This winter I managed 14 to 18 hours per week, mostly easy stuff and a few long rides with Dan Wolfson. There were a couple short weeks mixed in during heavy snow accumulation. The bulk of my riding was on my 11 year old cannondale winterbike because the roads never seemed to dry up. I estimate it has 28k miles and it features a 42x17 gear, full fenders, load bearing stickers, and a layback seatpost. The only time it broke down on me this year was when the rear hub bearings ground up and started coming out of the hub. Of course there were many almost break-downs. I did a winter race at Gill (pack finish) and after the race I rode over Northfield mountain. It had a crazy steep descent with deep sand and some ice. I also did a Wells Ave and spent the whole race in a break. Another highlight of winter was designing my new custom Serotta CSI.

So my basic (non-scientific) plan for the year was: winter base training, spring races and intensity to get in shape, and race/travel in the summer. Spring rolled around and my Serotta arrived at the Cycle Loft. It fit and handled so well I had to take time to get used to it. It really tears down a technical descent. I could go on about responsiveness, comfort, stability, looks (lugs), and the tapered tubeset, so I'll just say the Serotta CSI is a special bike. And when I took the parts off my titanium bike I found a large stress crack in the right chainstay; it lasted only 12k miles.

I took two weeks off work for mileage and the first one was great. I did 470 miles with two great rides to the west of my house. Saturday was the Eastford race where I went in an early 20 mile break with Keith Miller (Kissena). Once we were caught my teammate Tim Unkert went with Mark Walters (Navigators). Tim got third as he just barley held off the pack at the finish by less than one second.

The next race was Adelphia and I struggled to finish (11th). As I drove home I felt ill and the next day I had a stomach bug. My second week off work became recovery from the four day stomach bug instead of endurance. Once over that I was fresh and forced a last lap 5 rider chase group at the Palmer RR. We got the leaders (M. McCormack, M. Svatek) in sight a couple times but couldn't reel them in. I ended up 5th. The next day was Monson and I pulled out with lingering stomach pains. At Jimminy I was too aggressive and went from the gun (90 miles to go) and died after 50 miles in a break of eight. Svatek (Cannondale) won again. Nat Faulkner, a Canadian on Kissena, stayed at my house for a week and we did some farming (Applefield in Stow) and structured training. I struggled through Steling and DNFed Veryfine. Things did not seem good.

My first big race of the year was the 141 mile Housatonic Valley Classic in western Connecticut. About halfway some pro's escaped the diminishing peleton and got a gap. I was feeling great and made my way to the front on a technical descent where several people crashed. Then on the next hill I bridged to a chase group. I heard a split of 30 seconds to the leaders and thought that I should hide in the pack a while longer and stay fresh. That was a big mistake as the pack eventually slowed and got pulled on the finishing circuts at about mile 110 while the group I had bridged to got to finish. That left me disappointed at my result yet happy about my fitness. Tim had stayed ahead to finish 25th. I followed that ride with a 21:09 at the Concord ITT.

My sudden fitness left me wishing that I was going to Elite nationals the next weekend. Tim went and got third after bridging to the break and driving it to the finish. I admit I was jealous of my good friends success. The next day I was warming up for the Hartford crit with Rob, a CVC (capital velo club) rider. We were riding behind a Remax rider who I will leave unnamed. Anyway, this remax guy had been an asshole to Tim when they were roomates and said Tim wouldn't amount to anything. "So did you hear about Tim's ride at nationals?" I said loudly to Rob. "Yeah, he got third.", exclamed Rob. "Tim prevented the break from being caught..........". The crit was uneventful except when I had momentum coming through the start/finish line with 4 laps to go. I heard them say $100 prime so I floored it. I left the pack in the dust except one Kissena guy who stayed ten meters behind me until I blew up with 200 meters to go. Turns out he is the Cuban national track champion. The effort left me tired for the finish.

