Workingmans Stage Race - The Circuit Race

This will be quick because there isn't much to write about. Stage 2 for the 40+ consisted of five laps around an 8-mile circuit. Most of the course is the same as the TT, except we go further down Kimball Road into NH. Lone Goose Road then makes a rural path back to the teeming metropolis of South Hampton, which sits at the top of a decent rise. Then the route plunges back down, at high speed into a tight left hand 135 degree turn where we rejoin the TT loop at the bottom of the "big" climb. Each lap a KOM sprint was on offer at the end of the false flat, just before the road plummets down into Amesbury. The sprint line this year was about 500 meters past the school, so basically a flat sprint preceded by a very slight rise.

All eyes were on team Sunapee to control the race, as they had ten riders. With Bruce Diehl in second, they were also in a position where they needed to attack. Race leader Paul Richard (CCB) has a sprint to match anyone else in the race, so the best way to beat him was probably to get up the road without him. CCB was missing strongman Tyler Munroe on Wednesday, but even with their limited numbers, all of them were strong enough to put up a fight. I had four team mates myself, and we decided to watch the strong individuals like Ron Bourgoin (OA), Bill Shattuck (Corner Cycle), and Mark Suprenant (Team Type 1), all of whom were big threats, especially if they got in a break with someone from Sunapee.

But none of that happened. I struggled the first two times up the hill, and a few alarm bells sounded, but nothing got up the road all night. The strong guys basically neutralized each other. People sprinted for the KOM, but I'm not sure who got it, and each time we regrouped. On the third lap we went pretty slow and I guess the Cat 4 field nearly caught us. They didn't, and the fourth and fifth laps were more animated, but still grouppo compacto. The last time into South Hampton the Cronoman made the world's briefest attack, sprinting off the front for just long enough for Diehl to join him before getting swarmed. Bruce persisted into the dowhhill before getting absorbed himself. I must roll down hill well, as just coasting and staying off the brakes I ended up leading through the hairpin, with Richard on my wheel, and I think he was unhappy with the way I sat up coming out of it. But I did not want to gas myself leading into the hill.

At the bottom and onto Friend Street, with 1.5k to go, the field mushroomed so I alerted my team mate John Diehli to light it up and keep me from getting swarmed. He did a great job, but it was a long f'n way to go and it was too much to ask him to hold it that far. Somehow I managed to get between Paul Richard and his leadout man Leo Devellian, who Paul instructed to move over and not jump yet. After a few tense seconds I got stuck on the front when we still had 600 meters to go, too early. I tried to go just fast enough to keep from getting swarmed badly, but not gas myself. Luckily my other teammate Chris White by now had un-boxed himself from the group and he came to the front, drilling it. I got on the train and at 300 meters Devellian and Richard came by us, and miraculously there was space on Paul's wheel, and I jumped in the gap. If I had any speed this would have been my ticket to the promised land. However, lacking sprinter's instincts, I did not go hard enough to fully close the gap, and maybe I was fading anyway from too much time on the front. As the line came into view, I was still in the top four and on top of the gear as Devellian swung off and Paul opened up his sprint. The other sprinters were closing on both sides of me and I simply was not fast enough as riders inched by me on both sides, all the way to the line. I ended up crossing in 10th, behind Richard and all the sprinters: Charlie Bedard (Sunapee), John Grenier (Fuji), Chris Naimee (Sunapee), Tim Dodd (NEBC) as well as ALL my marked rivals: Bourgoin, Soups, and Shattuck, plus Geoff McIntosh (NHCC) for good measure.

This stage has never been my friend, but at least the thunderstorms which blanketed the areas nearby managed to miss Amesbury. The result bumped me down from 3rd to a tie for 7th on GC. Richard now had a lock on the overall, but the rest of us were still very tight on points so second place would be very much up for grabs going into the final points race night. But Sunapee still had nine guys and one woman for that too... Thanks for reading.

Workingmans Stage Race - TT

What's a race report without pictures? I've been waiting for more to show up, but instead had to go with this one, especially for MoveitFred.

When all else fails, write a race report. When we left off, the 24th Annual Workingmans Stage Race was already underway. My team puts on this event, a unique mid-week, evening stage race with GC scored on points, not time. This year we had categories for 40+, 2/3, 4, and 5 and 145 racers braved the summer traffic and threatening thunderstorms (which never materialized) for three nights of fierce racing and very little sleep. I was lucky enough to be one of them.

