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Jessie Donavan’s IM Arizona Race Report

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Ironman Arizona – Total Time 9:24, Swim 1:09, Bike 4:54, Run 3:15

In the beginning of the 2011 season I came up with a lofty goal of getting my pro card in triathlon so that I could compete in my first Ironman in the fall. Any of you familiar with Ironman knows that the races typically sell out a year in advance and since I hadn’t already registered in 2010 becoming a professional was my only shot at getting into a race. I was of course a bit intimidated at the thought of jumping into my first Ironman and the professional ranks all at once but I am never one to shy away from a challenge so I decided to go for it. The beginning of the season went well and I was able to meet the necessary criteria in my first three 1/2 Ironmans of the season to make the jump. My training for Ironman Arizona started fast and furious at the end of the summer. I started working with a new coach, Jesse Kropelniki of QT2 Systems, and immediately increased both my training volume and my overall commitment to the sport. It was definitely an adjustment, I have a full time job and three young children so my life is far from your typical professional triathlete. There were certainly days when I thought what am I doing, my life epitomizes that of an “Age Grouper”, how can I do this? A typical day for me includes packing lunches, biking the kids to school, working and bedtime stories but it also began to include 100+ mile rides, gallons of sports drink, dozens of Gels, bars, running and more running and hours in the pool. After a month of working with Jesse I began to feel ready to take on the Ironman distance and believe that I could compete with the Pros.
I went into Arizona with a solid plan, I was going to finish feeling strong, stick to my pacing and nutrition plan no matter what and race my own race. The days leading up to the big day were a bit nerve racking at times, here I was racing as a professional but I just wanted to shout out to the person next to me, “Can you believe we’re going to do an Ironman tomorrow! This is so exciting!!” Not really something you shout out at the Pro meeting so I kept my cool and blended into the crowd. Before I knew it race day was here and I was treading water in Tempe Town Lake waiting for the gun to go off. I lined up in the back as planned and just put my head down and swam. Swimming is definitely my weak link and I came out of the water 20mins back from the top women, lots of time to make up! I jumped onto my new Cervelo P3, thank you Fitwerx!, and headed out on the bike course. I felt great throughout the whole 112 miles and slowly picked up my HR and pace throughout as planned, I couldn’t believe how quickly it flew by and I definitely finished feeling like I had so much more to give out there. I started the run feeling strong, telling myself to just run an easy 13 miles and then the race could start so I settled into my pace and ran. It was at this point that I started to feel a bit nervous, I had all of the horror stories of Ironman swirling through my head and I was watching many of the professional men around me crumble, they were one lap ahead of me on the run, but I tried to remain focused and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I had been warned of the dark zone from mile 18-22 on the marathon so when I got to mile 18 feeling like my legs were on the verge of cramping up for good I stayed focused on just getting to mile 22, forget 26, just focus on 22. Sure enough I was soon at mile 22 and I wasn’t ready for the race to end. I was still feeling pretty good and I knew the longer the race went the more chances I would have to catch the women ahead of me. Pretty much the only advantage of coming out of the water last is that you get to spend the whole rest of the day passing people, I try to stay positive about these things. When I crossed the finish line in 9:24 I was ecstatic, I had definitely put together a great first ironman and I was able to show that I can be competitive with the best. I was excited about the results but more importantly I was excited that I had done it and finished feeling strong, smiling and knowing that my family was all watching online at home cheering for me as I came towards the finish. Training and competing in an Ironman is definitely a journey and I did my best to soak up every minute of running down the finish chute, smiling ear to ear and already thinking about the next one.

Posted in News & Events, Race Reports |

Jessie Donavan rocks at IM Arizona

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Fit Werx athlete Jessie Donavan finished 11th as a pro in her first Ironman competition in Arizona. Way to go Jessie!

Posted in News & Events, Race Reports |

Alberto Citarella of Team Burris/Fit Werx Wins Green Mountain Stage Race!

Monday, September 5th, 2011

I am happy to report that Alberto managed to hold his lead (thanks to the weather) and secure a major victory for the Burris Logistics – Fit Werx squad. We are really proud of the job the entire team did in this year’s race. What follows is a race report from stage 3 from both Christian Verry and Alberto:

(Christian)

This is long, so get comfortable. I love writing these things…usually. Today I definitely do.