I met up with Brook O'Conner after the race and with no place to go between Hartford and Sommerville I asked what her plan was. She was going to stay at her parents in Norwalk and said I could tag along. It worked out great and I followed her to the race the next day. Sommerville is the only 100k crit I've done. The first 50 miles are fun and the crowd is big. Along the backstrech there are several parties and one or two live bands going every year. To my surprise I was snaking aggressively through the pack and moving up between 10 and 5 to go. 25th - 35th place is $100 so I was motivated. But with 4 to go the pace shut down and I got swarmed. The $100 alluded me again.

The New England schedule was thin in early June so Tim and I had to decide where to go. I randomly chose a road trip to North Carolina's Habitat Cabaruss omnium stage race just north of Charolette. It started with an eight lap ITT on whatever Nascar track is there. The fields were mixed together for the TT so the fast guys had to dodge riders of lesser category the whole time like in a video game. On the last lap the race finished on pit road but I lost track of my laps while passing so many other riders. I was getting tired so I decided to take pit road. Fortunately it turned out to be the right lap. Tim was 6th and I was 9th. Then we watched lots of comedy central until the next stage.

The crit was kind of crazy, 1 hour of four turns in less than a half kilometer. The pace was fast as I'm sure someone had planned to lap the field. No one did and the break got away late, after Tim had been off the front. I finished in the pack. The road race was held in the scenic countryside, 8 laps of 10 miles. Two guys got away mid race and stayed out there. With four miles to go I went to the front with a GoMart guy and lit it up. Everything strung out and busted apart. I eventually forced a five rider separation but they were clueless so we got caught at 500 meters. Tim was 3rd in the sprint (5th place).

The next race was the Housatonic Hills RR where I felt strong, went on a 40 mile break, got caught and finished 13th. Then I got 3rd at the Connecticut district ITT on a shortened course. I sat in during the Keene twilight crit to get ready for Fitchburg. Now that I look at my training I realize I did too much before the big race.

Fitchburg did not go so great. The day of the ITT I had a knot next to my shoulderblade so big that my dad could see it. That caused me to move around like a cripple until it loosened some during warmup. The legs were empty and I did a 28:50. The circuit race was fast with a few sub six minute laps on the 3.1 mile course with steep hill. I got a flat on the backstrech when it was single file. There was no point in chasing and I lost a lap. Somehow the officials decided that it was a 12 minute lap. The next day I struggled in poor air quality at Wachusett. I was ill after the first lap but just kept going and got dropped the eighth time up the hill for another big time loss.

I didn't even want to drive to the crit but went anyway. Before the start clouds came overhead and made my body feel so much better. In the race I felt strong and wasn't even pushing to keep pace. After 30 laps the wind picked up and it got dark so I knew they were going to shorten the race. I moved from 100th up to 40th real fast. Just as I crossed the start/finish line it began to downpour. In only one minute the road was covered with water! As I passed the parking garage before turn two a very strong gust of wind blew me from the left side of the road to the right. As I began the homestrech I heard the crowd yelling "last lap" but couldn't even see them through the thick rain. The headwind was so hard I had to grind my 53x19 all the way to turn one. By now everything was broken up and I finished in 30th place or so. The results only went 10 deep.

I took shelter and watched the water get 8+ inches deep as it flowed down the street. After the rain ended there were bricks and chunks of pavement all over the parking lots just north of the start/finish line. And there were power lines on fire in some guy's yard. I had a blast and was glad I did the crit. The weather definately affected me more than the others at Wachusett which was my target race for the year.

I had no races planned the next weekend so I decided to do a 200k ride on Saturday as the weather was perfect. I called five or six friends in search of a companion but no takers. So I just sat around surfing the net and came upon the BMC site. They had the BMC Arlington start list so I checked to see who was accepted. Scrolling to the far lower right I found my name with no race number. The organizers had not notified me that I was accepted so it was pure luck I found out.

The next day I pinned on #161 and took a preview lap of the course. The hill (next to Rt. 2) was going to hurt, the technical descent was going to be a blast, and the finish would be fast. 18 laps on a 3.5 mile loop for 63 miles. The break went on the first or second lap and I strung out the peleton the third time up the hill to force a split. I was in the second group on the road and was greatly motivated by so many locals cheering for me. That was something I'm not accustomed to. Eventually I fell off the pace and was lapped by a solo Chris Horner and pulled two thirds thru the race. On the bright side more than half the field was pulled before me and the majority were pro.

