White Mountains Classic Road Race Team Report
June 28, 2011 By mkr
Conditions:
The conditions for the race were just about perfect with overcast skies and temperatures in the mid 60’s. This has been a tough year, conditions wise. We have yet to see summer in earnest and the rain has been nearly continual. We lucked out though and despite wet conditions when we headed north on Saturday AM, the rain stopped and we never saw anything all day.
The Course:
The course was a mix of Loon Mountain properties access roads and a stretch of RT112 in Lincoln, NH. The circuit was 4.3 miles long and included a couple of short, punchy little hills. The real challenge on the course turned out to be the false flat climb on RT112 heading out of Lincoln and toward the main Loon Mountain entrance. The other decisive factors were the three sharp corners on high speed descents. Those with the confidence to rain them saw big gains over the more timid.
Results:
Excellent work everyone and what a great NEBC showing. This was also the first official showing of the very freshly formed NEBC Junior Development Team. They all did a great job and their enthusiasm and gratitude is incredibly refreshing. We look forward to a great season of learning and growing. Many thanks to the club for allowing this to happen.
Open Women 39 miles 14 starters
Place Bib Time First Name Last Name Team City State Cat 4
* 6 132 2:01:08 Cathy Rowell NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Bedford MA
4 Men 39 miles 29 starters
Place Bib Time First Name Last Name Team City State
* 8 120 1:41:31 Noah Epstein NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Andover MA
Cat 5 26 miles 34 starters
Place Bib Time First Name Last Name Team City State
* 16 73 1:11:51 Christopher Cugini NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Stoneham MA
* 21 79 1:13:14 Tomas Jurgensen NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Arlington MA
* 24 81 1:17:27 Aidan Kesner NEBC Lexington MA
Masters Men 35+ 43 miles 17 starters
Place Bib Time First Name Last Name Team City State
* 2 133 1:52:15 Michael Rowell NEBC p/b Cycle Loft Bedford MA
Reports:
Tomás Jurgensen
My first race for NEBC, and I felt great. As usual, I did the light opener workout on the ergometer the night before to remind my legs of just what they had been resting for before sleeping early. Rode up with fellow Cat 5 roadie Aidan Kesner and Cat 4 teammate Noah Epstein. We arrived in time to watch the exciting end to coach Mike Rowell’s race, after which I discovered that I had to forfeit my 53 front ring in order to pass the junior gearing. Hence I rode with the 39 ring in front and the full cassette in back. The warmup went well, albeit slightly short due to my troublesome gear-adjusting, and at line-up Aidan and I carefully positioned ourselves in the center of the starting line and began the long task of preparing oneself for a race. Off the whistle Aidan and I both quickly scooted to the front of the 30-man pack and kept pace while Chris from NEBC and a recently-befriended QuadCycles rider took position behind us. After the first climb we switched spots, assuming the significantly more peaceful position behind the leaders. My long spring season of rowing crew and the hard early summer work of hill intervals paid off on the climbing: I casually spun up the hill without a noticeable rise in heart-rate. Unfortunately, I could never stand on climbs due to my gearing. After two reasonable climbs the pack began the descent, a descent that ultimately spelled my doom overall in the race. Unlike most of the pack, I did not possess the confidence in myself to lay off of the brakes and carve, and by the end of the descent I had lost significant position in the pack, sliding back further toward the middle. The flats went by without interest, and this repeated itself for 4 more laps: conquer the climbs, lose on the descents, and regain my pack stance on the false-flat “flats.” This worked well until the last lap, at which point my legs had lost their strength from spinning at an average of 110 for the race. On the last climb I lost the ability to sit it out and tried to stand, a decision which, though despite having relieved my overworked spinning muscles, destroyed my hammering legs with the preposterously high cadence that I had to put forth. I lost the pack on the uphill and tried to catch them on the downhill. The irritation I felt resulted in my best descent of the day, nearly catching the group by the final hairpin turn onto the bridge. I hauled like an imbecile on the flats, pouring everything I had into the rear tire, hands on the drops, operating on the optimistic notion that I could catch them there and then. Sadly, I didn’t quite make it (that agonizing circumstance when you’re following behind by only 200 meters but can’t close the gap) and finished close behind the pack itself.
Aidan Kesner
As Tomas, Noah and I are driving up to Lincoln New Hampshire for the White Mountains Cycling Classic, we shared a mixture of nervousness, excitement, as it would be our very first race as a legit team. We looked at the map of the course and it seemed fairly flat, and then a lot of the jitters went away. Once we got the Loon Mountain, registered, and started suiting up and felt the excitement of all wearing the team kit and representing NEBC.
After a quick warmup, Noah took off to the start line for the Cat 4 race and we wished him good luck. After some quick tips from Mike and Cathy, about taking off the knee warmers and filling the bottles, Noah started his race.
