking forward to the race, which had a reputation for being difficult, rewarding, and one-of-a-kind.

All three of those ended up being true. The most difficult parts of the race were the three main un-pavé (a.k.a. dirt road) sections, as not only were they unpaved, but the majority of the climbs, and certainly the steepest climbs, were all during these sections.

The group stayed together, and the race was not too difficult until the first of the off-road sections, on Juniper Swamp Road, about 10 miles in. The final climb of that section, before a long, fast descent, was .35 miles with an average grade of 9.4%. The majority of the dirt section was well-packed, but the last 100 meters or so was quite loose, and many people ended up needing to dismount and run to the top. I was one of these unlucky folks, and even though I managed a decent cyclocross-style remount, the group was well down the descent by the time I crested.

Thus began the middle section of my race, the group chase. A group of about 6 riders, including myself, Eric, and Jeremy Dunn of Cambridge Bicycle, collected at the bottom of the descent and began a smooth, rotating, paceline for the next 10 miles or so. We caught a few riders who joined us, and by the end we had about 10 people working together trying to chase back on to the group. It wasn’t meant to be, though as we didn’t catch them before the next set of unpaved climbs, which in turn shattered our group.

During the second or third climb of 5 in this middle un-pavé our group had dwindled to 6, and Eric and I were lagging behind the lead 4. After cresting this climb, we tucked in for the fast, negative-5%-grade descent. Just before descent ended, I heard a BANG, and looked behind me to find Eric had gotten a flat. Luckily, we had just passed the second of two support vans for our race, so he was able to get a wheel change without waiting for too long. I pressed on, unsure of how long the wheel swap would take, and still hoping the group would re-coalesce after the dirt section ended.

It didn’t. Or, at least, I wasn’t a part of it. In fact, for the rest of the race I never was able to work with another Cat. 3, and only saw another 3 or 4 people from my race. The 13 miles to the next dirt section were relatively uneventful. I passed several riders in other races, and ran out of water around mile 42. Luckily, this was just before a neutral feed zone (thank you, Greenwich!), where I was able to get a bottle of water to tide me over ‘til the end.

Just before the final dirt section, on Ferguson Road, I was caught by the Masters 30+ field. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, but for two things. Firstly, and frustratingly, there were a few Cat. 3 riders mixed in with the group. Although before every road race, competitors are warned not to work with other groups, it seems that inevitably a few people mix in with subsequent fields when they’ve been dropped. “What’s the big deal? I’m so far back,” they’re probably thinking. Well, it’s a little annoying to have worked for 10 miles by yourself, only to have people you dropped an hour ago ride by on the coattails of another group. You’re not helping them, but they’re certainly helping you.

The second thing was that it meant I was entering the section shortly after the field and their follow cars. The third dirt section was much dustier (mostly unpacked, and between ¼- and ½-inch of loose dirt) than the previous two sections. In fact, visibility at the beginning of the section less than 25 meters there was so much dust. A couple of people passed me on this section; the loose dirt proved to me more challenging for me than it was for them.

On the published course profile, the last climb, about half of which is dirt, looks steep and, well, mountainous. In reality, it’s a long, steady, shallow climb, about 3% for 2.5 miles;the first 1.75 miles is dirt. After the crest is a long, fast descent, and then it’s mostly flat and about 4 miles to the finish. I had one Cat. 3 pass me on this stretch, the last of only four to do so legitimately after our chase group shattered around mile 30.

I was quite pleased to cross the finish line at 2:46:11, in 63rd place. I knew Battenkill-Roubaix was not my race from the beginning. However, I’m glad to have done it and gotten to see a

Congratulations to Toby and Eric for finishing, too, 20th and 76th in their respective races.

Results on BikeReg.com

by Ian Sutton

When you roll up to the line in a Cat 4 event with 8 guys on your team it makes all the other teams wonder what the hell is going on. This Saturday, QuadCycles put on a display for the people and we launched attack after attack after attack and simply wore the field down.

We rode the first 10k at a pretty casual warm up pace and everyone was chatting and hanging out enjoying the early morning cool as the low clouds burned off with the ascending sun. Eventually someone decided to try their luck with an attack and it forced the whole field to stretch their legs a bit. With the whole Quad team riding the front 3rd of the peloton, any of these initial moves were brought back within a few minutes and were typically followed by a counter attack on our behalf which would prove to frustrate the entire peloton over the next two hours.

At about kilometer 50 we happened upon one of two level crossings that were mentioned at the race start, but what we did not plan on was actually having to stop for a train. From about 300 meters out, we could see the “ding dings” come on and unfortunately we all had to stop to let the train pass; the slow moving, half mile long freight train. For a minute, the train’s engineer looked at the peloton as we barreled towards the crossing and you could tell that just for a minute, he thought “are they going to try and beat me across the tracks?”. Unfortunately, one lone, lucky attacker had beat the train to the crossing by about 45 seconds and he would ultimately take the victory. How Paris-Roubaix circa 2006. While we waited for the train to pass, several people used the time to take a natural break. About five minutes later, the racing – now ultimately for 2nd place resumed. A few chases to catch the lone leader tried to formulate, but some nervous riders were simply trying to ramp up the speed sprint style and really just created a disorganized cluster off the front for about 15 seconds at a time.

The race settled back into a nice, fast rhythm for the next 15 or 20km and then we hit the climb. I made sure to be right up at the front at the start of this climb as its length would surely force a selection by the summit and it was so. The whole peloton came to the climb together, but only about 20 or 30 of us were left by the time we hit the summit. The selection was made and this group settled in for the remainder of the race.

The tempo was pretty tame after the climb, save a few easy rollers everyone had plenty of time to top off their fluids and to eat a bit. I believe 5 Quad riders including myself made the selection and again, we started attacking, testing everyone’s legs as they tried to flush out the pools of lactic acid that filled up during the climb.

Quad attacked right up to the final climb, which we had ascended earlier to create the initial selection, only this time we were (thankfully) only going about halfway to the top. I did my best to keep tempo on the climb but really had to dig deep into the proverbial “suitcase of courage” to get up the hill without being dropped. As of this writing, the official results have not been posted on bikereg.com but I’m fairly certain that all of us who made the split, finished within the top 20 with our best placing being Glenn F with a fantastic 6th place.

While a podium finish certainly would have been better, QuadCycles went out to this race to kick ass and take names and that we did. As a team we were very active and very aggressive in the race and made it hard for any other teams to follow us. From the gun every Quad rider had a smile on his face and really made it an enjoyable morning for the whole team. We were the buzz of the peloton and there were even some inquiries into joining the team. Bike racing really is a team sport and today we made it oh so apparent.

The course was great, it had a little bit of everything, the weather was perfect, there were no crashes to speak of and everyone raced with class.

Results on BikeReg.com