Stale legs were on tap the following weekend at Hilltowns and Attleboro. But the Monday following I took a 6 hour 106 mile epic training ride on a perfect day. It was a kick ass ride. I ventured as far as Warwick (north of Orange) where I navigated my loop onto some dirt roads. The steep uphill road was washed out with sections of fist size rocks and sand. Sometimes my crank and pedal would hit a big rock on the downstroke. I slogged my 42x25 for 9 minutes to complete the one mile ascent. Amazingly I only fell twice on this hill that would be a challenge on a mountain bike! Then I hauled (ass) over the last hour and averaged 200 watts on the day.

The next weekend I drove to James & Erica Olson's for the Yarmouth clam festival. Staying at their place is always a blast. James noticed my rear tire was finished so we gave it to the dogs. Anyway, in the race I was too aggressive early on leaving me too tired to go with the break. I rolled off the front of the pack with two miles to go and started to go hard. But the pack reacted and caught me with a mile to go; I found myself at the back. With a half mile remaining there is a hairpin turn onto a short steep climb. I passed the whole pack on the inside in the last 200m before the turn. I had to brake hard as I was aligned completely wrong for the turn. The rear brake was not an option as it would guarantee sliding out (and crashing), so I slammed on the front only. I endoed a bit in the turn and came out fifth in line but blew up at the top of the hill. The next day I got emails asking how I got through the turn without taking everyone down.

Then came the NEBC club championships. At the ITT I left a bottle cage on and Matt Svatek said it would cost me three seconds. He proceeded to set a new best time of 20:47, beating me by those very three seconds. But Matt is not in the NEBC so I figured an easy win at the club RR. I went in a break with Ed Kross and Kirk F. On the last climb I attacked real hard and figured I completely discouraged Ed and Kirk. I eased off the pace somewhat, looked back, and apparently Kirk had not given up. I had to reaccelerate to prevent him from getting too close. That guy will be doing lots of upgrading. My legs felt like garbage after that which left me concerned about Altoona in two days time.

On Monday I traveled to Altoona with Patrick Sullivan where we met Tim who just did the Wendy's race in Ohio. Our host housing was in Martinsburg, the location of stage three. We stayed in a furnished basement which worked out well because it was cool (temperature), big, and had a kitchen. Our host gave us a case of bottled water because the tap was not drinkable. "We have lots of water for you, here is 30 liters.", which was actually 30 half liters. He went upstairs and Tim said, "What happens when that is gone tomorrow?" We laughed. This was going to be my first six day race.

The prologue was a technical 2.5 mile criterium like course through the downtown streets of Altoona. I warmed up with Mark McCormack, raced hard, and finished winded. I could have gone through a few corners faster but I actually almost hit a pedestrian that was crossing the street in one. As I crossed the finish line I was surprised (and confused) to hear "hey Kurt" from Nat Faulkner as he made his way off the starting ramp. I got 49th in the 120 rider Pro-1 field while Tim beat me by 3 seconds and 16 places. After the race Matt Svateck made a 15 point turn with the wheelworks van, which should have been a 3 point turn, just to back up traffic in the parking lot. It was funny.

Back at host housing there was hundreds of flies in the Garage. Our host had a sandwich trailer and must have had some food storage issues. We made a point of keeping the flies from getting in which took effort as there was a rip in the screen door. Our host was best described as a fruity redneck; he would try to be humorous but just wasn't funny. When we knew he was around we would "retreat" to our beds for naptime which was probably a good idea anyway. His wife was more approachable and we had some conversations with her. The water was gone before the prologue but fortunately she showed us their pallet stacked with the 30 bottle cases. The basement was soon littered with empty bottles.

