Team Quad

by Ian Sutton

Saturday morning was the Sterling Classic Road Race in well… Sterling, MA. I drove out to the race with Mike M and we almost didn’t quite make the race on time due to Google Maps’ fantastic directions and the well marked toll lanes on the Mass Pike (see: Sarcasm). I drove through the Fastlane which is no problem, should you have a transponder, but much like a roller coaster, they’ll send me a nice picture of Mike and I in the car breakin’ the law. Fear not, we did make it to the race with plenty of time to spare.

The registration area was pretty crowded which hasn’t been typical for the early morning starts thus far this season. We grabbed our numbers and our free water bottle (woot woot!)and I got in line for the bathroom. Much to my chagrin, there was only one stall and one bathroom which complicated matters for all the racers looking to unhitch some extra weight before the race.

After an abbreviated Cro-Mags based warmup and some bike moshing on the trainers we got a little antsy as the parking lot was emptying quicker than if they were giving out free EPO injections at the staging area. I see Mike over in staging so I assume we’re lined up with the correct group of riders (see: never assume). They start their 2 mile neutral roll out through the town center (how Tour De France) and thankfully about 10 meters into the rollout someone noticed that I had a different set of numbers on my jersey and that frankly, I look just a bit young to be riding in the masters category so I sheepishly bail out and head back to the correct group. Mike was not so lucky, he did the entire neutral roll out and possibly some racing before realizing he was in the wrong field and just as the Cat 4′s rolled out, about a half mile down the road, he comes time trialing back at us on the other side of the road and rejoined the correct field. For Quad representation it was myself, Mike M and Glenn with no real formal team plan for today other than ride smart and at the front and keep our eyes on anything that tries to go away and to attack if we’re feeling strong toward the finale.

The first few laps we fairly uneventful with the exception of a minor crash going into the decisive hill at the end of the first lap. The field made a hard right turn on to the climb just before the start/finish and a few people on the inside fell victim to this low speed debacle. Otherwise, no one was really jostling too hard for position and I used this time to get a feel for who was strong, who was sketchy and to check out the course. Virtually the whole right side of the course was chopped up though well marked with spray paint but with the yellow line rule there were times when it was hard to avoid it and at faster points in the race a few people rolled off into the side of the road and were forced to chase to rejoin the group.

Each of the 5 times over the climb I was in the front third of the field and seemed to gain position on the weaker climbers. This also held true for Glenn and Mike although Mike was caught out with a couple anomalous mechanical issues but he was able to catch back on the whole time, even using the SRAM neutral car to make it back to the field without wasting too much energy.

On the 4th lap there was a break of two that had been away for a while and the field collectively decided we’ve had enough of their tomfoolery decided to maker a concerted effort to chase it down. There was a pretty good train going at the front and Mike and I rode up to do our part in bringing the break back and to help control the race from the front. After only one pull, someone whose team slips my mind failed to pull through and let a gap open up which made no sense, he had no one in the break to block for and when Mike read him the riot act about it his response was “it’s hard”. The field did end up catching the break on the last lap and I was caught in a lot of fighting for position up at the front for the last 3 miles or so before the climb. The pace was pretty high and everyone was fighting for wheels and fighting for abetter spot in the bunch. When we made the turn into the hill all hell broke loose and everyone dug deep for their best result.

For me this last time up the climb was a little too much and I ended up losing ground coming in with the bunch 2 seconds down on the winner. Both Glenn and Mike finished in the bunch a little further ahead than myself and all and all we put in a solid effort.

There was free pizza back at registration which was a little odd at 10:30 in the morning, but delicious no less.

by Josh Preneta

Great course! The 4/5B race had 4 Quad guys in it – Chris F, Geoff B, Paul F, and myself. (Hope I got the names right). Phil raced in the A race.

Most of the ride was straightforward/easy. Some gentle rollers, a good 3 or 4 mile gentle decline, and a sprint finish on a slight incline. The B group started about 2 minutes after the A group, and we quickly cuaght them on the first of 2 laps. Geoff, Chris and I were mixing it up towards the front of the pack. There was one strong fellow that did 90% of the work for the rest of the field – I think he is the one person that made the race fun. I was coming off of some silly sickness that had me laid up in bed on Friday/Saturday, so I just sat in and waited for a good old fashioned field sprint. When it came, I was boxed in behind some Landry’s guys, but managed to get out to the right. I almost locked handlebars with a guy from Providence, but stayed upright and ended up in 6th place. Not bad.

Great course, great support, safe. I’ll do this one every year.

by Brian Schwarzentruber

What a beautiful course.  It was very well organized and great roads.  The volunteers were amazing. The race officials are making it clear that littering will not be tolerated. They will stop the whole pack if necessary. It’s about time.  Communities have not allowed us to race in them for this very reason.  The race was amazing.  But for me, I broke the three major rules of racing.  I didn’t recover well from hard hill training the previous Thursday night, I only get about 3 hours sleep the night before, and I didn’t warm up well.  It came as no surprise that I was dancing with myself after the first and only hill, slight raise really in retrospect.  Even though my name never made it on the results page, I did the miles.  Brian Vickery decided he like the race so much, he did an extra lap. Good job Brian!  Rhys finished in fine style as always.  Nice. 

They could run that race three times a year, I’d do every one.  Now that’s New England Racing!

by Brian Vickery

The weather was perfect for my first race of the season. Lots of sunshine and no rain in the forecast.

Unlike last year I flatted on the warm up so this year I packed my trainer and warmed up in the parking lot.  After a good warm-up on the trainer I took down my shinny new bike (Cervelo R2.5) for its first race this year.  I did not get a chance to race the bike a lot last year b/c of a frame problem so I was excited to race it.

