The NEBC Elite Men’s Cycling Team returns in 2008 with three Category 2 racers: Todd Rowell, Peter Bradshaw, and Roy Van Cleef and six Category 3 racers: David Chiu, Scott Brooks, Greg Brown, Justin Howe, John Broussard, and Julian Gent.
For more information about the NEBC Elite Men’s Team, read our mission statement.
Hunter & Windham, NY – After all the excitement of the Green Mountain Stage Race, Peter Bradshaw decided that he wasn’t ready to hang up the road season just yet! Peter effectively went straight from Vermont to Upstate New York, for the Tour of the Catskills and reports back:
Saturday, Stage 1.
Saturday started with a small field of 20 or so P/1/2 men. Target Training was well represented with 5 riders in the field. Other notable riders were Roger Aspholm from Westwood Velo and Dan Cassidy and Amos Brumble from CCB. The action started from the gun as Amos attacked out of the neutral start. Target Training responded and the first break of the day was established. We rolled mostly downhill on a major road for a few miles and then right onto a small side road. I was totally unprepared for what was next.. we hit a steep wall of a climb. I was practically at the limit for the whole thing. We crested onto a false flat only to come to the next climb, followed by another, and another and another. We were climbing and climbing with each steeper pitch prefaced with an attack by different Target Training riders. It was absolutely brutal. Good news, we did end up catching the break somewhere near the top and all rolled the downhill together. Bad news, our field got to do another lap of that climb and it had started pouring rain. Once again an attack went on the highway leading into the climb. Target Training made the move with Amos again and this time they were joined by Roger Aspholm. I new this was bad news but figured I’d stay with Cassidy and hopefully bridge to the lead after the climb. Once again we hit the climb and the attacks were unrelenting. Amos was dropped from the lead group and then dropped from our group. As we neared the top there were only 3 of us remaining. One Target, Cassidy and myself. I was really feeling the climb on the last steep grade and fell off the small group, but once over the crest I got a second wind and was able to chase back on. Cassidy and I traded pulls as we headed towards the final climb of the day with the Target rider sitting on. I knew I was going to be in trouble when we hit that last climb but pushed hard so that we weren’t joined by any other riders. We reached the last climb and Dan and the Target rider rode away. I settled into a gear and did what I could over the hill. It was a long fast blast to the finish from there. I stayed away from other riders, but could not close the gap back to Cassidy and Target, for a 5th place finish. Easily the hardest race I’ve done all year.
Sunday, Stage 2.
Legs aching, I was now prepared for another day of absolutely epic climbing. This time the weather was beautiful with blue just taking over the sky. Again, the first attacks of the day were right out of neutral. Roger Aspholm, the stage leader, was pretty much single-handedly keeping the break in check. We hit the first wall and I had a mechanical meltdown. I could not get my bike to shift into the small ring, so I stood and wrenched my bike over the first grade. I was still unable to get the chain to shift on the lull before the next pitch so I unclipped and whacked my heel against the derailleur and it shifted! Back in the game, I had lost about 20 seconds and was pretty winded from my efforts but I attempted to get back to the group. I picked up Gabe from Target and a rider from Princeton in the chase but was unable to get back on. We cleared the hill and had a problem… we were directed by a marshal to continue straight on the course when we should have been directed left to complete an inner loop and repeat the major climb. We ended up getting along the course before some of the marshals had made it to their posts so we rode about 50 minutes at top speed into nowhere. We turned around and rode, defeated, back to the start finish. Definitely a disappointing finish to an otherwise epic weekend of racing.
I was given a calculated time for Sunday’s ride and ended up 7th overall on GC. The race suffered from some marshaling problems, as we were not the only ones who had problems over the weekend. Was it “Worth the Trip”? If a course that shreds the field into pulp and laughs at the other hill climb races in the area is something you’re into, its definitely worth it. I know I’ll be looking forward to it next year.
Burlington, VT – The final day of racing was a challenging 6 corner criterium through downtown Burlington, Vermont. The course is tight with a small hill that slowly wears riders down lap after lap, the race includes the famous brick-paved pedestrian-only Church Street, flanked on both sides by restaurants with sidewalk seating.
Just 86 riders started the crit of the original 93 in the Category 3 field; John Broussard, Scott Brooks, Justin Howe, and Mark Theeman lined up near the front for what would be a hotly contested hole shot. Broussard spent much of the early laps going for Sprint points and the GC Sprints, picking up a 3 second GC Time Bonus; energy well spent. After a few laps of recovery the field watched four riders launch off the front, but the field seemed to hesitate as none of the GC contenders seemed too worried about the riders off the front posing a real threat to the top of the classification.
