"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - New England: Charge Pond / Wells Ave.

Who's doing these training races?

Just wondering who on the forums races around here.

I know they dont start for a month, but I was antsy!


-L

fwiw, i did a couple wells ave races last year as my first crits ever.

I'll be there at Wells whenever I don't have a real race on Sunday's. I haven't done Charge Pond before, but have done Wompy a bunch of times - the Tuesday night ones are killer.

I haven't heard anything about Wells yet for this year. Are they definitely going to be running the race? Last year it was spoken about as though it might be ending.

I'll be at Wells on weekends I'm not traveling to the collegiate races. It seems like it's on for March 16th, but the traffic has been heavy over there on Sunday mornings.

Heh, I didn't notice that BRC had updated the page, since all they changed were the dates. March 16th, woohoo! I will (hopefully) be there.

http://www.bostonroadclub.com/wellsave.asp

Not sure how far you guys travel but there is a series in Plainville CT (a bit south of Hartford), and then mine. Having traveled between just-north-of-Hartford down to where I used to live (and where the Bethel Series is held) I can say that there is a huge difference in temperature/snow/etc. This means much clearer roads. Both series start the weekend of March 1, Plainville on March 1, Bethel on March 2.

Not sure of either of the two MA races sweep the courses prior to races but both Plainville and Bethel do.

promoter of Bethel,
cdr

Last year the first Wells race was March 11th (IIRC), and the night before some of the BRC guys spent a while chopping ice out of the corners. I don't know about sweeping.

On another note, my currently car-free lifestyle means no racing aside from Wells :)

well, with rain in the forecast I called the promoter of Charge pond. He says that the training race is on, no questions asked.

I'll be there racing the B's with my team mate.

Hope to see some of you cats there. I'll be the tall dude with a red addidas rain jacket and a dirty/salty purple Trek with a powertap.

Wells ave on Sunday if it doesnt snow first.


Later

-L

I will be coming to watch the Wells Ave races tomorrow. Hopefully I'll see/meet some of you there! I'll probably be wearing a blue Red Sox hoodie and khakis with a red Hard Rock Cafe baseball cap if anyone wants to say hi. This will be my first time witnessing a race so anyone who wanted to talk to me would be appreciated as I am sure I will have a few questions.

Joe

I'll be skipping Wells tomorrow :( Some combination of the earliness, the coldness, the wetness, and the fact that my left arm is half out of commission from a recent tetanus shot. Hopefully I'll be there next week!

raced the B's today at Wells ave.

Met Joiesinboston... whats up dude? nice to meet you. get that bike together and start riding!!

Ok, weather was cool but dry and the field was 30-40 cat 3's and 4's.

Nice 1 hour crit, not too fast. I contested for 4 of 5 primes (all sprints) winning the first 2 and looking at 3rd on the other 2.

As usual, finish came down to a pack sprint. I picked 3 lame wheels and had to sprint exposed for 20-25 seconds or so. took a fourth place. as usual, picking the right wheels is of greatest importance.

All in all a great NP workout and a really nice and surprisingly competent pack today. I see myself using this race similarly in the future: a great chance to do 4-6 field sprints per weekend. Great practice for seeing a sprint develop and really getting the legs/brain comfortable at high speeds/power.

Really had tons of fun and love the distance of this race (as opposed to the shorter cat 5's race i was doing last season).

Hope to see some other BFers there next weekend.

I love racing.

-L

surprisingly competent pack today.


I don't know how to take that dude! ;) Nice job on the primes and the strong finish. One of my teammates got the $ prime half-way through.

I had decent legs but my head just wasn't in it. But I'm so glad I got myself out of bed to go race.

Now that I know what your kit looks like and I'll introduce myself next time I'm there (prob Apr 6th)

take it as a strong compliment. I just expected for the 1st race of the season to see some more nervous pack movements. Everyone was really stable and predictable, i thought. Awesome.

I may have seen you, though Bitterkitten. I was the dude with the really oldschool blue/yellow matrix ($20 on ebay!) jacket and a purple trek 5500 with a white saddle and hbars. Blue and white Giro helmet. (our kits wont be delivered for a month or so)

I love the quadcycles kits, BTW.