Tomas, Chris (great race by the way Chris!) and I then lined up to the start and waited for officials to give us instructions. We then started and a huge surprise hit us when we realized that there was a good amount of climbing! Along with some very technical turns during descents that were fairly dangerous with 2 Cat 5s on either side of you. After the technical descents and climbs, we then headed out onto the main highway and headed into a strong headwind and false flat…not the best combination. Laps 2 and three then go by and I’m feeling great and fresh. We are riding on the highway, and I am riding on the right side of the road, with Tomas right behind me and Chris near Tomas. The rider in front of me then goes to spit and slows down and swerves to the right, clipping my front wheel forcing it to turn to the right. Then it sent me off the road, down a steep mound of grass and nearly into a telephone pole. I am riding nearly parallel to the ground with my wheels on the mound and I look to my right and see the grass right near my face. I then almost lose control and swerve just out of the way of another telephone pole and somehow gain some composure. I think to myself, I am not out of this race, I then look to my left and I am still riding with the pack (somehow at the same speed, even though I am on grass/gravel and they are on pavement)! I then fight my way up the mound of grass and get back into the pack. I looked at my Polar HR monitor, and it was measuring around 210.
I then continued to ride with the pack for about another half a lap, and the adrenaline wears off and I feel the pain and the realization that I was totally cooked after maxing out my heart rate. I then continued to ride about another lap and a half with the main pack in sight, and no legs to push back into their draft. I finished by working together with another rider who was dropped around the same time as me, and we ended up finishing strong together.
This was my first true road race, as my only other races had been Wells Ave. I learned a lot about preparation ( I came with about my entire closet worth of cycling clothes, and used almost none of it), race mentality, how to stay positive in a situation that was not so positive and how to handle a bike like a pro.
I have a great feeling about the future of the constantly evolving NEBC Junior Development Team, and how far we have come in the last week, as well as in the future months.
Chris Cugini
This race was a blast. The weather in Lincoln was overcast and I was a little worried about not having any cold weather gear at the start. I was also not fully confident in my new S-Works shoes. Once I got my trainer set up and got my feet moving I warmed right up.
This race gets moving right out of the gate. The first short but fast decent ends in an abrupt sharp left turn at high speed, then quickly turns to a double climb. Most riders were taking the left turn somewhat cautiously. Definitely a spot to make a move up. With a yellow line rule in place the climb was tricky as the road was fairly narrow. Making a move on the hill was almost a matter of having a good clear hole. (Actually, on the second lap the pace car halted the race at the top of the hill and reprimanded the whole Peloton about the yellow line crossing).
After the hill the race took another fairly technical decent ending again in an abrupt turn, this time to the right. Another good spot to make a move. Then it went back up 112 to the loon lot for a short flat section to the start.
The NEBC Cat5 juniors, Tomas and Aidan and I all managed to start front and center. They rode with my for a good few laps. Each lap though seemed like a replay of the last, A small group of 15 or so would make split off the front on the hill, move really fast down the hill and then slow down to nearly a club ride pace on 112! This allowed shedded riders to get back into the race. By the third lap I found my self out front, not where I wanted to be so early, so I eased back into the front group, The next time around Thomas manged to get right up in there. On 112 a rider decided to blow his nose. He twitched out of the line to the right and touched Aidan’s wheel! I was certain the lad was going down. In an amazing show of bike handling, he went out in the the grass knoll on the side of 112 and kept his bike upright! He got right back in to the main group. Awesome! Anyway, it was becoming clear that I could overtake about 5 riders at a time on that sharp right by moving up fast on the inside and cornering at high speed.
However the yo-yo nature of the lead group nullified this advantage by the end. I think the final push was almost all the riders who started. It was cat an mouse all the way up 112. Everyone knew what was coming. About 300 yard from the Loon entrance an unassuming rider in plain black and white launched a vicious attack. and the whole group surged too. The front group was really bunched up. I got 16th place, but only 7 seconds off the winner.
Noah Epstein
I had looked at the course map, its elevation profile, and the confirmed riders list, but no amount of preparation can change a weather forecast. In our case, it was a particularly ominous one: thunderstorms. As I woke up the morning of the White Mountain Cycling Classic to see pouring rain outside my window, I wasn’t expecting much of the weather. By the time it was time for me to head out, though, the rain seemed to have calmed down; I hoped it would stay that way.
We arrived at the course at noon, and it was dry! Hoping that it would stay that way, we registered and got numbers pinned. We also got some free t-shirts and food from the race organizers! Sweet! We saw Cathy cheering on Mike, who was in a break in the masters race and would later go on to get second place. Tomas, Aidan, and I headed out onto 112 for a good warm-up.
I lined up as the only Cat 4 racing for the NEBC Junior Devo squad at White Mountains, and in a very small field of only 25 riders. We were off! After a short climb, there was a short descent into a fast but smooth left turn. This got us moving quickly into the only actual climb of the course, which was just short enough that you could carry some good momentum for the entire thing. There was then a fast, winding descent through the Loon Mountain resort roads that had you moving quickly into a decently sharp corner onto a bridge that crossed the river. This shoots you out onto 112 where we had to deal with a hard false flat and a short descent, then two quick corners that crossed the river and lead back to the finish line – a solid 4.35 mile loop.