For some of us it was a great day, for some it was one mishap after another. As was probably evident form Alberto’s email yesterday, Saturday’s race was boring aside from all the crashes. As usual based on prior years, it made little difference in overall classification. Based on previous years I knew today really made the GC, so I was hoping for big things from the field, and for a hard day with attacks. I wasn’t disappointed.

Alberto was really our only hope, so I wanted to try and do whatever I could to make that happen. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much, but figured I might have a few opportunities to do something. Race started once we got on 100. It was a brisk start, but not super fast. Soon into the race I saw Tim Noel pull off the side of the road with what I thought was a flat (more on this later). I hoped he would make it back on before the KOM came. Route then turned onto 100 over “Duxbury Gap” where the KOM was the same as it usually is for the “normal” circuit course.

Alberto lead the field into the left hand turn, and the group climbed at a hard but not brutal pace. Over the top we descended fast and hit the left hand turn that would take us over the dirt section. The pace on this section was fast as hell, and strung the entire field out into a single file, with gaps opening up along the way. I had to bridge a few to stay on the main pack, and had to work hard the entire way just to stay in. We turned onto a short bridge, then over a section of what they called gravel, but what I would call rocks. This slowed the field, and also took at least one victim, known as Matt’s tire. “Sorry Matt,” was all that I could muster up in my head as I saw him pull over to wait for the wheel vehicle.

The field then took off again, and stayed fast all along route 2 until the hot sprint. It slowed briefly and I went to the front to avoid trouble with the train tracks at the turn onto Cochran Road. After the turn I sat up a bit, and pulled alongside Alberto to get a “lay of the land” and ask him who he was worried about. If you’ve ever tried to hold a conversation with Alberto while he’s riding, you know you stand a better chance of understanding a 3 yr old child. His voice is about as loud as a single cricket chirping at night. This proved a useless conversation, and I told him just to tell me yes or no with whatever went if he wanted me to chase.

Once on Cochran Rd, people got antsy and attacks where happening all over the place. I kept looking for Alberto to see if he wanted to go, but it proved to be too frustrating, so I just started going with any break if the gap got to be too large. This offered me all kinds of opportunities to burry myself for periods of time and bridge up. Fun stuff indeed, but not great for if you plan to climb the gap hard. Regardless, I did it, and loved every minute of it. I have no idea if this made any difference in the end of the race, but I wasn’t willing to find out by not doing it.

Once the race turned onto the climb up Hinesburg-Richmond road I was spent, and drifted to the middle of the field to rest and hydrate a bit. I was glad the field did not climb this super hard as I might have been sacrificed if it did. After the climb life got much easier as things slowed up as the field headed into a strong South headwind. I needed the rest and the liquids and pounded my water bottles down. Things got really boring, as we were about 2-3 miles from 116 until I saw Alberto ride off the front. He got about 500M on the group before one guy bridged up. Shortly after that another guy did. That was the last we saw of them more or less.

Once on 116 we stayed together as a group, and one guy went off the front to try and bridge the gap – he did it after TT’ing solo for about 5 miles – impressive. We hit the base of Baby Gap and the fun started. I was pretty wiped, but stayed with the main field ~3/4 of the way up baby gap, at which point I got shelled.

By the time I rolled past Burris handing out liquids I must have looked like death warmed over.

From there on up it was just hooking up with one or two or 3 other guys along the way, dropping them, getting dropped, and barely making it to the top. This must have been the slowest I have ever done this climb, but it was worth every minute of slowness, as chasing those attacks was lots of fun.

In the end, Alberto took 3rd for the stage, and IS NUMBER ONE IN THE GC BABY!!!! Burris Logistics-Fit Werx represents my friends! We are leading the GC going into the last day!!! Alberto will certainly be a Category 2 soon, but for now we still have him in the 3′s, and can enjoy killing ourselves to help him win. Fun fun stuff.

Tim and Matt had tougher days. Tim’s mishap early into the race ended up being a broken rim suffered from hitting a large pothole. He got a wheel from the vehicle, but the reality of catching the field as we hauled ass down 100 to the KOM was nill. He then had the pleasure of discovering he had a slow leak in his rear tire as he climbed over Duxbury, AND that his water bottles had bother jumped out of his cages when he broke his rim. Alas, he struggled on to Richmond, where nobody would hook him up with a spare bottle, and that was the end of his day. A wise move. Matt flatted as previously mentioned, and still managed to finish as he hooked up with a few other guys. This was impressive given the heat/humidity, and the south headwind.