As you might imagine, putting on a 3-night race is a lot of work. Our race crosses the state border, with the TT and circuit race stages taking place in Amesbury MA and South Hampton, NH, which means twice as many meetings with municipal authorities to work out all the details of road use. Then the third stage is on private property, the All-Star Speedway in Epping NH. More on that later. Since I live 65 miles south of the rest of my team (who are mostly local to the race), both racing and helping out require a lot of driving. Getting in the prep for competing in the race while fulfilling my club duties to help make the event happen, as well as not getting fired from the day job, took more than a touch of creativity on my part, which is one reason why you haven't been getting a lot of blogging out of me lately. But I can still spin a run-on sentence.

And we pulled it off. Race Director Armand and his partner-in-crime for this race Duano did not sleep too much the past few weeks, but everything got done. TT night the weather was fantastic, 90 degrees and no wind. The course was perfect and well marshaled. My start time was 7:06 PM, so this year, daylight, bonus. The course is a 6.6 mile loop beginning with a very fast, straight, slightly downhill opening stretch of just under two miles. This is followed by the "Euro section" with a few tight turns, narrow country roads, and two big rollers. You bomb down off the last one at 55 kph, across a bridge into a high speed turn leading to the main obstacle, a sizable hill and subsequent bumpy false flat totaling around a kilometer in length. Then it's a 70 kph plunge down into the thickly settled village of Amesbury, a 90 degree turn on wide roads, and a final 1.5k push on flat road back to the finish. Unlike some boring, featureless TTs, this one requires a rider to possess strong TT skills, but also be able to handle the bike, climb a bit, and make anaerobic bursts at several points on the course. And it is relatively short, in other words, perfect for me.

This year, I've been on my TT bike a lot. Besides the two "real" TTs at Freeport Maine and the KSR, I've been to Rehoboth four times, all on my TT bike. I've got my setup dialed pretty well. As for training, after my break in early June, I did a big three week block of volume, around 16 hours/week, taking me through the 4th of July holiday. Since then I'd more or less been tapering, just doing TTs, the Attleboro crit, and my team's Tuesday night worlds training ride. The week prior to WMSR it was that on Tuesday, Rehoboth on Thursday, and then a local TT in Sharon on Saturday morning just for good measure. That's a longer one, around 12 miles, so rather than ride it like a TT I did 2x5 minutes at of extra-hard pace, and the rest a bit below what I normally time-trial at. The idea was to sharpen up a bit. Just three days before the race, this was a bit risky, especially coming on top of the hard works outs I'd already done the prior Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Sunday and Monday I was feeling it too. Getting prepped for a 15 minute TT is always going to involve training on a fine line between freshness and sharpness.

Race day I worked a half day and then headed up in the early afternoon, working some last minute (and I mean last minute) details of the production with Armand before bolting to the venue to greet the angry mob waiting to register (yes, we were late). Actually the racers were all very cool, race packets got distributed, and everyone was polite and super-attentive at the rider's meeting. Faith in humankind restored. Around 600 PM and I was just setting up my bike on the trainer, so the warmup would be rushed. Hopping on, after about three pedals strokes POOFFFFFFF! and my rear tire goes down. Sweet. I'm using a disc cover on my power tap wheel, with a lightweight Veloflex clincher and latex tube. Springing into action, things are disassembled and there's no glass in the tire, in fact there's a weird looking hole that appears to be melted in the tube, on the inside, like it was some kind of defect. I hastily install a butyl tube, get it inflated, and re-fasten the disc cover for what will now be an abbreviated warm up. But at least my legs seem OK and after less than 15 minutes I finish up and roll around the lot for a final gear check before heading to the queue.

We do 30 second start intervals. The guy ahead of me does not have aero bars. There are 38 riders registered in the 40+, 37 men and one woman, Danielle Ruane (Sunapee) whose husband Patrick raced (and won the overall in, chock one up for old man power) the 2/3 instead, because we geezers his own age do not provide sufficient competition for him. At go time, I rolled off and settled in. I was targeting 340 watts average for this race. Starting off too hard is deadly, as the beginning is the fastest and easiest part. Flying down Lion's Gate Road, which is slightly downhill, I was going well over 50 kph in my 53x13 and seeing high 300s every time I glanced down. Feeling fine, I still recognized that was too hard, and I tried to pace. But last fall in my winning TT ride at Bob Beal, I averaged 367 for 9 minutes, and this was only 15, so should I push it?

