Local bike shops QuadCycles, Quadmultisport and the QuadCycles Racing Team announce the First Annual School Street Bicycle Hill Climb. The race, which benefits the QuadCycles Junior Cyclocross Team, will take place in Arlington on Saturday, August 22, 2009. The event will be run in time trial format, with the first rider departing
the start line at 9:30 a.m. and the last rider going off at 12:30 p.m.

Commencing at the gate of Cutter Hill Park and concluding just before
Gray Street, the 900-foot course features 150 feet of elevation gain
and an average grade of 17 percent. Though the climb will prove
challenging, the fastest riders will likely complete it in under one
minute. All riders must wear helmets and compete on bicycles with at
least one functional brake. As each rider will receive only one
chance to complete the climb, those not able to finish the course may
walk their bicycles back down the sidewalk to the start, or walk up
the sidewalk to the finish.

An awards ceremony will follow the event at 12:45 p.m., with prizes
awarded for the three fastest male riders and three fastest female
riders in age groups 12-14, 15-16, 17-18, 19-29, 30-39, 40-49, and
50+. Any locals hoping for a chance to shine on the bike but daunted
by the idea of 150 other competitors should note that separate prizes
will be awarded to the fastest male and fastest female Arlington
residents, and also to the fastest male and fastest female School
Street residents.

Riders should plan to arrive at the event early to allow themselves
time to check in and sign a mandatory waiver form. The course will be
open for warmups from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. The entry fee is $10 for
those preregistering through bikereg.com, and $13 for those
registering on the day of the event. Commemorative T-shirts will be
available on the day of the event for an additional fee.

For those traveling to the event by car, local street parking will be
available with the following exceptions: School Street, Robbins Road,
the Cutter School Condominiums lot, and the Brattle Square business
lot will all be no-parking zones; however, School Street will remain
open to resident traffic for the duration of the race. Temporary bike
parking (in the form of bike racks) will be provided to all
participants. Restrooms and changing rooms will be available at
QuadCycles on Massachusetts Avenue, half a block east of School
Street; cyclists who are hungry post-climb can purchase food at A&A
Deli across from QuadCycles.

For more information regarding this event, contact:

Ted Packard
10 Oakland Avenue
Arlington, MA 02476
(781) 648-1091 (H)
(781) 267-2714 (M)
ted.b.packard@gmail.com

I guess there really isn’t that much excitement in an ITT to talk about, but since I placed 29th overall and 10th in Cat 3, I figure I ought to post something. The course itself went from Colebrook, CT to Otis, MA and back. the first few kilometers, after the start, were mostly downhill (a bad omen for the finish). Then, a bit of flats with the wind blowing hard in my face, before pitching up and then climbing for about 12 km to the turn around. The only notable action in the whole event was that I traded blows with another rider all the way up the climb, before he descended away from me on the return trip (he had a few lbs advantage). I had never done a ITT of this distance before, so I was pretty happy with my results (finishing in just under 58 minutes), and if I shave 1 minute off my time, I would pop into the top 20 overall.

After a solid week of training and feeling weel rested, I was looking forward to a good weekend of racing in Auburn, NY. We had a hotel in the middle of town and all three events were within 5 minutes of driving, so it was a very nice situation in a quiet corner of New York state. Friday evening we headed out to take a look at the 16-mile TT course, and then on the way back to the hotel registered for the weekend. Then, it was time for food and bed.

Saturday morning was a bit grey and a little on the cool side, but over all a fine day for the ITT. I drove Chris out to the staging area, so that he could warm-up and get going, and in the process discovered that they were going to have a 20-minute delay in start times. The course itself consisted of two long “false flat” sections going south along Owasco Lake, before turning to the east, going down hill for a bit and then flat until the turn-around at about 8 miles. I had a start time of about 10:30, and by the time I got to the start house the sun had broken through and with that there was a STRONG wind coming from the south. So, I had to plow through a tough head wind for the first several miles on the false flat sections, and then after making the turn, I really was working hard to keep the bike upright as the cross wind battered me from the right and then from the left, after I made the turn around. In the process I caught a few guys but was also caught by a guy from a minute back. On the stretch leading back to the finish line he and I traded back and forth while we had a tail wind (he was a bigger rider and probably was better built for TTing in the wind than I). And, for the final sections I was fully in 55-12 gearing and hauling @$$ to the finish line. The end result put me in 12th position, which I had mixed feelings about, because I was looking to be in the top 10 and the top rider had nearly 2 minutes on my time.

Once the TT was done and I had cooled down a while, we headed back to the hotel for lunch, self-massage, and a nap to get ready for the downtown crit that eveneing. The weather was really warming up and by mid afternoon it was certainly in the 70′s, but as I was warming up, before the 18:15 start time that the Cat 3′s had, the rain came and I was left under the gate of my Xterra thinking “this is going to be interesting.” The crit itself was a “6-curve” course around the town center with two lanes of road just for us and a small finiahing hill… in general it was FAST! However, with the pouring rain that we now were suffering the officials decided not to have the intermediate sprints for time bonus (of which there were going to be 7 for 5, 3, and 1 second each) and, while I was a little disappointed about the lost oportunity to move up in GC, I think it was the right decision. In general the pace was pretty fast, but the course itself was not at all very decisive and without the sprints the field hung mostly together. However, not just once or twice, but three times a vehicle wandered on to the course, and we all had a few close calls trying to avoid on-coming traffic at 35 mph. In the end I finished with the field, when I got hemmed in on the inside of the final sprint, but two of the GC-guys ahead of me somehow lost time, and I eneded up in 10th.
Pasta, oatmeal, and a pear… then, to sleep.