That’s it folks. Now on to tomorrow, where I will certainly prove useless to Alberto in his pursuit of the yellow, but hopefully others (Matt, John) can prove larger allies than I. More to come, stay tuned……

(Alberto)

Here’s how it went down from my perspective:
First of all, I speak quite loudly on my bike. Christian just has too much wax in his ears.

Second, I took off on the Richmond-Hinesburg Road when the pace was ridiculously slow and I saw that the yellow jersey and the #2 GC rider were boxed in on the right. I quickly got about 30 seconds and was able to maintain that for about 4-5 miles without exerting too much effort. I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain it by myself to the end because of the ferocious headwind and figured either some strong riders further down on the GC would bridge up or at the very least the yellow and #2 would need to spend some energy pulling me in. Luckily, it was the former and a group of 3 bridged up with 2 guys who had diesel engines on them.

The four of us (and then a fifth who bridged) took even turns pulling into the wind and had 3 minutes by the base of the app gap. It turns out that I needed every second of it I don’t know the details but I have to assume that we had some help from Christian, John and the ORS guys to keep the field back and let us get that big of an advantage. Unfortunately, Matt and Tim were no longer in the field. Anyway, the two diesel engines (all 190+ pounds of them) quickly fell off the pace on the App Gap, and I pulled the remaining two from Rt 116 all the way to the 2km to go sign. No joke. I knew they were both way down on GC so I just wanted to get as much time as possible on the yellow jersey and #2 so I did not care if they passed me at the end. Well, they passed me gaining about 15-30 seconds (which was very manageable) and I think I ended up about 40+ seconds in front of the #2 GC rider. I needed 20. As I said previously, I needed every last bit of that 3 minute advantage

Anyway, this has been a fun weekend…so far. Tomorrow is going to hurt. (Well we know how tomorrow turned out!)

Tags: btv, cycling, gmsr, racing
Posted in Race Reports |

Tokeneke Race Report

Friday, August 19th, 2011

By Christian Verry

Race was good, sort of. I expected to get my arse handed to me, and that didn’t completely happen. I definitely got the hard day in I was looking for, and felt better than at Catskills.

It rained from beginning to end. The course was 3 laps on a 22 miles circuit with lots of punchy hard climbs. It’s a great course and makes for a very hard day. The hardest climb is the finishing one- 2.5 miles long at 5%-only because they drill it up that thing the entire time and give you plenty of reasons to implode.

First lap was hard, and the lead group climbed that thing at a ridiculous pace, but I felt good and could stay with them the entire time. We dropped ~1/2 the field after the first lap, but then slowed significantly and most caught back on. The group climbed all climbs on the 2nd lap hard, and I could feel the fatigue in my legs. The 2nd time up the finishing climb I was doing OK, until a few guys attacked at ~1.5-2K from the top where the climb mellows for a brief second (~500-600 M), and I got dropped from the group there because I couldn’t match the acceleration. It was a brilliant move and it worked on me. I watched the group slowly ride away from me as I reached the top of the climb. I then regrouped with a few other riders and we started to work a paceline to chase back on. I took a hard pull at one point, then tried to drift back right at the base of a short but punchy climb on the 1st side of the loop, and the other 3-4 guys accelerated up that hill. I was too blown to go with them from the pull I took.

So there I was trying to chase back on in a headwind to those guys and the main field. Eventually I caught back on, but I had to kill myself for 2.5 miles. So now I’m back with the front group on the 3rd lap, about a 1/3 of the way through and know that if they really want to go hard I’m screwed, as my legs were giving out on me. There are two punchy hills on the backside of the loop before you get to a screaming descent that precedes the finishing 2.5 mile climb. The first one is short and punchy, the 2nd one longer (~1 – 1.5 miles) and punchy. Between those two was a short descent, that flattens briefly, turns right, then arrives at the 2nd climb I just described. At this right hand turn was a section of recently scarified pavement that you would hit full on, at an angle, and if you didn’t bunny hop it, could take your front wheel out.