Staying focused, I downshifted for the rise onto Kimball Road, keeping my cadence in the high 90s and trying to hold my aero-helmeted head level and keep my shoulders hunched Zabriskie style. The tight turn onto Newton Road gives some competitors trouble, but I know enough to take a little recovery and set up for a fast exit rather than dive bomb in too hot. There's some false flat there and I reeled in and passed my 30 second man before the 90 degree left. I consider this section of the course key, as it goes uphill for almost a kilometer before plunging down at high speed into a steep and difficult roller. You have to meter out your energy and speed precisely to maximize the length of the speedy portion and build momentum for the roller. I nailed it, and knew I was having a good ride, so I started pushing more. I took the turns a bit conservatively, as you never know exactly where the cops will be standing in the road, or where they might stop traffic in the oncoming lane, so wide exits are not a good idea.

Into the hill, the race is more than half over and it's showtime. The steeper part at the bottom is pretty short, only 200 meters or so, with a longer false flat coming after. I attacked it out of the saddle in a 53x19, perhaps a bit too soon. I was getting gassed but had to keep humping until it crested out a little before sitting back down, taking the 21, and trying to build a spin over the bumpy false flat. Two riders were just ahead of me, my 1:00 just passing my 1:30 man, who I passed myself before starting the descent. I was dieing at that point, but the downhill is pretty long and it's not do or die, it's just die no matter what and recover when you're spun out. My work of the past weeks may have paid off as I did recover and as soon as the downhill leveled into the long pedaling section I blew by my 1:00 man. Blessed with a clear road, I motored all the way down into the 90 degree turn onto Friend Street, coasting for an extra second to pull myself together for the final push. After a nice apex and a smooth exit, quickly getting on top of the gear, 44 kph showed on my speedo and things looked pretty good. But it's a loooonnnnngggg way to the end when you're this smoked, and of course I faded, having used up everything to get this far this fast. Into the cones and around the corner and up the school driveway, I gave it everything I could find in a final out of the saddle burst, crossing in 15:09.

The start and finish locations on the course have been tweaked a few times over the years, but in 2009 it was the exact same as this year (and we hope to keep it that way). I was sick last year, riding a disappointing 15:52, good for only 12th. Encouraged by my improvement, yet still disappointed as I felt going in that it would take a sub-15 to win and don one of the snazzy pink S.M.A.R.T. wind tunnel leader's jerseys. And I was correct, my time was good for only 3rd in the 40+. Paul Richard (CCB) surprised me with a race winning 14:56. Paul is fast but I'd pegged Bruce Diehl (Sunapee) and Mainer Ron Bourgoin (OA/Cyclemania) as co-favorites. Both had trounced me at Freeport and Killington. Bruce took second with a 15:00, with Ron 4th, just a half second behind my time. Mark Suprenant (Team Type 1) has also been beating me this year, and he was 5th just a few more seconds back. Other notables include my team mate the Cronoman who took 10th with a 15:58, and of course Danielle who girled more than half the field with a 15th place finish of 16:14 (24.4 mph, and this is not a particularly fast course).

I'm pretty happy, though I really wanted to win. With Patrick in the 2/3, that made things look easier (he rode a 14:59). Paul and I are usually very close. Diehl and Bourgoin have owned me this year, but I'd beaten them in the past, so I had hope. But my ride was still a highlight of my season. I may have left a few seconds on the table by misjudging the hill, but so many other things went right that I shouldn't second guess. I averaged 343 watts without zeros, 332 with (there are five points of coasting on this course), nearly hitting my target. Cadence was 97 rpm, speed 26.2 mph. That's it for now, thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll get some pictures to go with the rest of the story.

Two Weeks Vacation

From blogging. But now I really owe you something. And I'm afraid I can't pay up right now. We're in the middle of my team's 24th annual production of the Workingman's Stage Race, the only mid-week nighttime stage race in the world. Or at least in my world. And that is correct, the twenty-fourth freaking annual edition of this unique event. That makes us the longest running stage race in New England (yes Fitchburg is 51 years old, but it was a one day crit for the first 40 or so years) and one of the longest running bike races, period. And let me tell you, it's been a challenge, which is just one of the reasons there has been no blog here for the past few weeks. I'm not even a major player in the production either, but it's still taken up quite a bit of time.