Broussard took advantage of the opportunity and bridged the gap with another rider to make the break 6 riders strong and really start to put time into the field gaining an advantage of nearly 40 seconds with help from the remaining NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental riders still in the field. With one to go Chris Hamlin (Bliss Racing) attacked the break of 6 through the start-finish line and no one responded, Broussard moved his way up to 2nd wheel on the twisty back side of the course, before taking the lead on the downhill coming into the final corner. John was able to hold off all but one of his remaining break away companions for 2nd in the sprint and 3rd overall! The entire team was able to finish in the front half of remaining field Brooks was 18th, Theeman was 29th, and Howe was 33rd. With the results from the Crit, Broussard moved up to 22nd in GC, and 5th in the Sprint classification.
The NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental Cat 2 team had a simple goal: get Peter Bradshaw through the entire race. If Peter could finish with the front group in the crit then he’d be assured of a good GC, and so Roy Van Cleef would do whatever he could to keep Peter safe and toward the front.
And that’s how it played out: lap after lap of Roy leading Peter, reconnecting when they got separated. There was a tense moment when a crash held up a chunk of the field, including Peter, but free laps were taken and everyone got back into the peloton. The rest of the race was fast and exciting but safe enough, and Roy and Peter both saw the finish line and the same time as the field, finishing 39th and 48th out of 95 finishers respectively. Due to large numbers of riders being shelled or gapped off, Peter’s GC climbed to 26th, and Roy’s to 91st.
Photos courtesy of Geoff Martin
Warren, VT – The Queen’s stage of the 2008 Green Mountain Stage Race was a modified version of the previous Mad River road race course, because of heavy rains that forced the changes for the Circuit Race the 2008 Champion System Mad River Road Race course was re-routed to traverse the slightly less intense Brandon Gap instead of Middlebury Gap and run 75 miles to the finish atop App Gap. With two mountainous passes, this day was likely to be the greatest determinant of overall GC.
From the start of racing Scott Brooks formed a break with four other riders and they managed to work well together staying away for the first hour of the race soaking up all of sprint points before being caught. John Broussard, Mark Theeman, Justin Howe, and Scott all rode well and made it over Brandon Gap with the pack and played conservatively until Baby Gap. Mark Theeman continued his unlucky streak and suffered another flat tire (his second in just as many days) popping him out the back, while John and Scott rode strong in the top 20 before being popped 2.5k from the summit. Final results were Scott 42nd, John 43, Justin 66th and Mark 70th. This moves Brooks and Broussard into 33rd and 34th respectively on GC!
The biggest goal for the Cat 2s today was survival: get over the top of Brandon Gap with the front group if possible, and then conserve for the hard final climb where the big time gaps would happen. All the team members are pretty good climbers and had hopes of making that front group, but Peter Bradshaw in particular was looking to get back the 30 seconds he lost on the previous day.
After the 3 mile downhill neutral the field set out for the sprint line 12 miles away, downhill through Granville Gulf. The pace was fast down into the Gulf, assisted by a strong tailwind, but the field was generally more relaxed than the previous day; there were a few flats and a couple of crashes caused by bad cracks in the pavement. One of the crashes sent a rider down right in front of Todd Rowell, sending him over his bars and into a ditch; his subsequent chase was fruitless and he eventually abandoned the race, muddy and sore but unbloodied.
Back in the field, things were going well for Peter and Roy Van Cleef, and both made the front group over the climb, although Roy missed his bottle in the high-speed feed zone. Roy was dealt a second blow when he flatted at the bottom of the Brandon descent; although he never reconnected with the field he rode to the finish well within the time cut.
In the end, Peter was the man of the day, finishing just two minutes down from the leader in 30th, which launches him up to 33rd overall. Roy finished 108th on the day, and is now 114th on GC. Tomorrow they face the technical, high-speed downtown Burlington criterium.
Lastly, a shout-out to Clara Kelly, who placed 5th on the day in the Women’s P/1/2/3 field, and is now in 6th on GC. Awesome for anyone, especially someone who started the year as a Cat 4! Clara is also a graduate of the 2008 NEBC Spring Racing Clinic.
Photos courtesy of Geoff Martin
Hinesburg, VT – The first stage of the 2008 Green Mountain Stage Race was a new course: 5 miles from the parking area out to a 30 mile loop that climbs Baby Gap in reverse, then descends for a flat finish; all the fields did two laps for 65 total miles, with two KOM climbs, one intermediate sprint, and the finishing sprint.