Nice work on getting out of bed!!

Yah, i remember that prime, i got on the tail of a 4 rider Quadcycles leadout train on the left... your guy who won did it solo on the right!! haha, so much for the leadout train!

Nice work and I look forward to a proper meeting.

Peace

-L

L,

It was great meeting you and everyone else that said hi too! I am hoping to have my bike done in a week or so! I'll definitely be back!

Good to hear so much chatting about Wells. I'm on BRC and usually know what's up, so anyone can pm me with questions. I wish I could've been there, but was playing on snowshoes instead. Also, we put a bunch of info for the new USA cycling procedures on the Wells Ave page to help registration go smoother.

^^^

Your guys were in force - both in the races and marshaling. Kudos to BRC for making it happen and keeping it going. I remember the possibility of canceling the whole series last year due to that math school. I don't know what the local race scene would be like without Wells!

New registration routine -> http://www.bostonroadclub.com/wellsave.asp

Cool, I'll let the team know they did well this past weekend b/c it's definitely not easy to get enough critical mass each week to make sure things go smoothly. It seems like everything's okay with the math school for the moment - with the addition of 3 extra marshals for each race. We just have to keep an eye on the gymnastics school and may have to cancel a couple weekends when they have big events.

I'll be there for the blustery coldness tomorrow. psyched.

I'll race B's with a teammate and another teammate will do the C's so I'll be there early to cheer him on/drink coffee before warming up. Say whats up if you see me and said coffee.

Anyone else?


-L

I should be there for the C race!

I'll be there for the B's. Weather.com says "feels like" 18 degrees at 9am. Fun!

see you both there. got the race machine (blue c-dale caad7 with mismatched wheels and p2r tires) coming out this weekend, say whats up if you see me.

cold day for bike racing...

-L

I wish I could be there but I am working today. I actually have my bike finished, too. Let us know how you did!

That was a lot of fun! Real <colorful metaphor> cold, but fun. I also improved quite a bit from my previous (first ever) race, from DFL to somewhere in the pack. If only my lungs would stop burning from the cold...

Hope to race again next week!

How many riders were there in the C race? I hope to do that next week.

30 riders in the C's this week, I'd guess...

one of my teammates took a prime and raced very well, it seemed. great to see him do well.

I raced the B's. Smooth and fun race. Contested for 5 of 6 primes won 1, top 3 in all others. finished 3rd in the final sprint after choosing the wrong wheel, again (I was 3rd wheel behind 2 guys from same team, they sat up in last 150 meters and I tried to catch the right wheel as 1st and 2nd place dudes sprinted on the inside).

I think we found a new teammate too, same dude who beat me in 3 primes... can you say lead-out???



Fun race, and a good NP workout.

Gabe, great to see you again and nice race!!!

Joe, I'll be racing in Marblehead next sunday, good luck if you do wells!!



Charge pond next saturday and Marblehead CR next Sunday. first real race of the season... cool.

Good job dude. I'll be at Marblehead too, so hopefully we'll run into each other.

Nice race! I've only done Wells a couple of times, and that was definitely faster than before. I wasn't so successful. . . I have a hard time sprinting with the big boys so I resigned myself to race stupidly and have a good time- took some long pulls with some other members of "team college" up at the front. We managed to keep the race pretty strung out (for those that haven't done it its an office park with a huge wide smooth road that ends up being prime, slow, prime, slow, sprint. . .)

Good luck at marblehead!

Good job on the 3rd place finish Leo (I am horrible with names, that's your name, right?).

Good luck up in Marblehead next week, I'll let you know how I do if I make it to the Wells Ave race.