A trip to the grocery store proved eventful when Tim, who was tired from racing the whole month, dropped one of his grocery bags after exiting the store. "That better not be the bag with the eggs" he mumbled and sure enough it was. Patrick and I laughed as Tim consolidated the eggs that were still intact. The eggs continued to give Tim problems when he left 3 in the pan too long and they burned.

Stage one (Johnstown) was fast; 73.5 miles in 2:28. Tim made the break with about 10 miles to go and finished ahead of the pack. This put him in 10th on GC. Stage two (Holidaysburg) was tough and I got dropped with less than 3 miles to go and lost 2:20. I fell from 40th GC to about 100th. I was pissed.

Stage three started 5k from our host house so we rode. While in line for the porta john Matt Svatek jokingly pushed me out of the way as he rode by. "Get out of the way Hackler." he said. "Your dead Svatek" was my response and he looked back at me. At that moment he hit someone's bike that was on the ground and flatted on it's chainring. Everyone laughed. Then as the start gun went off his tire went flat again; I assume he pinched the tube while changing it.

During the race Patrick tried to grab Gord Frasier's (Mercury) water bottle on the last feed and dropped it. Gord was pissed and punched him in the back. The cloudy conditions had me feeling much better than yesterday. I wanted to attack when the pace slowed at three miles to go but we were packed in like sardines and I just couldn't move up. Gord proceeded to win the stage without his bottle. After the race Tim and I were riding back to the house and witnessed Curt Davis motorpacing Svatek to the finish. Apparently he did not regain the pack after his startline flat. So Tim remained in 10th, Patrick dropped Gord's bottle, and I indirectly caused Svateck to almost miss the time cut. That's what I call teamwork.

The 99 mile fourth stage was rerouted over a four mile ascent of Blue Knob mountain to avoid road construction. That was followed by plenty more hard climbing before the finish. Patrick, despite his bruised back, stayed in the last main group over "the Knob" while my ass was dropped. I saw Tim ahead of me in the distance on the last steep part. It looked like he came to a standstill for a moment. I hauled on the descent, almost loosing it in the first two switchbacks, and proceeded to kamakazie down the rest of the mountain. I slowed as I approached Tim's group of five so he could catch my draft but I was still going 5+ mph faster as I passed. I drove the pace with aero tucks and my 11 and saw Patrick's group coming into sight but as soon as we hit the first non-downhill section my legs were all done. The remaining 40 miles was a slow death march.

Back at the house we waged war on the flies in the basement. Patrick and I started killing flies and tallying them. Tim had no fly killing abilities so we sent him to the garage for practice. He came back and said there weren't any there. After some discussion he convinced us to look and he was telling the truth. The flies were gone, it was the 8th wonder of the world, (okay 9th, I forgot about Springer).

Sunday's 30 lap crit was the last stage. To get an official GC finish a rider had to finish half the one mile laps before getting pulled. Before the race my legs were lead and I got a bad starting position. But I had a great first lap and moved up 20 places getting myself out of the danger zone. I proceeded to keep pace until I saw 14 to go and gave up. Patrick did the same thing. We watched Tim go through all sorts of pain to finish on the lead lap. Patrick was 58th, Tim 63rd, and I was 68th out of 75 GC finishers. I wish I had not looked at the lap card.

Nat Faulkner stayed at my place again for a week following Altoona. We did one of his 53x15 rides so he could regain some strength he lost while on the track. To my surprise I got up some steep stuff in that gear including Hobbs Rd. (E Princeton) and Bolton street (at Wachusett ski area). During the week Ray shot a deer at Applefield that was destroying the crops. Nat and I slaughtered it on a pallet at the edge of a cornfield. After I had removed a rear quarter roast Nat asked me, "What has three legs and no ass?" "This deer", I said. We laughed and it tasted good. On the way home with the deer Nat's timing belt broke and Ray gave us a ride to my house. We left it a couple days then towed it to a garage with my dad's pickup.

