Team NEBC at the 1998 Pan Mass Challenge

Boston-Bourne riders pose at the first water stop after a quick 20-mile sprint. From left: Lee Evans, Bob Evans, Tom Ahern.	Team PMC in the shadow of a food tent at the end of Day One. Back row, L-R: Peter Mosgofian, Lee Evans, Annette Kennedy, Bob Evans. Front row, L-R: Paul Lohnes, Neil McInnis, Bob Cahill.
Enjoying baked potatoes at sunset with the Old Bourne Bridge as a backdrop (what could be sweeter?) are, on the left, Paul Kennedy (spouse) and the Evans.	Lee watches the "Over-the-Hill" gang urging riders to drag themselves over the last climb in Truro on Day 2; the day before, these ladies dressed as donkeys and brayed at passing PMC people from a roadside location in the bogs just north of Naragansett Bay.
At last!	Peter Mosgofian and Debbie Gehrke (past NEBC person and honorary Team PMC member) chuckle as they relax on the Ferry home and rehash the weekend's events.

Date: Tue, 04 Aug 1998
From: Bob Evans
Subject: PMC trip report

Wish you'd been there!!

The weekend weather couldn't have been better, roads were generally in fine shape and well marked, and OH BOY!... veggie-burgers at Bourne! Everyone has stories to tell ... here are a few. Norm Collard, Bob Cahill, Paul Lohnes, and Neil McInnis set out to teach a little humility to Team Goldstein and Manello, and succeeded. By the lunch stop (about 60 miles from Sturbridge) our side was a couple of miles in front of everyone and coasting. So they called it a day, stopped for refreshments, and eased in from there. Norm was the sixth rider to arrive at MMA (Mass Maritime Academy) and this year didn't have to be whisked to the hospital for a few hours of IV to re-hydrate. These guys were several hours into the Bass ale and wine coolers before the rest of Team NEBC began to arrive.

The Evans, trying to locate the Black Falcon terminal to drop off their car, found the Ted Williams tunnel instead and, much against their will, were spirited to the airport, from which they made their way back to find they'd missed the last bus back to the start, ran a mile to the Trade Center to catch a cab, and as a result were dead last leaving Boston. Even the volunteers were mostly gone before the Evans found their bikes.

But all's well that ends well. They caught up with Tom Ahern at the first water stop, and with Annette Kennedy at lunch, and this foursome then rode the last 40 miles in a nice paceline, broken only by a stop to photograph the pair of ladies dressed as donkeys who stood braying at roadside near the approach to Naragansett Bay.

While the foursome thought they were moving pretty quickly, it wasn't even close to being enough to overtake first-year NEBC member Peter Mosgofian, who motored into Bourne with time to spare; he had showered and changed into civvies before the paceline pulled in at 12:30.

Sometime in mid-afternoon the tight knot of NEBC people who had set up camp in the shade of a tent flap not far from the Sam's Summer Ale were surprised when Christine Harney, recruited into the Club after scorching the field in last year's short 4's race at Andover, stopped by to chat. Still a card-carrying member, she's now residing in Western Mass, doesn't get back this way much any more, but wouldn't miss the PMC for anything.

Dave Whitelief, a good family man, gave up the second day's ride to attend a wedding instead. But, because Day 2 was, if possible, an even better day than the first, his feet must have drummed the floor of the church continuously throughout the service.

Throughout the weekend, the Team talked about and thought about Michelle Holmburg, nailed by a driver on 117 in Lincoln while training for the PMC. We'd have been happier if she'd been with us rather than recovering at home.

On the way out the Cape, the Team encountered Nancy Smith, a face out of NEBC's past and one-time holder of the Club's Masters 45 TT record on the Baker course. Like everyone else, she was chugging Gatorade and eating fig newtons.

Naturally, Cahill, Lohnes, McInnis, Collard, and Dave McElwaine arrived at the tip of the Cape well before just about everyone else, and were among the first into the showers.

Later,in the Provincetown Inn's big food tent, while standing in the shade hoping for another Amstel light, Bob Evans was roughly accosted by a rowdy George Gamache, proprietor of a Fitchburg bike shop and this year a closet NEBC member. Surrounded by teammates in his red-and-black colors, George looked well-fed and pretty far along the road to replacing lost fluids. He wishes all his friends in NEBC well and promises to make life harder for them at next summer's Senior Games.

Relaxing on the ferry and enjoying the cool breeze blowing over the deck while hundreds of riders with leftover energy boogied at the rear of the boat, the Evans and Peter noticed Debbie Gehrke, another NEBC face-from-the-past, this time the recent past, making her way toward the bow. She's bought a new single and is concentrating on master's rowing this season; too bad for our women's team.

And so, 'way too quickly it seems, the Ferry docked in Boston, the cheering crowds disbursed, and we were ordinary citizens again. Until the first weekend in August next year!!

For Team PMC:
Peter Mosgofian, Michelle Holmburg, Lee Evans, Annette Kennedy, David Whitelief, Paul Lohnes, Bob Evans, Dave McElwaine, Norm Collard, Neil McInnis, Tom Ahern, Christine Harney
plus honorary members Debbie Gehrke and George Gamache