Hey guys, Sunday was my 1st crit race! It was an absoluet blast and I'm hooked. I started cycling with a buddy of mine last summer to get in shape and I have far surpassed my expectations on a bike! First race was a great experience. I stayed with the peleton the entire race, got boxed in the final corner a bit and had to setle for around 8th -12th somewhere. I learned alot met a lot of nice folks and must admit I am hooked. I usually have to work Sundays but I will be there every Sunday I can for sure. It's great to see the local races up on the board

Does anyone know of any races during the week around here? I heard a rumor that something was going on over at Wompatuck state park on weeknights?? A crit maybe...any thoughts on anything

^^^
Tues and Wed nights. Both are at the same place in the park, but put on by different clubs (Mass Bay Road Club and Bicycle Link). I believe the Tues is a P-4 and the Wed is a 3-5... The Tues ones are killer while the Wed ones are pretty easy to sit in on. It's a smooth 1.1 mile left-turning oval with only one little power hill. Traffic getting there from Boston sucks.

https://www.usacycling.org/events/getflyer.php?permit=2008-520 - Tuesday night's

https://www.usacycling.org/events/getflyer.php?permit=2008-685 - Wednesday night's

Both at Wompatuck

^^^
Tues and Wed nights. Both are at the same place in the park, but put on by different clubs (Mass Bay Road Club and Bicycle Link). I believe the Tues is a P-4 and the Wed is a 3-5... The Tues ones are killer while the Wed ones are pretty easy to sit in on. It's a smooth 1.1 mile left-turning oval with only one little power hill. Traffic getting there from Boston sucks.

Yup, love the little chicane on that one too. Great course - I just wish I worked in the South Shore instead of Concord b/c I would literally have to take a day off to make one now.

Glad to see peeps are having a good time at Wells too. I'll be there this Sunday for the B race to dust off my quads and see how many laps it takes me to pop - it will probably be during warm up :p

Roll call for Wells Ave this Sunday how many boys will be there??

I will be there, racing the C's. I'll be lucky enough just to finish the race :)

I will be there, racing the C's. I'll be lucky enough just to finish the race :)

Good luck Joe!! Have a great time and enjoy the feelings of addiction that follow.

I'll be racing out in Marblehead sunday morning, so no wells this week. Next weekend though, I'll be there!


-Leo

I'll be there for the C race - on a blue-and-yellow LeMond, in a jersey that says "VMware." Hope to meet some more of you!

aw man i was planning to race this but with recent bike troubles... well let's just say i don't want to crash a borrowed bike.. see you next week ;d

if all goes well I might go and watch Marblehead as some of the members on my team are racing it.
if some of you are there and see me, make sure and say hello!
I'll be the dorky tall blonde with white sunglasses and Ill have my team jacket on ( red and white)

I'll be there for the C race - on a blue-and-yellow LeMond, in a jersey that says "VMware." Hope to meet some more of you!

I'll keep an eye out for you and say hello, I'll be on a red and black Masi with a blue/white/black Boston Medical Center jersey.

Well today was a blast as usual! C race was nice and clean with no real mishaps. Unfortuantly I got caught behind the wrong guys (AGAIN) on the sprint and really couldnt go anywhere. I didnt make myself a lane...DOH. Had to settle for 10th or so. Way fun...at least I was at the upper part of the peleton for my second race. I'll take it! I guess all the training this winter paid off.

^
great work!! way to go on the good form!



Joe: how did it go?


Anyone else race on this subzero morning in Newton??

I accomplished my goal of finishing the race (my only positive for the day) and quickly discovered that I wasn't over my chest cold that I thought I was over a week ago. Racing was probably a bad idea, especially in the frigid temps that we had that morning. I still had some fun though and met a few other jolly cyclists :)

Yea the last few Sundays have been pretty frigid?!?! I thought Spring was here...lol.

so im guessing a collegiate cycling license will not do? had to ask, i mean, these are practice races.

Thanks!

Good luck to those going this weekend. I will not be there as I have a road trip to NJ for my inline hockey team. Figures too, it's supposed to be somewhat sunny and above freezing finally! Good chance of a high around the 50's!

is there a way to get a one day license at the race? i'm not sure since its a practice race. Me and some other boston university kids are probably going to come out this sunday to race Cs.

Yes, they do sell one day licenses at the race. They are $10.

http://www.bostonroadclub.com/wellsave.asp

Yup, USA cycling sees any training race as a sanctioned training race (I think). Anyway, we'll have one day licenses and the waivers on hand. I'll be working registration for the C race so say hi - my name is Oppie.

P.S. These races still count towards the upgrade as they are mass start races.