I stayed in the group on the first of the two climbs. Going into the descent I slowed before we hit that bad pavement and bunny hopped, but slowed too much, found myself at the back of the group, and had to accelerate hard to catch back on, which took me right into the base of the 2nd longer climb. The group was already accelerating up that climb and I couldn’t stay in contact, too tired from trying to catch back on after the bad road section. I got popped there for good.I finished the last 7 miles with a group of 4-5 other guys, dropping them on the final climb.

All in all I felt pretty good, but just wasn’t able to continue with those repetitive hard surges every lap. They took their toll on me, but it was much much better than Catskills.

Tags: cycling, racing, tokeneke
Posted in Race Reports |

Race Report from the Ryan Hawks Memorial Eastern Cup

Monday, July 25th, 2011

By Shawn Patenaude

This report will be a bit less verbose than it would be, given that I’m typing one handed, more on that in a minute.

The Eastern Cup mtb race held at Catamount turned out to be a great event and hopefully it gains in popularity. A beautiful day, dry course and reasonable temps made for a truly enjoyable experience. Given the accumulated fatigue in my legs, I opted for the Cat 1 race versus following Johnny into the foray of 6hr racing. 2 hrs is way better for tired legs than 6.

After a quick warm up I realized I had goods legs, so the plan was to punch it at the start and hang on to the front as long as possible then settle in to my rhythm and have fun. It worked for about 5 minutes at which point, after getting frustrated with a bobble from a rider in front of me, I lit the afterburners, trying to chase down none other than Jamie Driscoll. That’s when fitness (and common sense) overcame skill and I overcooked a corner, slamming the ground at 20mph and losing about 10 places.

Once I got back on the bike I realized gripping the bar with my right hand was painful. With adrenalin and increased frustration I kept going, hooking on with some fast guys. The joy of riding my bike fast on the trails clouded the hand issue.

That joy lasted until mid lap 3 when the wheels finally came off the bus. I bonked, my hand started to be distracting and the joy completely left the building when 9th place dropped me on a short punchy climb. Survival mode to the finish!

When I got to the finish and took my gloves off my wife noted “…you should probably get that looked at.” My right hand was a bit misshapen.

After 3 hrs in the ED there’s good news, the hand is not broken. Bad news is the wrist “may be”. Doc couldn’t really tell. Looks like there’s some trainer time in my future.

Anyway… It was a good day of racing, fun was had by all, and the training value was perfect.

Posted in Race Reports |

Newton’s Revenge Race Report – Dean Phillips

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Congratulations to Fit Werx athletes Dereck Treadwell and Marti Shea for taking 1st overall Male and Female at Newton’s Revenge. We are proud to support you and wish you continued success. The following is Dean’s Race Report.

Race Report By Dean Phillips- Newton’s Revenge

1:07:05 on 370 average watts. 10^th overall male, and 1^st place Clydesdale (190+ lb category). Rider weight 202 lbs, Bike weight 13 lbs, Total package on scale with full water bottle, clothing, shoes, helmet was 219 lbs.

They refer to Mt Washington as the toughest hill climb in the world. They aren’t kidding. While this is the first mountain I’ve climbed, it was harder than I’d imagined. I’d been looking forward to this climb for months and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I probably had no fewer than 50 conversations and emails with good friend and race winner Dereck Treadwell leading up to the climb. We were constantly comparing power files from workouts and talking about expected times, power outputs, gearing, altitude, cooling, weather, etc. We were both fired up.

The “Top Notch” wave of riders went first. This was a wave reserved only for riders who’ve gone under 1:20 on the climb in the past. Dereck and I were in the 2^nd wave 5 minutes back. The loud cannon fired and next thing I know I’m in the zone climbing. Dereck danced up ahead and out of sight by the 10 minute mark and for a while it was just me riding alone. I actually felt really good early on. I averaged 410 watts for the first 15 minutes which was slightly over my target of 400 for the climb. By the 20 minute mark things were starting to go downhill. I felt like I was overheating big time since there was simply no cooling on the hot pavement of the lower auto road as I baked in the sun going 6 mph. I was also feeling the toll of riding so long and hard at a lower cadence then I’m used to. Perhaps the altitude was also having an impact as we approached 4000ft. I started gradually backing off (400 avg watts through 25 minutes) but it wasn’t enough. By the 30 minute mark my legs were toast and I was in a scary survival mode. All finish time expectations went out the window as my only goal was to make it up to the summit without stopping. Fear of stopping was my primary motivator as I hit the gravel roads and the side winds started really kicking up. If you stop for any reason it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to start again since the grade is too steep to get clipped back in and going again. The last 40 agonizing minutes I averaged 340 watts.