I have a bunch of pictures from the wind tunnel but my camera card and my computers are not talking to each other for some reason, and I lost the camera cable. I suspect my card reader might be f'd but I don't know. Anyway, no pictures for you, but the tunnel is up and running and open for business. Story to follow.

In other news, Rooter the Roadie gave me some shit for not writing up a race report on the Attleboro Criterium. Sorry dude. The short version is I did the 45+, raced very aggressively, which was good, but got swarmed in the sprint when my breakaway got caught at 200m to go, finishing 9th and out of the money, which was not good, but not that bad. I lifted a few pictures off the web, but posting them is kind of a moral dilemma as I respect the artist copyright and all, even though I think his preferred business model is dumb. You can find them here.

The Rehoboth TT has been going on, and I've been doing well down there. Conditions have been great and times have been fast, but turnout has been disappointing with only around a dozen riders each week. I'll miss this week due to Workingmans, but it runs for at least one more week, so think about it.

The biggest news of the month has to be the return of MoveitFred. If he keeps it up for 30 days or more, I'll put a link back in the sidebar.

Now I'm off to Workingmans. The TT went pretty well for me, 3rd in the masters, although Patrick Ruane was also faster but he opted to race with the younger, faster, tougher, better-looking dudes in the 2/3 race. His wife Danielle is with us in the masters race though, as we had no women, and she kicked some serious ass, including a few of my teammates, finishing 15th against 37 men. Bravo. A little Team Sunapee ass-kissing here, as I know they read and there are 10 of them in the race tonight, so go easy on me guys. I met a solobreak reader last night too, Andy from Hampton, thanks for saying hello. It's always good for my mates to see that I'm the one with the fans. Internet! Ryan also raced, narrowly besting my "old man power" time in the TT. Tonight the circuit race, so let's hope no thunderstorms. Anyone with time on their hands (and maybe a motorcycle) is welcome to come up and help out as a marshal, pace car driver, or moto escort. Cashman School, Amesbury MA, be there by 5 if you can. Directions on the flyer linked above. Thanks for reading, will try to be better about creating meaningful content and pictures, but I'm just one simple man!

I changed my mind

Because the alternative was for it to stay the same. For some reason this expression has been tagged with a negative association, but shouldn't it be a good thing? At least it can be. The same could be said for being unyielding and stubborn, I guess. Anyway, about what? Nothing in particular, and a lot of things in general. One example would be boredom. Normally I don't like to believe in boredom. To me it means you need to be entertained, and are too lazy (or something) to focus inwards and do some thinking without external stimuli (science word, call Daria). But I must admit at this time of year I start to get "bored" with my usual training routes. It didn't used to happen, and I'm realizing that was probably because my old routine involved less riding around Sharon by myself and more Wompatucks, group rides, time trials, and other weeknight "events." Lo and behold, there are reasons all those things exist.

I miss the old Wednesday Worlds, aka the "Hagen ride" which used to meet in Wellesley. The ride was invitation only, at least at first, and was harder than any race most weeks. I think it grew a bit and then maybe died off when Mark got older, but I'm guessing it morphed into something else. Anybody know? While I have an aversion to out-of-control training rides out in the public eye, and I'm significantly older and slower myself these days, I think I need to find out where the action is just in case I'm up for it. I have three options on Tuesdays, but nothing close and appealing on Wednesdays.

Another related change was branching out and finding some new-to-me roads. There is a local group of enthusiast riders (aka gumbies, be nice) who meet a few times a week and ride a ragged "paceline" around the area. I tried it and while it's not for me (pretty terrifying doing a group ride with riders who don't know what they're doing), they do maintain maps online. I checked them out and read their forum posts which discussed this hill or that hill and I was like WTF are they talking about. So I started to investigate and explore a bit on my longer rides. After taking a break in early June I've been in a sort of "Base 2" in Friel-speak, piling on some mileage and just pretending it's January again. Without goals other than saddle time, I can afford to explore a little. I honestly though that I pretty much knew every decent road within an hour of here, but I was wrong. Turns out I've been riding right past a few that are quiet, scenic, and in some cases offer challenging terrain. This past weekend I took the process a step further and figured out a way to get from Sheldonville (my main hilly training area) to Rehoboth (my flat area) without dealing with too much commerce (i.e. Route 1 and 1A sprawl). As luck would have it, gumbies to the rescue again. I noticed that the PanMass Challenge route is now all marked out with permanent signage from Mass Highway. Well, it happens to cross that area, and as one might expect (duh) it's a very quiet and rideable route. There is a light where you cross route 1, but other than that all the highways are crossed where there's no interchange, and everything is rural or suburban at worst. Very cool, as now I can go to Sheldonville-Tower Hill-the reservoir as a loop rather than an out and back.