The Cat 3s had a pretty quiet day with a scattering of unfortunate luck. Scott Brooks tried to lead out Mark Theeman for the KOM, but Theeman’s front wheel was a bit squishy making it difficult to hold Brooks’ wheel. The plan then switched to trying to lead out the team’s highest placed GC rider, John Broussard, for the intermediate sprint for a GC time bonus; unfortunately a crowded field and relatively flat run in to the sprint created enough congestion to prevent the setup. On the second lap the team’s Australian contingent, Greg Brown, was forced to drop out due to several fractured ribs from crashing at a Mountain Bike Race the week before, the force of climbing at race pace proved to painful. Part way through the second lap Theeman dropped back to take a neutral wheel and Justin Howe dropped back to pace Mark back, the two would come in just a few minutes off the back of the main field. Brooks and Broussard rolled in with the front half of the main field to hold their position in GC.
With a relatively flat stage profile, this stage could have been a nice and easy sprint prelude to Sunday’s queen stage that ends atop App Gap like the Cat 3s; instead, the Men’s P/1/2 field put the pedal to metal for an aggressive contest that averaged over 27mph and saw 37 of the 130 riders finish off the back due to the speed or the numerous crashes.
Roy Van Cleef convinced Peter Bradshaw and Todd Rowell that going for KOM points would be reasonable as there were only two KOM sprints Saturday and only one Sunday. This would let the team be somewhat aggressive while not putting us on the hook for repeated hard lead outs.
As the race started, Roy quickly moved to the front and began mixing things up; Peter rode up to join him as the race neared the KOM. Peter actually soloed away 2km before the KOM and was only caught in the final 250m; call him the Prince of the Mountain. Roy tried to go with the group that passed Peter but his earlier efforts were too much and he was popped off the back of the field over the top of the climb and would ultimately finish over 20min down, but still within the time cut.
Peter and Todd survived the remaining lap and a half to the finish but weren’t able to do much in the sprint; Peter was able to move up to 46th and Todd sat in for 83rd, both same time as the field, 3 seconds behind the winner. Many riders lost time on the stage, moving Todd up to a middle of the pack 64th on G.C.; Peter and many other riders were penalized for yellow line violations near the finish, demoting him to 83rd and earning him a wag of the finger. Roy dropped to 120th but as usual is raring to go on tomorrow’s hilly stage.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Martin
Warren, VT – Instead of the usual mass-start up hill time trial, the 2008 edition of the Green Mountain Stage Race introduced a new prologue time trial course that reshuffled the deck to be more in favor of all-around riders rather than benefiting just the fastest climbers. Along with this new time trail course, the race this year is not using the usual omnium format; the General Classification will be determined by a cumulative time format, like the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic Stage Race earlier this year in July. The individual time trial had the riders starting at 30 second intervals and the first 2 km climbed about 500 meters (about an 8% grade) before rolling along the ridge at high speeds (30mph+ average), Then a quick drop and a final wall of a climb.
John Broussard was the top NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental rider in the Cat 3 race, finishing just 34 seconds off the leader, in perfect position going into the second day. Scott Brooks was next at 42 seconds back, with Mark Theeman, Justin Howe, and Greg Brown rounding out the Cat 3s.
In a tough Pro/1/2 field, Peter Bradshaw brought NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental’s highest placing at +1’20”, next was Roy Van Cleef just 5 seconds off Bradshaw’s pace, and Todd Rowell was another 2 seconds behind Roy.
The team is positioned very well going in to the second day circuit race, which is also a new course this year due to heavy rain fall which has left many of the roads on the circuit race unsafe.
Flushing, NY – New England Track Silver Medalist Peter Bradshaw raced at the 2008 New York State Track Championships & USA Cycling Velodrome Championship over the weekend. Peter qualified to race at the USA Cycling Elite National Track Championships at the ADT Event Center Velodrome in Carson, CA running October 1st through the 5th by turning a 1:16.01 in the Kilo, 4th fastest of the day. Peter also participated in several other events including the Points Race, Match Sprint, Scratch Race, and was a part of the New York State Silver Medal team in the Team Sprint. “After two years of riding at the New England Velodrome I wanted to try some racing at other tracks. A weekend free from road racing and the championships at Kissena were perfectly timed together. Qualifying for Nationals at Kissena goes to show just how good the racing is at the New England Velodrome and how it is a great place to learn and develop track racing skills,” said Bradshaw.
Peter’s and NEBC’s home track, the New England Velodrome and Cycling Park, runs racing programs four days a week for for Kids, Adults, Beginners, and Elite cyclists alike in Londonderry, NH just 50 minutes north of Boston.