At the very end of the climb is a 22% grade that only lasts 50 yards or so. I’d heard about this section many times and was saving just enough energy for the burst needed when I got to it. At this point in the climb we were in thick fog and clouds, the temperature had dropped from 75deg at the base to 40deg at the summit with reported wind gusts up to 50mph. As I started seeing spectators showing up cheering all around me and the grade quickly got very steep I knew I was there. I could barely see where the road turned in front of me and my front wheel kept lifting off the ground because of the steep grade. Every time my wheel lifted the wind yanked it out to the side. After several hops and bounces to the side in an attempt to stay up, I eventually fell down. I basically landed on top of the summit since a couple spectators helped me up, held my bike so I could climb back on, and pointed in the direction of the finish line which was only about 10 seconds away. I was so excited to finish. What an experience. I was immediately wrapped in a blanket and sent in the foggy direction of where the lodge was reported to be.

There were many lessons learned my first time up. The big changes I’ll make heading into my next attempt are:

Pace conservatively early on considering the lack of cooling at the bottom and eventual impact of the elevation.
Lower gearing – While the 11×32 cassette may have been enough on paper for a 7.6 mile 12% average grade hill, the reality was there were dozens of sections of the climb at closer to 20% grade where an extra gear would have allowed me to keep my cadence in the range I prefer. Ideally I like to climb with a cadence in the 70-80 range, but my power files shows 17 minutes of time with cadence under 70, and 2 minutes total under 60. I’ll be changing to a SRAM XX 11×36 cassette next time.

Next attempt is the Mt Washington hill climb on August 20^th. I’ll target a more conservative power level early on in hopes of having better legs the 2^nd half. I’m also hoping to drop a few pounds since every pound costs about 20 seconds. If I can bring my average power up 10-20 watts with better pacing, lose 5 lbs, and not fall at the top I’m hoping to drop a few minutes off my time. It wouldn’t hurt to have less wind at the summit too!

Dean Phillips is Co-Owner of Fit Werx 2 in Peabody, MA

dean@fitwerx.com

Posted in News & Events, Race Reports |

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Providence 70.3 Race Report - By Jessie Donavan, Burris Logistics- Fit Werx Team Rider.
The wake-up call on race day was a bright and early 3:15am. We stayed at the Cape for the night so we could leave the kids with their grandparents for the day and we had quite a drive to get to the start. We were on the road by 3:45 and headed towards Olney Pond, the swim start just north of Providence. We arrived just in time to get into transition, pump up our tires, lay out our helmets and clip in our shoes before transition closed. The swim was not wetsuit legal which was not good news for me. I am not much of a swimmer to begin with but when I take off my wetsuit all of my little errors get even worse, why is it so hard to learn to swim fast? I didn’t have too much time to worry about it, before I knew it we were off. The swim was definitely not my best but I was still all smiles when I ran up onto the beach towards transition, I’m always happy to just have the swim behind me and to get on my bike. I jumped onto my brand new, super fast, Cervelo P3C (Thank you Fit Werx!!) and headed out on the bike course. The bike course was much hillier then I expected, I don’t think there was a single straight flat section on the course but that was fine with me, I love the hills. My bike felt amazing and before I knew it I was pulling into T2 ready to run. The run course at Providence is challenging, it’s in the middle of the city which makes it hot and there are some long and steep hills up to Brown’s campus. I spent the run focused on running smart, not going out to hard and staying cool as I have a tendency to overheat. When I hit mile 10 I started to let myself relax and enjoy that I was still feeling great and I started to soak it all in. My family was waiting at the finish for me and the kids had their handmade “Go Mom Go” signs in hand which always makes me smile. My results from the day were great. I was the top amateur for my second 70.3 this year, 4th overall for Pros and I had the fastest bike split of the day including Pros thanks to my new bike!

-Jessie

Posted in News & Events, Race Reports |

Coupes des Ameriques Race Recap A Division

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

By Christian Verry

Let me start off by saying this is the best stage race I have ever done. Incredibly well organized, each stage is hard, and raced that way (the Canadian’s do not enjoy sitting in or starting slow), the roads are safe, the scenery great, and 4 races in 3 days is just fan-freaking-tastic.