The punchy climbs and false flat lead to a few hard attacks during every lap. After getting away on the climb with a few guys during the second lap, I came into the bridge corner with a little too much speed, lacking deliberation, and my rear tire slid. I saved myself from crashing, fortunately, and I wasn’t in the pack, so no harm done. During the false flat, the back-road break seemed to get caught every lap, so I decided during the fourth lap that despite the attack-opportunity on the climb, I would have to make my attempts on the stretch up 112. As I sat in to recover for a moment or two, a group of four guys motored off the front – no problem, I thought, thinking that they would quickly be caught like every other attack – but they quickly were out of sight and would eventually win the race! Eventually, during lap six, one guy came back to the pack from the break, fried, and the pack knew that the guys who were still up there were moving too fast to be caught. Over the course of the 4 remaining laps there were a bunch of breakaway attempts up the false flat on 112, all of which I tagged along with but none of which were successful. On the last lap, I chased after two guys who had gotten away on the false flat, but we were caught before the last two corners into the finishing straight and I tried to salvage a sprint, legs tired from chasing. I still passed a few guys, but my positioning wasn’t great – I made it work for eighth place though – a top ten!
All in all, it was a really fun race (really hard too!), it was well organized (free food!), and it was for a great cause. It was fun to watch the handcycle and tandem races go by after we had finished. A great inaugural race for the NEBC Junior Team!
Mike Rowell
I spent the week prior to this race watching the weather and weighing options. Based on those forecasts, I was relatively certain that the weekend conditions were not going to be pleasant, with 70% chance of rain on Saturday and four days of steady rains making things a mess for Sunday. With that I decided that MTB racing was out, given primarily that I’d just finally gotten my MTB fixed up from the beating it took at Pat’s Peak. The team, that being the newly formed NEBC Junior Development Team, which I’m helping out with, had decided to commit to the White Mountains Classic race at Loon. I’d been keeping my eye on the race all season as it is a good location, convenient and a great cause. That said, racing in the rain wasn’t appealing.
After helping the team with last minute prep and gearing Friday and telling them I’d try to make it, I decided secretly to suck it up and go. After all, I knew some of the guys racing the master’s race and knew it would be fun and challenging and also pretty darn safe. This was the right decision. The venue was great, the course was a good fun mix, the volunteers were super and the rain held off all day. I can honestly say that this was one of the best days and experiences racing ever.
My race started with my friend Patrick and I sitting at the back chatting at the rollout and for the first few minutes. Maybe a mile in things started to heat a bit so I moved to within the top 5 or so to watch carefully. There were some minor attacks and some very animated racers, like Marvin, but I knew Sunapee had four guys in the pack and would be a part of anything going down. My plan for the day was to just sit and not do anything at all stupid. So half way into lap two on RT112, Bruce was at the front leading things and I rotated to the front and bumped it a bit. Nobody at all took the bait and I had a 20 yard gap immediately. Was that stupid? I thought I wasn’t going to do anything stupid this time. Too late now, keep the pace and see what happens. The gap went out. Coming into Loon Village and through the start/finish for the completion of the second of ten laps, I just kept plodding along, not really drilling it at all but keeping a steady, comfortable pace. The gap remained for the entire lap.
At this point, starting the third lap, I knew it was time to make a decision, do I make an honest go at it or do I cut bait and wisely drift back to the shelter of the pack. I decided to make one hard bid up the hills after the start/finish on lap three and see what that bought me. I went hard and steady the whole way and the gap went out. On RT112 I could see that I had a couple hundred yards on the field but that someone was coming across, finally. I slowed my pace a bit, conserving and waiting for the catch. Just before the catch I accelerated to match the speed of the oncoming rider and gave him some shelter and a chance to recover. It turned out to be Patrick from Sunapee and we started working together immediately. The first couple laps there after were brutal as we worked hard to keep a now desperate field at bay. The gap was as low as 20 seconds but after the initial surges and attacks the pack settled down and the gap ran out to 50 seconds, a minute and fifteen and beyond. This made for a really, really tough ride as we felt compelled to keep the fire lit the entire race.
By the end of the 9th lap we knew we were away barring an incident and so the real race started. Honestly, it wasn’t much of a race. We both continued to work hard the entire time and neither of us slouched. I stupidly stayed in the back through the turn over the bridge to Loon off RT112 and that was the race. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hold a sprint all the way from there but in reality, you needed to start it back there and be the first through the turns. In the end I was second, but I was satisfied with that. It had been a great race, probably the best road race I’d had in years and the first time I’d had a successful break away. Patrick is a wise racer with much more road experience than I and I respect that. It was a good day.
