They weren't racing for prizes, or for glory. The few dozen bike
racers who pedaled the deserted side streets of Devens on Tuesday evenings this
spring and summer were racing just for practice.
The weekly Devens
training criterium ended its first season last week in a typically low-key
manner -- no cheering, no medals, no announcements about sponsors.
Organizers Sal and Heather Ardagna of Fitchburg spiced up the season finale by
turning it into a points race, awarding one point to the first person across the
line in every 0.9-mile lap. Those who finished the one-hour-plus-one-lap race
could redeem their points for cash prizes: $1 per point.
Thus, it
wasn't exactly a pot of gold luring riders up the hill on Birch Street on the
former military base. The real draw, as it was every week since early April, was
the low-pressure chance to work on racing techniques such as cornering,
sprinting, climbing, and team tactics.
"These little weekday crits
are the best things," said Category 1 racer Eric Lemaire (Cox Atlanta Velo) of
Jaffrey, N.H., last week's winner. "You get out of it exactly what you put into
it."
The 29-year-old former pro mountain biker was talking about
effort and improvement, but he came out even on cash, too. He won seven of the
lap sprints, including the final lap, earning back his $7 entry fee.
Category 2 racer Chris Gullekson (Horst Engineering), 27, of Leominster placed
second, with $6 worth of points. Junior rider Peter Lawler (New England Cycling
Support Association), 17, of New Ipswich, N.H., an 11th-grader at St. Bernard's
High School in Fitchburg, was third, winning $5.
Sal Ardagna said he
started the training crit because there wasn't anything like it in the area. The
closest one is in Newton on Sundays, when many racers are competing in real
races.
The Devens race consists of a 30-minutes-plus-one-lap crit for
"B" racers, meaning Category 5 (beginners) or unlicensed racers, and then a
longer race, depending on the amount of daylight left, for everyone else. The
"A" race last week had 19 starters in a mix of amateur categories, 1 through 4.
"This has been a godsend for the riders," said Dick Ring of
Chelmsford, who was at Devens to work out on his own fixed-gear bike and then
watch the training race. "I can see a difference on the weekends in the riders
that have been here, when things get difficult and they're right there," said
Ring, who is the announcer at many weekend races in New England.
Without his microphone, Ring employed his voice just the same, telling the lead
riders as they crested the hill what the pack was doing behind them, and touting
the potential of up-and-coming riders to the officials (the Ardagnas and Anne
McNeill).
Ring had especially encouraging words for Carl Jones
(Boston Bicycle Club) of Acton, who won a couple of the "B" races earlier in the
season and then started trying the "A" races. Jones, marking his 41st birthday
at Tuesday's race, dropped out after about 15 minutes -- the pack was going 27
to 30 mph for the first five laps -- but didn't sound defeated.
"Too
fast for me. I get dropped, but I'm going to try again. I don't think they're a
different species of being out there," Jones said, nodding at the pack, which
slowed its lap times from an initial 1 minute, 56 seconds to 2:22 by the end of
the hour. "You just need to train more and work harder."
At the
30-minute mark, Lemaire, Lawler and Tom Stevens (Gear Works Cyclery) of Concord
broke away. Lawler won the halfway prime. On the next lap, only Stevens and
Lawler were in the break, with an impressive 27-second gap. But in the next lap
the gap shrunk to 19 seconds, and after a few more laps the pack absorbed the
tiring pair.
STC Pro Cycling uses training races "to help out the
newer members of our team," said team leader Matt Svatek, 27, of Acton. "You can
never go as hard in a training situation as you can in a race. If there's other
people around you, it pushes you -- a lot." Svatek won the Devens race Aug. 24.
A design engineer at Tass Engineering Co. in Carlisle who has been
racing three years, Svatek credited training at Devens with preparing him for
his two stage victories, a road race and the criterium, at the Tour de 'Toona in
Altoona, Pa., five weeks ago.
"It's a good time," said Gullekson, who
won twice at Devens mid-season but had no weekend racing accomplishments he
wanted to mention. "I became a Cat. 2 this year, and that's basically my
excuse," he said with a laugh. "I'm slowly improving -- as the season is
ending."
"This is hard. This is really hard," said racer Jim Boudreau
(Masters Velo Club), 49, of Lunenburg. "It's the little hill over there -- it
gets you. It's good training." Boudreau placed second in the Sons of Italy
Criterium three weeks ago in Rockland.
Gear Works Cyclery donated
tubes, and Smartfuel provided energy food, for halfway primes and race winners
at Devens this year. Next year the Ardagnas hope to have a big prize, such as a
high-end bicycle frame, to raffle off at the end of the season. Anyone who has
raced at least three times at Devens would be eligible for the drawing, Heather
Ardagna said.
~~~
Kudos to writer and artist Suzy Becker of
Bolton for organizing the sixth Ride for Aids Resources, an every-other-year
fund-raiser operating quietly in the shadow of the massive annual Boston-New
York AIDS Ride sponsored by Tanqueray.
Starting Wednesday, 23 Ride FAR
6 riders will set out from Concord on a five-day, 500-mile bike trip zig-zagging
through three New England states. Thursday they'll ride from Storrs, Conn., to
Fitchburg, with a lunch stop in West Brookfield and an afternoon rest stop at
Comet Pond in Hubbardston.
Each rider has raised at least $2,000, and
each of the 10 crew members has raised at least $500, with the donations to be
split evenly among Project Inform, the Pediatric AIDS Emergency Assistance
Program, and an AIDS service organization chosen by the rider or volunteer. Four
participants chose AIDS Project Worcester.
Randi Isaacson of Hudson,
owner of the Post Road Art Center in Marlboro, is the top fund-raiser. She
hosted an art show and auction called "Wet Paint: Artists Against AIDS" that
raised more than $6,000.
All the food, lodging, transportation and
entertainment for the trip has been donated, and overhead expenses such as
postage come out of Becker's pocket. Thus, 100 percent of the donations, with
the total expected to top $70,000, go to the cause.
Friday night at
the Universal Coffeehouse in Salem, the riders will be treated to a folk music
concert featuring Chris Smither, Jennifer Kimball, and a surprise guest, another
nationally-acclaimed singer-songwriter, who Becker wouldn't allow to be named in
print. Concert tickets, at $20 each, can be ordered from the Widget Factory at
(978) 779-0393. Proceeds benefit the AIDS organizations.