The newer format this yr of having a circuit race in leu of a crit was excellent (for me, who hates crits). We stayed in a kick ass, cheap little hotel, which should have charged double the price for as nice and accommodating as they were. This race has earned a permanent spot on my race calendar.

The prologue for the A’s was fast from the start, and sketchy. Tons of nervous energy as we rolled in to town, with some mildly nerve racking near-misses in the field. No breaks went until the base of the first steep climb, when all hell broke loose. I stayed with the lead group from there up the majority of the climb, advancing up along the way as I did not do a good job of positioning myself going into the base of the climb. As we hit the 2nd really steep part things strung out even more, and I could not stay with the top 20 or so guys. Ended up in low 30′s at the end of the day. I am happy with this given the field I was racing against.

The TT was decent for me, about what I expected. Again, middle of the field. I’m not the worlds best TT-er, so wasn’t expecting to do much damage. The 12 sec improvement over my time from last year was my reward for that race, and I was happy.

The circuit race that evening was hot hot hot, and muggy. Legs were tired from the long warm up before the TT, and the 2 races before this one. As usual, we started fast. 1st lap was the hardest, as the field hit the stair-stepping climb very hard the whole way. I was able to stay with the lead group, and the rest of the pack caught back on during the screaming decent, which is annoying as hell. The next 2 laps weren’t as brutal, but certainly not easy.

Going into the 3rd lap you could tell by the lack of hard surges that guys were wearing out. Some guys struggled to hold their lines, would drop back hard when they hit the climbs, and swerved all over the place as they tried desperately to hang on. As a result, 2 decent sized crashes happened on the climbs of the 3rd lap, taking out about 9 guys total.

We got a break of about 35 people going into the finishing stretch, but couldn’t organize to keep it, and the rest of the field caught back on. Ended up with a pack finish. Glad to have the rubber side down but totally wasted and dehydrated from the day. I too tried to freeze my legs in the tub that night, and suffered terrible muscle cramps all night long preventing me from getting any decent sleep. It was miserable.

Lining up for the road race I have never felt worse going into a race. Nausea, mildly dizzy, and just completely drained from the prior 3 races, I had no idea how I was going to stay in it today. My heart rate was 95 bpm just standing at the start line! If I knew any decent doctors, I’m sure they would have told me to pull out that day. But since I don’t, I raced.

We started fast fast fast, yet again. We drilled it up the first hill which starts immediately after pulling away from the start, then kept the pace up for the next 10 miles as we went over roller after roller. The group was totally strung out single file for 20+ mins. Insane. It finally let up to a reasonable pace, and then the rain started to fall, which stayed with us for the next 60-90 mins (I was delirious, so have no idea how long it was). We got neutralized, and then forced to stop on a section, about 15 miles from the base of the big climb, because they were concerned about pavement conditions. We sat there on the rd for 10 mins as the officials made us wait for the others in the group who got dropped to catch back on. Then we rolled out neutral for 4-5 miles as a group – all the while they let the clock run on us (even while standing there at their command), which I thought was a bit ridiculous. The pavement was fine. In the US we would have plowed right over it and not thought twice about it.

Regardless, we hit the climb as a group and crushed it at the first steep pitch. As it stair stepped up, a group of 16 guys got off the front who I could not touch. They put a huge gap on the rest of us. I ended up getting in a small chase group of about 5 others, and we worked hard after cresting the climb (total of 2 mile climb maybe, not sure) to catch two other small groups in front of us. By the time we turned on to the finishing stretch there were maybe 20 of us, gapped by about 60-80 secs from the lead group who we could no longer see. I took one hard pull as we moved into town and the finishing stretch of flat pavement, and then looked back to see what looked like 35 dudes total. All that work and chasing just to get caught, ARRGGGHHHHH!!! Regardless, we passed the 1 KM to go and you could just feel the pressure behind you. I was in perfect position, about 4th wheel back in our group.

Things stayed crazy fast but comfortable going into the finishing 600+ meter climb when 2 guys attacked. I tried to go with them with 500 to go, and was completely red-lined at 300 to go, with no kick left. About 5 guys came around me as all I could do was try and maintain my current pace. I had to totally burry myself to not get dropped off of that 2nd group behind the lead 16. Ended up again in the low 30′s overall, which I was fine with. I could not have done any better and was surprised I did that with the way I felt starting the race.