Saco, ME – It was a NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental skeleton crew up in Maine this weekend, David Chiu and Mike Rowell were the only riders from the men’s team to drive the 2+ hours up to the north Atlantic sea coast for this flat 6 corner technical criterium with a wide off camber round-about, fast turns in close succession, and long sight lines. This was the Maine State Criterium Championships so the local teams were out in force, represented by Base36/SMCC/Gorham Bike and Portland Velo Club.
The first attack of the day went from the gun from NorEast Cycling, the move was responded to quickly with Chiu taking advantage of the natural gaps formed in the corners and attacking off the front as the race passed through the start finish line for the first time. Chiu brought Christian Eager (Quad Cycles), Manny Goguen (Minuteman Road Club), Ben Forbes (Base36/SMCC/Gorham Bike), and Eric LaFlamme (NorEast Cycling) with him. The five worked well together and hovered with a steady small gap for the next few laps as Portland Velo Club had missed the move and motored to keep the break on a short leash. Soon, Ron Bourgoin (Portland Velo Club) was able to bridge up to the group and replaced LaFlamme (NorEast Cycling) who fell off the pace. With the break containing every team with significant numbers in the race, the gap really opened up and grew to as large as 90 seconds with the break doing roughly 2 minute laps. Going in to the closing laps, the attacks came fast but the group stayed together, Manny Goguen (Minuteman Road Club) took the smart lines through the final corners and gapped the break for the win, Chiu rolled in for 5th with no sign of the field behind. Mike Rowell took 6th in the bunch sprint, having also won an intermediate prime while playing defense in the field.
But the excitement didn’t end there, the next race to go was interrupted by a high speed police chase. The officials shut down the race, and no cyclists were injured as a tan four door Saturn came flying down the race course with two flat front tires and 5 police cars in tow. The Portland Press Herald has the details.
Photo courtesy of Cathy Rowell
Fall River, MA – With a majority of the team preparing for the upcoming Green Mountain Stage Race, Roy Van Cleef was joined by Mike Rowell who was on his second race of the day and David Chiu had to fend for himself in the windy four corner crit traditionally known for it’s seafood primes. David held strong through his race, but eventually flatted with 3 to go, 2 laps after the end of free laps for mechanicals. David ended up walking in just in time for the field sprint.
Roy fought strong for the intermediate primes and spent some time off the front of the race, but eventually Frank McCormack (Team FUJI fueled by Clif Bar) motored away on his own with Ward Solar (NERAC Cycling) and Jason Beerman (Kenda/Raleigh Cycling Team) chasing hard. The rest of the field would have to sprint for 4th, but not even a broken spoke could keep Roy out of the top 10.
Salem, MA – NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental fielded a sizable team in the three corner twilight criterium in historic downtown Salem, Massachusetts. Roy Van Cleef, Mike Rowell, Mark Theeman, Justin Howe, Peter Shapiro, Peter Bradshaw, Greg Robidoux, and Jim Burke all made it through the rush hour traffic for the evening start. The pace was kept high with moves and counter moves from local favorites Tim Johnson (Health Net Pro Cycling Team) and Shawn Milne (Team Type 1). As the sun went down the race seemed to get faster and bumpier, in the closing laps Van Cleef was well positioned to contest the field sprint, but a crash with 5 laps to go held up the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic Stage Race Green Jersey winner. Roy was still moving through the field trying to regain his position when the sprint opened up and rolled in for 15th.
Peter Bradshaw continued his strong late summer run with a pair of 8ths at the Gate City Cyclone Criterium in Nashua, NH and the Tokeneke Road Race in East Hartland, CT. It was an all Peter NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental Category 2 team this weekend as Bradshaw was joined by Peter Shapiro both days and Peter Chiu for Tokeneke.
Nashua, NH – At the 60 minute gate city criterium, a break of 7 got away with neither Peters in it. At 3 to go Vincent Scalia (NorEast Cycling) attacked and Bradshaw went with him. One lap later the two were joined by a Benjamin Zawacki (Targetraining U25 Elite Team), the 3 of them motored to stay away with Bradshaw playing it smart and winning the sprint for 8th! Shapiro rolled in with the field for 21st.
East Hartland, CT – The Peters once again got together in East Hartland, Connecticut for the hilly 66 mile Tokeneke Road Race. It was a small race with only 42 starters and even fewer finishers, but Bradshaw proved he could mix it up with the climbers in a stacked local field. Bradshaw came in 8th on the day with Shapiro and Chiu in 27th and 31st respectively.