After closer inspection of the GC situation I saw that the next guy was only 1 second up and less than 10 seconds in front of him was #8, so I was certainly looking to grab some time bonuses on the cheap if I could. Thinking that maybe with a 75-mile RR ahead of them and with two event already in their legs the field my let me go on a solo flyer for a little while, I warmed up really well and hit LT from the line trying to get to the first KOM (at 7 miles) alone. However, my gamble did not pay off with great visbility and the field caught me with about 500m to the top of the KOM, and I was hurtin’ bad to get across it myself. From then on the plan was simply to keep a good eye on all the GC guys that were near me, while trying to recover from my initial effort. Two guys broke away, shortly after the first KOM and the field let them go a little while knowing we could easily catch them however, we missed our turn to the approach of the second KOM and ended up having to U-turn in the middle of the race to get back on course so the two riders took it uncontested. While I had nothing to really contest the 1.2-mile, 6.5% climb, I was able to make it across in relatively good shape. For the rest of the race I really couldn’t do much but sit in, so I stayed near the front making sure that I didn’t miss any splits that might occur, but the course had long sections of flat or down-hill, where one could see for miles literally, so the field stuck together for the most part only sheading a few riders here and there. I had worked out a deal with ECV to get a feed, but that got a little boched-up and one of their riders is now all upset with me for “being in the way.” Then, in the final miles I became totally focused on the guy ahead of me and trying to position myself to take a second from him, if the oportunity should arise that I missed a small break that got away with only a few miles to go, but was able to hold 50 seconds on the field, because everyone was goofing around with GC placings in their mind. The finsh was super fast with a down hill approach to the last 200m, but again I eneded up just somewhere in the field. Because I didn’t cover the break two guys snuck in ahead of me in GC and I eneded up back in 12th for the weekend.

Overall I am happy with how I felt and how I raced physically. I would have liked to have been at least in the top 10 places for GC, if not the top 5. But, the gambles I took did not pay off. Still, the weekend was great, and I even had enough energy to make the drive all the way home. Next year I hope that we can make this a big QuadCycles event, because it is really very fun and great preparation for other stage races during the year.

So it was a great weekend. We left Friday at about noon got there about 530. Rode the TT course, ate and then bed. Saturday Am was the TT, it was borderline cold but warmed up as things got going. They were about 20 min late starting. Long course, 16 miles, windy windy windy. I broke a spoke in my aero wheels 5 min before the start, bummer.  Got 42 in the TT, then back off to the motel for a nap. It actually got sunny for the crit, easy 1.5 km course, in the center of town, no corners. Now thats my kind of crit, only one acceleration at the beginning and then just pedal like mad for 30 min and 12 sec. We did 28 km in that time, you figure out the speed (I’ll give you a physics quiz on this the next time I see you…)  33rd in the crit. 3-4 nice crashes, really bizzare, and a lot of surly riders, there is something about New York racing… Right after the masters crit the rain started, I’ll let Jonah tell you all about that lovely race,  and then a quick meal and off to bed.

Next morning we went to the RR. Nice sunny day. Oops forgot the sun screen, oh well. Race gets started about 20 min late, we ride about 2 miles and as is the norm in masters racing one guy goes off the front and all hell breaks loose. We were strung out single and double file for about 6  miles. He gets caught, and then another break goes, this ones not a threat to GC gone up the road, until they miss a turn. The leaders slow the field down for the break to get back on, and take a nature break. Then as soon as thats done the break goes mad again, same guys, up the road, and then we are all going 30 on the flats. First KOM was trival.  About 10 miles on get to the second, I do ok on that, but about a mile up the road on another roller two guys in front of me let a gap open and then another attack from GC contender goes, no way to close the gap. Me and 2 guys, different than the ones that let the gap opened chased the field all the way to the town at the bottom of the lake, about 30-45 sec behind but couldn’t close it.

Then third KOM comes up, and pack blows sky high. I got dropped and started looking for another masters rider to work with, none in sight, so I rode about 10 miles on my own (hey I obviously needed the practice after Saturday why not start right now I think) until a little group of  5 masters and 3 cat 4s shows up, we ride to the finish together, more or less, with one lunatic from the cat 4’s attacking the group every 5 minutes. Then he goes to pick a fight with one of the masters riders. They are pushing and shoving and one older guy is looking at me and saying “you wouldn’t believe it, it’s been like this for 30 miles—that kid is nuts” etc etc. Well he was nuts, by appearances. The funniest part was him trying to hook a masters rider and failing miserably and then having the masters guy  who he was arguing with and who was his intended hooking victim show him how to do it right…Ah the joys of racing in NY, I love it. Anyway we got to the finsh , got about 42 in the RR. All in all a really fun weekend of racing. I’ll be back next year,  for sure, hopefully  will be able to last until the third KOM in the field and stay out of the twilight zone groupetto…