I did the Concord/Bow weekend and had my traditional DNF at Bow. That course hates me; I finish Altoona and not Bow, go figure. The night in between the races I attended my good friend Graeme's wedding. After the wedding I found out my grandmother died. Perhaps I lacked focus at Bow. But I was focused at the tuesday night Wachusett Multisport ITT in West Boylston. Shop owners Alan and Kathy have a first class low key weekly series. It's 10 miles with a few big rollers, steep enough to put me in my 17&19. That night I went fast. A 21:30 put me 25 seconds off Frank McCormack's (Saturn) record and 9 seconds off John Leswyn's (7-UP) best time.

When I returned home early from work on Thursday Nat said he registered for the National Pro criterium championships on a canadian composite team. I checked into the cat 1 race and decided to register online with 11 minutes remaining before it closed. We packed and took off Friday morning. Our first destination was Nat's uncle's place in Ontario to stay that night. We took Canada's most dangerous highway, the 401, to get there. Saturday we finished our journey to Downer's Grove, a suburb of Chicago, where Nat dropped me off at the motel where Tim was staying. This worked out because Tim and I were racing at 9am the next day while Nat's race was at 4pm.

The crit was 50 laps on an eight turn 1 mile course with some concrete surfaces that had brick crosswalks and man hole covers. That's not an issue until it starts to pour rain with ten to go. I knew that the last turn was the bad spot and sure enough every lap from ten to go a few guys stacked it into the snowfence. I wanted to move up some but it just wasn't happening. Then with five to go there was a big crash in the corner and I was not planning my turn for it. I was going straight for a pile of 15 guys (and bikes) until I fishtailed and magically avoided the pile on the inside. How my momentum changed direction abruptly on the slick concrete is beyond me. Spectators actually commented about it after the race. I was 53rd out of 55 finishers; 138 started the race.

Tim and I returned to the motel. Tim DNFed so he had a few beers as we watched the Simpsons. Then he decided we had to go to a bar so I drove. We ended up at an exotic dancer bar much to Tim's delight while I was unsure. It was 8pm Sunday night so it was empty and the "customer to employee ratio was one to one". Tim bought me a water and we sat at the bar. The girls would come over and talk to the guys in hopes of selling "something" in the back room. One girl sat down and started a conversation with me so I just went along. I pretended that she wasn't almost naked and told her about racing and asked about her interests. She actually seemed nice and I didn't get creepy vibes like from the others.

By 9:30 I had Tim convinced that we had to leave so that we could get up early to avoid the Chicago rush hour. We started to walk out and the girl I talked with didn't want us to go but we left anyway. Tim was drunk by then and somewhat pissed at me for making him leave. At the motel I requested a 5am wakeup call and we went to sleep once Tim shut up about the girls.

The phone was ringing but I didn't hear it. "Answer the &%#$ing phone!" yelled Tim. I responded by lifting the receiver two inches and then hanging it up. We dressed quickly and walked to a diner next to the motel. The diner didn't appear to be open to me as we scurried across the parking lot but Tim assured me it was. "It opens at five". Tim pulled on the door but it was locked. "It's twenty past, dammit". But then he realized it was twenty past one. Tim immediately concluded that the girls from the bar had called us because he told them where we were staying and the bar had closed at one. I didn't think they could have got our room number until I realized that if they asked for "Tim and Kurt", the receptionist may have looked up "Tim Unkert" and connected the call. Tim was pissed about the way I had answered the phone. "We could have had girls in our room! GIRLS IN OUR ROOM", he exclaimed. I laughed.

So when the real wake up call came we ate breakfast and sped out of Chicago. Actually the whole way to Tim's in Tolland, east of Hartford. I think I was averaging in the high 70s while Tim was in the low 80s. It took us only 16 hours including some stops (one long one) to complete the 1000 mile drive. As we finished off Ohio on I 80 east some elderly guy was driving the wrong direction on the highway at us in the left lane. Tim dodged potential disaster as he was doing 80+ at the time. I think the guy was going at least 40mph at us. Being the passenger I had the luxury of watching out the back window as other cars dodged the disoriented motorist.