I know, riveting. In other news, there are only about fifty spots left in D2R2, so sign up now if you don't want to miss it. Don't be afraid. Other plugs: the Rehoboth TT is going on Thursday nights. The turnout has been down a bit this year, only around a dozen riders each week, so a little support might be in order for a great event. Also, pre-registration for the Attleboro crit on Saturday closes tonight, so you might want to sign up for that. This is a pretty nice local crit, one of the few survivors. We can't just race at Ninigret you know. Pre-reg numbers are not looking that great, so hopefully there will be a run on it today. And of course, the 24th Annual Workingmans Stage Race is in two weeks. If you can possibly make it to our event, please sign up. You won't be disappointed. Tired and sleepy yes, disappointed no. The only night time stage race in the world, with the points race going off around 9PM on Thursday, the most fun you'll have all year.

There was more but I can't remember what it was. Sorry that I don't have any pretty pictures. Maybe tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

The Q2 Report

Solo did not race much in June, but here he is making his New Britain debut at the head of the 45+ field.

Not much racing = not much blogging. Not a lot of news on the training front either. This has mostly been a rest and rebuild month, otherwise known as January in the summer. Ended the month with 42 hours on the bike, bringing me to 232 YTD, which eclipses last year's record (for the first six months) by an hour and a half. Unless I'm forgetting something, the only races were New Britain and once at Wompatuck, plus the Rehoboth TT started up. I went last week and set fast time, thanks to a ripping tailwind. A slight course change diverted us down Agricultural Ave in order to circumnavigate a road construction trench, which added about 500m to the course. So my 18:51 came to just under 43 kph (27 mph), which is a rare achievement for me the past few years. I don't think tonight will be as fast.

June was a good month to be in the solobreak sidebar though. Let's do the rundown. I'll stick to alphabetical order to make this easy on myself.

• Mark Cuban is still filthy rich.


• Brentani got to ride with Jerry


• Ryan Kelly had a good race at Hoosatonic Hills.


• Paul enjoyed the World Cup.


• Gewilli raced his bike way more than last year.


• Jerry gave his kids haircuts and lived the life of the bike pro/house husband and didn't even know it.


• Hilljunkie set a PR for climbing Mt Kearsage on crutches.


• Ted King, well, he was Ted King. And he won at Hoosatonic.


• Il Brucie also enjoyed the World Cup.


• Mary raced Ironman CDA in a sick time of 11:15 or something like that.


• Jay went 26+ mph at the CBTT


• Joe Friel ate some grapes.


• Jonny Bold went for a nature walk with his camera and still probably kicked a bunch of asses.


• Kevin hosted a week of free workouts at his gym.


• Meg got to hang out with JD.


• Michelle raced the Big Ring Rumpus


• Murat bought a new house, had a better month than he did in May, and started riding his bike again.


• Karin was cheerful as usual, and probably went to the Sox.


• Pave had lots to write about.


• The pink hats got all giddy about disc brakes being legalized for cx.


• Sage remained flexible.


• Mark probably rode his IFs in his gorgeous locale.


• Sonya kept posting so many photos that the page won't load.


• Paul announced at New Britain, heckled me mercilessly, and never blogged about it.


• Strangelife went retro.


• Joe told a Marines story.


• Todd was still in Texas (it can't be all good), but I'm sure he enjoyed some beer.


• Rich had fun.


• Colin raced his bike a lot, and still has a gigantic brain and a cool girlfriend.


• Thom did not drink any Chelada.


• Zen got to ride with me at the Tuesday night worlds. How much better does it get than that?

Thanks for reading.






This might end up being one of our last group photos before a new kit. Photo by Wolfie!