Tour of the Hilltowns - Men's Cat 2 - 7-28-08
It was my birthday this past friday and I figured there couldn’t be any better way to celebrate than to go to bed early, get up the following day at 5:30 in the morning and drive to Windsor, MA for one of the tougher one day races on this years calendar. The P123 race was held on a 97 mile course. NEBC was represented by Peter Bradshaw, Roy Van Cleef, Peter Shapiro and making his celebrated return after a month off the bike, Todd Rowell.
We opened up with a 40 mile loop with some good rolling hills. I got involved in a move around mile 20 but it felt too early and the riders were not right. We were caught and countered, with Roy in the next move. It seemed promising but with riders like Jonathan Chodroff (Empire cycling, winner of the Fitchburg TT), Ted (Bissell PRO cycling) and Robbie (Rite Aid) King pushing the pace, Roy was put in difficulty and popped out of the break. Unfortunately this was at the worst time when we were climbing the oh so long finishing climb for the first of two times. Roy couldn’t get in the group as the pace was very high as we caught him, left on his own he later abandoned. Around mile 60 we hit the feared East Hawley Rd. There was still a break up the road and most everyone else was still together. There were a few accelerations as we started the climb and this shook most everyone apart. I settled into my gear and hovered about 20 seconds behind the small chase group for the entire climb until the top where their numbers allowed them to power away. I was joined by Jonathan Awerbuch (Nor’east Cycling) and we attempted to get back to the group to no avail. The remaining miles ticked by as we picked up and dropped riders suffering from the headwind and muggy heat. With 10 miles to go I began cramping and let the small group go. I crawled to the finish for 24th.
To my surprise I later found out I was the second Massachusetts finisher (beaten by Al Donahue (Nerac) and edging out Scott Dolmat-Connell (Met-Life)) and rewarded with a silver medal as the race doubled as the Mass State Championships! Todd and Peter S. finished nearly together in 33rd and 34th respectively.
•peter B.