Fitchburg Race Report – Better late than never…

Jeff Bramhall and Matt Miller represented Threshold at Fitchburg Longsjo Stage Race this past weekend. They finished 8^th and 10^th overall and Miller came away winning the Points Jersey. Here are their recollections:

Day 1: Circuit Race – 3 mile lap with a 90 degree right hand turn into a stair-step climb before the finish.

MM: Starting with a circuit race, I thought the first stage was going to be wild: crashes left and right, dudes killing themselves to be on the front. For some reason it was reasonably calm. After some start-line delays (fallen banner at start/finish) and getting lapped by the juniors (because of aforementioned banner difficulties) we were underway. For the first sprint lap I was 10 riders back heading into the right hand turn. I was planning on staying at the front of the race, but realized about 200m from the finish that all the dudes big-ringing the climb for the points were blowing up so I kicked on the gas in my granny gear and spun up for 3^rd (first and second were well up the road). For the second sprint lap I did the same thing; wait for big guns to blow up at the bottom of the climb and spin up for the points.

While doing my “gentleman’s slide” after the sprint with 3-to-go a group got away after the climb. I was oblivious and didn’t think anyone was up the road because a) lapped riders and juniors were all over the course and b) our moto-ref was right in front of the pack. 7 guys got away and put 15 seconds on the pack. I found out later there were 2 moto-refs for our field. Doh!

JB: I came into this race expecting the same thing as Miller – people hitting the deck and riding harder than they safely could. My goal was to conserve energy, keep the pace high (and safe). I didn’t realize that I was clearly going to lose contact with the group on the finishing climb without making a big effort each lap. When Miller told me he had pulled in points the first couple times through, I pushed the pace on the flat leading up to the finishing hill. On the final lap, I put in a few big pushes to make sure that no time gaps opened. Seeing Miller in the green at the end of the day solidified my plans for the weekend – defend on the road race and crit.

Day 2: Road Race – 9 mile loop with one major climb through Princeton Center and a long descent past Wachusett Mountain Ski Resort.

MM: Coming into the race I thought the CR and RR would be the places I could do some damage and accumulate some points.

On lap one race leader Gregg Blow put in a few attacks straight from the gun stretching out the pack for the first few miles until J “super-domestique” B got on the front and led out to the foot of the climb where I was able to pick up full points. The second lap sprint didn’t go so well. Midway up the climb, about 300m from the sprint line a gold flash blew by me; it was GB our race leader who was also deciding to pick up some points. I took second but GB was clearly stronger. Third lap and the same thing happened: GB went and there was nothing I could do to respond, just pick up points for second. Final lap and my only concern was whether GB would take out the win and take another 25 points. Bramhall got on the front and resumed his super-domestique work driving the pace for the final few K’s before the start of the climb to the finish. I was pretty toasted from sprinting each lap so my only concern was to finish in the lead group and not lose any time, and hope that someone other than GB took the points. He picked up 3rd on the day and got a few more points and JB and I rolled in just off the lead group exhausted but happy. There was plenty of hand-wringing in the finish waiting for the officials to calculate the points but at the end of the day I still finished up by 30 points, much more than I calculated while on the road.

Special props to Mike Wissell who crashed hard with 7k to the finish, but somehow managed to untangle his bike, catch the lead group, and take 8^th on the stage. He easily won the Hardman Award for the day!

JB: With Miller in green and the course clearly not suiting me my only job on the day was to make sure Miller was in position to finish. On the first lap, I had legs and told Miller that I would get on the front at around 1k and push the pack hard into the hill and keep anyone from attacking. I realized that I had pushed too hard when my catching back on was delayed by a miserable failure on the part of my legs to ride faster than the back of the pack. Uh oh. Eventually my legs show back up and as I’m about to make contact, the field explodes from about halfway back. People fall across the road and I have to come nearly to a complete stop to avoid carnage and burn more matches getting back to the group. By the descent and tight turn, I had regained the group. I sat in for the next couple laps and took time on the front as needed to keep MM in contention for points. On the final lap, people were starting to get twitchy in the pack and, seeing as I was with the group, I knew I wouldn’t lose much time in the overall so game time was on. I hit the front and strung the field out, again, not letting people make moves. About 7k from the finish, I heard a huge crash happen behind me, so I pulled off and looked back to make sure MM wasn’t part of that. He gave me a thumbs-up and I put my head down and got right back on the gas. The finale was less than exciting, I sprinted my way through gapped riders and finished the day 25 seconds back.

Day 3: Time Trial – Gently rolling/flat out-and-back course

MM: Flat time trials are not my specialty, nor would I call them “enjoyable” so day 3 was something for me to get over with as soon as possible. I knew coming into this race that anyone with a hope of being competitive in the GC would need to have some deep carbon hoops and clip-on bars, so special thanks to Mover for letting me borrow his gear while he was living the high life in France.

While warming up, I chatted with stage winner/second in points/race leader Gregg Blow who’s a great, friendly guy. He was lamenting the fact that he didn’t have his TT bike up here and basically told me, “You better hope I’m in yellow after today, because I want to come home with a jersey, either this one [leader’s jersey] or your jersey.” Yikes. I assured him that his superior physiology and TT expertise would pay off and keep him at the top of the leader board. I was only half correct: although he stayed near the top of the leader board he fell on GC from first to 3^rd, 6 seconds back.

My TT was unspectacular (52” off the winner’s time, moved up to 10^th overall) but Bramhall killed it! He knew that if he didn’t lose any time on stages 1 and 2 that the TT would be his time to shine and that he could do some serious damage on GC. He put in a stellar ride to end up 9^th on the stage only 35” back and move up to 8^th overall, just one spot out of the money.