The following weekend had the Saco races but the Olson's house was under construction and unable to accomidate guests. I decided to do the Chris Thater race in Binghampton with Tim which was a mistake because I got dropped one third through the race. It's a hard race. On the bright side Tim got a prime before he got dropped and we went for a scenic ride out of Deposit NY where we stayed the night before.

We returned to Tim's in Tolland for a couple days and then stayed a couple days at his ski house on Killington. During this week I got an overdose of Jerry Springer. We were doing easy morning one hour rides between Springer episodes. Springer 9-10, ride 10-11, Springer 11-12, followed by an afternoon ride and relaxation. The last episode of the week was the morning of the Bolton Ski area prologue. The show opened with a "Springer cam" scene that was so bad I got nauseous. I think it affected my race that day.

I stayed at Brian Jones' place for the Green Mountain stage race. He is a good friend of mine from my High School days and a regular Tractorfest participant. His apartment is within potato gun range of the Burlington crit. Tim dropped me off and Brian brought me to the races on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's slow four lap race featured a fun 1k dirt road section and I finished in the pack. On the way to Sunday's Mad River RR via the "scenic route" Brian's timing belt broke. I began riding to the start without enough time to get there but fortunately a master racer from Michigan was also taking the scenic route. He saw me hitch hiking while riding and took me to the start.

I saved all my energy for the dirt road downhill rolling section before Bristol where I attacked five times. It was cool to have guys like Scott Moninger, the McCormacks, Tim Johnson, and Jon Page working to chase me down. Unfortunately there was a head wind preventing me from going my traditional psycho speed that I usually do there. Of course the first attack that I was not in after the dirt was the winning break. On the final ascent I went easy because I though I was well out of the points which wasn't the case. That left me fresh for the crit but with significantly less GC points than I could have had.

Tim gave me a ride to Brian's and stayed there Sunday night. Brian entertained us with Bill (Clinton) and Ted (Kennedy) animations he downloaded from the internet. They were very amusing. In the morning I used Tim's car to drive Brian to the airport for his buisness trip to Singapore. The last stage, the Burlington crit, was in the afternoon.

I knew the crit would be hard so I skipped Springer. The course is a blast with six 90deg. turns on a 1k loop including merchant row on Church street and a fast downhill turn. 15 laps in I got caught behind a crash and stuck in a slow group. I made a half mile all out bridge back to the pack a few laps later. After that I just sat on. Only 30 guys were left after the 50 lap race had finished, I was 27th and 22nd on GC. More points from Sunday would have put top 20 and in the money.

The Race for the Rock was an afternoon wasted as I felt weak and DNFed. Fortunately that was not the case at the Josh Billings Relay. I knew I felt good the day before while I rode the course. The event began with a 27 mile bike which was followed by a five mile two person canoe and then a six mile run that finished at Tanglewood. I was on a solid team. The canoeists, Alex Sabo and Sean Jennings, are locals while our runner, Mark Mayall, is from Maynard. I stayed at Alex's place the night before and had a blast. Alex and Sean were motivated.

The event began with a 350 rider mass start in Great Barrington. Sean Nealy (Kissena) and I made the break at mile 3 on a small climb. Rob English tagged along and we held a small gap for a few miles. During that time we heard my rear rim crack when it dropped in a small hole. The wheel stayed round and we eventually got out of sight. Once a gap was established Sean started working less to prevent his course record from being broken. I did more work during the middle section, especially on the downhills. Rob sucked wheel until I sternly requested he start pulling with about five miles to go. The three of us finished together in 1:04, two minutes off Sean's record.

The relay was continued by handing off a wristband. Alex and Sean took 42 minutes to do the boat and left Mark with a huge advantage. I watched the run/boat exchange through binoculars from a causeway a half mile away. As Mark ran by me I told him that no one else was running yet. He started with a five minute gap but didn't need it as he had the fastest run split on the day. Mark turned a low 32 on the very hilly six mile course and our team won by over seven minutes. We were pumped, especially the boaters who finally won after a string of seconds in this race. Then we got interviewed on a live radio brodcast. That was a first for me.