In the end I was 29th on the GC, which again, given the depth of the field, and strength of riders, I was plenty happy with. I can’t say enough about this race – maybe I already have, sorry if this is too long. Each race is raced like it’s the only one, with the entire group just crushing it, and the depth of the field is the best of any race I’ve taken part in – very talented riders. A great town, very welcoming, well organized, and the perfect way to spend a holiday weekend.

I did learn several things at this race:

A) Canadians warm up BEFORE the race, not DURING it – hence, they start fast. This is better.

B) Canadians don’t care about the yellow line. Might as well take that one out of the rule book. This is not better.

C) Masters level races have the nicest gear on the planet. This just makes you want to spend all of your money.

D) TNW are an invaluable part of training. The only reason I didn’t get shelled with all of those accelerations and attacks over each stage was b/c of the worlds. I thought many times how “this feels just like the worlds right now…”. Lesson – Show up for the worlds – they’re the best night of the wk!

Posted in Race Reports |

Coupes des Ameriques Race Recap C division

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

By Philip Beliveau

Well the dust has settled on another Coupe and I am currently eating and drinking my way out of race weight. Here is my story and I am sticking to it.

The prologue hill climb started on a lovely evening for pain and fresh pavement into Sutton from the border and the start of the climb. A few attacks went with the last reeled in at the base of the climb. The pack strung out as the lead guys ratcheted up the pace until there were 6 guys left at the base of the switchbacks near the top. Three in front made a surge into the switchbacks that I could not follow as I was red-lined but I held my pace and the two left with me faded leaving me to suffer in for fourth. Good enough.

The next morning I had a less then stellar time trial to drop to 7th. Boohoo!

That afternoon we did 3 laps of a circuit with a good but not super steep hill and screaming downhill. 3rd and 5th place on GC went on a break and were reeled in after one lap. 5th place got dropped on the last time up the hill and lost 2-3 minutes and so I moved back up to 6th!

That evening after driving home to be with my honeys, I sat in the coldest bath I could run for 5 minutes to calm my legs. I was still rolling around in bed that night with leg cramps for what felt like the whole night.

The next morning I arrived feeling pretty good for the start of the road race under overcast skies. I tried a couple of breaks and then sat in to conserve for the big hill near the end. Two guys got away. One was caught at the base of the climb and the other halfway up. The steepest pitch was at the base of the climb. I moved to the front so I would not have to make up any gaps. I was pretty close to my max but stayed with the lead guys.

As the climb hit the first shelf the pace eased and a couple of danglers caught back on. With the one from the break we were 11 as we rolled over the top. Foolishly I had not checked the results from yesterdays circuit race and did not know that the guy in 5th had gotten dropped and I had moved up to 6th. When I realized that guy was not in the lead group, I hit the front to keep the pace up and gain as much time in the hopes of moving up on GC.

We rolled into town and finished on a 500 meter big ring uphill. Ouch! 3 guys had jumped clear to get 3 seconds, 3 dropped off and I hung on to the main 5 for same time and 6th on GC. All in all a satisfying race except for missing the camaraderie of my 50+ teammates Bob and Bruce!

Posted in Race Reports |

Saranac Lake Criterium, NY

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

By Bruce Bell

Sunday’s morning rain in Vermont gave way to clearing skies during my drive to Saranac Lake. Unfortunately, as soon as I parked at the race venue it started pouring.

Matt and Steve were warming up in the downpour and would soon be racing in it. It was pretty ugly. It seemed to rain pretty hard during their race, but let up a little as our field lined up for the start of the 55+ race. A few laps in, the skies opened up again. I can’t remember ever racing through that much water. Fortunately, our field rode safely.

With 2 to go I marked the 2 guys I figured would be in the mix for the win. With 1/2 lap remaining, my 2 danger guys plus another and I got a little gap and held it to the line. The good news is I marked the right guys. The bad news is I didn’t execute as I had hoped and finished 4th. Fortunately, 4th place $$ covered my ferry ticket.

By the way, that Impulse CycleSport Jacket is awesome! Pretty water resistant and a real joy to have in cool wet conditions.

Congrats to all that raced this weekend. It is really cool to know we had so many team members racing at several different events.

Posted in Race Reports |