JB: I knew that if I wanted to do well in the overall, today was my day. I came into the day at 36s. I knew what my goal wattage was for this stage, I got a solid warmup, I felt great. Everything fell into place really well, I was able to catch my 30s man and almost caught my 60s. I came across the line with a 21:03, which was good for 9^th on the stage and bumped me into 8^th overall.

Day 4: Crit – Fast 0.9 mile crit that slopes gradually uphill, has a 180 degree turnaround, and two fast corners at the bottom of the course. Crash-tastic!

MM: I woke up in the morning knowing that I couldn’t win the 5 sprints

Tranquillo sensations

during the crit, and that any rider could win the points jersey if he won just 4 of those sprints and I didn’t get any points. Despite that I woke up “with tranquil sensations” knowing that I could keep the jersey by being consistent (picking up a few points here and there) and by not allowing the other riders in the running for green to take too many points.

Our race rolled off at 12:50 when temperatures were just peaking at around 98 degrees. My goal was to go for early sprints to see who else was going after points. I was able to get second in the first sprint behind Salipante (who was 3^rd in points behind by a little bit). I went for the second sprint and was passed meters from the line by GB but picked up 5 points for getting 3^rd. After that I was completely shelled. I had run out of water, I had stopped sweating and my arms were shaking and I could feel myself starting to shiver (not a good sign when it’s 98 degrees out). I slid to the back, grabbed a swig of water from Mike Brier (thanks Mike!) and went into survival mode. All the next laps were a bit of a blur. Each time I came through the start/finish I heard Richard Fries yelling, “…but WHERE IS THE GREEN JERSEY!?!?” I thought my race was done for so I simply tried to say with the front group so at least I wouldn’t lose my 10^th place on GC in addition to the points jersey.

The final points were at 3 laps to go. Coming through the start/finish I asked Bramhall if he’d like to help a suffering, defeated man by sprinting for the points. I though that as long as someone with no points won the sprint there would still be a good chance that I could keep the lead. Without a second’s hesitation he shot off down the road on the right hand side. I stayed on the back for a moment but realized that when he and Salipante (3^rd on points) went down the road everyone sat up and I had a clear shot on the outside line. We swept through the final turn and I saw Bramhall well ahead of the sprint, but better yet, I saw Salipante sitting up and coming backwards. This reenergized me and I put on the gas with whatever I had left and passed him a few meters from the line to pick up 2^nd behind Bramhall and get 15 more points. When I heard Richard Fries go nuts and my wife scream I realized that must have been enough to seal the deal. 3 laps later I rolled across the line well off the back of the pack but luckily got same time as the finishers. The rider who was 4^th on GC rode a perfect tactical race by attacking right after the sprint with 3 to go. He stayed away by a few seconds, but picked up a 10 second time bonus to win the stage and overall GC. Chapeau! Gregg Blow tried to bring it back on the final lap but was swarmed at the finish. I think all the other GC riders were content to let him do the work, then jumped him in the end.

Bringing home the green for Threshold

JB: I came into this day with a solid plan that went directly out the window as soon as I tried to put power to the pedals. Between the previous three days and the heat, my legs were heavy and unresponsive. Not a good position to put a teammate into – having to defend a jersey on his own. I hung onto the pack for dear life for the first 18 laps when MM rolled back from the front looking like a broken man. He was shivering, out of water and demoralized. It seemed like the wheels were falling off our best laid plans. We hit the 3-to-go sprint bell and MM says to me “Bramhall, I’ll love you forever if you get these points.” Knowing how much work we had both done this weekend and how well things had gone, I wasn’t ready to let it go. I put everything I had into the back stretch, railed the two corners and accelerated up Main Street. I looked down between my legs the whole way up to the finish and couldn’t see anyone coming, but heard Richard going nuts, so I knew something had worked out well. Apparently, it looked like we had planned it. I’m willing to let that go as fact.

I rolled into the finish ahead of the guy with whom I was tied on GC, thinking that the placement on the final day was the tiebreak. Sadly, the tiebreak was tenths on the TT, which left me six tenths of a second out of 7^th place. Still 8^th overall at 1:03 off the leader is a great result, especially paired with the defense of the Green Jersey.

JB and MM’s final thoughts:

The “new” format at Fitchburg actually made for a much more open race in the Cat 4’s. The lead 4 riders were always only a few seconds apart from each other making it wide open. The dynamic of stage racing in general is really fantastic. Racing with people for consecutive days breeds a camaraderie.
The organizers and officials of Fitchburg did a really fantastic job. It’s rare the race where people universally have good things to say about the organization. Real kudos to all of them. Each day as soon as we returned home to the “service course” we had an e-mail with full results, GC, etc. Podiums were quick and efficient each day and results were available almost immediately.
Going for the points jersey is infinitely harder than GC, in my opinion. Instead of sitting in all day, going for points involves sprinting every few minutes and then trying to hold on while all the dudes with fresh legs kill it in the finish. It’s terribly stressful mentally and physically painful.
Threshold is a team of love. (MM: Bramhall is the epitome of a teammate. Not only was he encouraging before, during, and after races, he was cooking, cleaning, doing repairs on my bike, giving leadouts, and winning sprints.) (JB: Being able to rely on a teammate is phenomenal. I did everything Miller asked me to do and he delivered when it counted, every time. I know how seriously he took the work I did for him and how important it was to him to close the deal. It takes a really strong mind to follow through in crunch time. It was awesome to watch.)
In addition, despite the slim number of Threshold racers, the Boston contingent of racers really pulled together to support each other and stay positive the whole weekend. Threshold, Back Bay, GLV, Hup, Refunds Now, BRC, everyone came together to check on each other, have fun, and race some bikes. THAT’s what racing should be like all the time.