100 riders showed up at the start line.  The only other Quad rider was Rhys Gibson. We had 18 laps for a total of 37 miles of racing.  The first few laps were quick, but after 5 laps things settled down and real racing started. McCormack was in our field so he went off the front and was away for most of the race.  What surprised me was that the field was all back together with about 4 to go.  I felt good and was working my way up the field for the final sprint.  3 to go and I moved up 5 places.  2 to go, another 5 places.  On the final lap I was about 20 back (yeah to far for any podium but hell it was my first P/1/2/3 race and I felt pretty good breaking the top 20!).
 
During the last 4 laps the race officials were really trying to keep the double line rule in effect.  To be honest the officials were totally absent for the first 14 laps of the race when racers were all over the place (several riders were over the yellow line).

And you guessed it.  On the final lap about 1 mile to go the officials were really pushing the field back over the yellow line (to enforce the rule) and someone got boxed in. A touch of the bars and BANG (tire blow out) and 25 guys were on the pavement.  I was right in the middle of it.  I went down on my left side crashing into a pile of 6 bodies and bikes.  Once on the pavement people were crashing into me.  I jettisoned my bike and covered my head.  A few more guys plowed into me but I was the lucky one.

Some road rash and a very sore knee.  Other guys were taken away by the medics. My bike took most of the impact.  My shinny new Cervelo was not shinny any more.  My Easton fork snapped off.  Yes, snapped! If you are in the shop this week what’s left of my fork is there.  Rustem is getting replacement parts and should have it functional in a week.  I went back to the car patched myself up and went home.  :-(

For those of you keeping track I also crashed at Marblehead last year!  At least this year I was in the race until the last lap.  Last year I crashed in 1st lap.  Its now been three years since I finished Marblehead, but I have my 2006 crash out of the way (knock on wood).  Time for some real racing!
Rhys finished the race, keeping Quad on the map for the day.  Nice job Rhys. Out of 100 starters only 53 finished the race.

Keep the rubber side down and see you all at the races!  

by Jonah Tower

After scoring a 2nd place finish here last year (cat 4), I really wanted to fins my way on to the podium again this year. I was feeling absolutely great and knew that I would have no trouble with the course, but the weather was just perfect (I was hoping for blazing hot) and thus the race was not hard enough to tear people apart. After the KOM on the second climb, the attacks began to get away and I (a bit over eager) started to get involved in many of the moves, before I had burned the matches I had for that sort of stuff, thinking that the rest of the race would keep up a strong pace. But, alas I didn’t find the right move.

5 got away and the field really was not in a mood for chasing. Only a few were working (there were several big teams that could have), and not to long into the chase on the of the “big engines” flatted and the hunt all but ended. So, we’re racing for 6th now and in no rush either. Then, with about 5 miles to go to the finish we were all sent single file through the grass to avoid a car accident that occurred on course, and of course it took another 2-3 miles before the field had come back together, because some folks thought that to be a good time to attack…. sprinters!

The finishing climb left far too many people still together (something like 20 made it to the top all together), and then the bad juju struck me. In taking a look back to see what was where, my wheel was crossed with the guy in front of me, and despite a long exchange of bumping and grinding I managed to keep the bike upright and the wheel in one piece; however, that was at 700m and I had had my rush of adrenaline about 500m too early. As the sprint picked up with 200m to go, I had nothing left and had to sit up finishing a disappointing 29th.

by Jonah Tower

For the most part the 56 mile race was just easy rolling hills, and then had a step-climb that hurt and provided a place for us to finish on the second go around. The hope was to find myself in a break, after the first time over the climbs (at about 30 miles) and then finish the race from there. The guys (Brian V., Chris A., Eric S., and Chris R.) were all going to keep an eye out at the front and do what they could.

About half way through the first lap, Chris A. got away in a little break of 3 guys, and i couldn’t help but get excited and went to work blocking for him (probably shouldn’t be out burning those matches). Then, just as we caught him, after a good 10-15 away, Chris went down on a oil slick not 6 inches in front of my wheel… somehow I didn’t join him. But, after that close call I needed to regroup before the first pass on the climb. And, it was hard climbing… attack after attack all the way to the top, but then we didn’t do anything with it. The field came back together and rode fast through the second lap.

Just before the turn onto the final climb I found Vickers, who then kept me out of trouble and got me around the corner in the top three… a good thing, because the first pile-up happened right there. Not much later someone rode into my rear wheel, and then a fight broke out behind me, which caused the second crash of the finishing CLIMB. With the last 500 m of climbing to go I was in a good spot, but then with about 200m to go someone fell on to my rear wheel (yet a 3rd crash), and slowed me down enough to bring me back to 9th place over all.

by Jonah Tower

It was very hot (85+) and we were rolling out at high noon, but I was still very much looking forward to the 5 laps on the hilly 11-mile course. The race itself was slow. Many attacks were allowed to go and were then left to cook a while, before being brought back, but in general the race didn’t get going until the final lap, after several people had packed it in from tire legs and heat. On the final time up the steep climb right after the start, CCB attacked (I was thinking the same thing, but only another 500m up the road), and I was caught trying to chase. However, I was pulling the remains of the field in a long line with me, and since I had no teammates, I was not going to do this work for the field. (CCB managed to stay off and take first, because the field did not chase at all.) Then, on the last climb Louis Garneau put on a great attack and ripped the remainder of the field apart. About 7 of us gave chase for the last few miles, and just barely caught him at the line (he still managed 2nd). In the field sprint I took 5th (6th overall), but was not aware we had the whole road and thus had been needlessly hemmed in.