Perhaps it was the lure of the new season.  Perhaps it was Lance Armstrong’s return to cycling.  Perhaps it was the sadistically hard Tour of the Battenkill only two weeks away or that this day was the one sunny New England Sunday which would be followed by a procession of gloomy, rainy, and raw days to come.  Whatever the reason, this year’s Michael Schott Memorial Circuit Race in Marblehead, Massachusetts, was stacked!

While most New England ski resorts are still running their chairlifts and enticing would-be customers to ski at discounted ticket prices, the New England road bike racing scene headed east to coastal Massachusetts for a little early season racing.  Coastal isn’t perhaps the appropriate word, unless it’s taken literally.  This race is run around a course on the “Neck of Marblehead,” a small island flaunting giant, gated mansions and smooth-as-silk pavement for the fleet of Audis, BMWs, and Lexi, that glide elegantly upon it.  The island is connected to the mainland by a long causeway with an outstanding view of the Boston skyline.  You can’t get much more coastal than the Neck of Marblehead, nor can you get much more wealthy.  Okay, so the place is oozing money, but it’s still a perfect course for an early season throw down.

All of the big New England Elite teams were there along with a select number of international superstars, present and past that included the McCormacks, Tim Johnson and wife Lyne Bessette, Shawn Milne, and Ted King, just days before a return to Europe to prepare for potential Grand Tour racing.  MetLife Cycling brought seven riders: Aaron, Andrew, Brad, Charles, Chris, Corey, and Peter.  It wasn’t anybody’s first race of the year as all of us had participated in one form of training race or another, but this was the first chance to see how the racing would take shape in 2009.

The plan was to remember what racing was like, not to instigate moves but certainly to follow, to remember what it felt like to have such pain in the lungs and legs.  We weren’t going to be the big guys in this race nor did we want to.  But the racing has been super aggressive over the last two years and each race seems to get faster and breakaways more likely to succeed.  This was to be a good opportunity to patrol the front of the peloton for all of us, and make sure that even if we weren’t necessarily fit and ready for a breakaway, we were at least available.

The pace quickened at the end of the second lap with Ted King dragging the field around (which he didn’t cease to do until he eventually won the race, but that’s getting too far ahead).  MetLife did a good job sticking to wheels, remaining frontward, not wasting energy.  A large breakaway formed early on containing the very fit duo of Brad and Chris who kept things under control.  About halfway through, the break was reeled in and things remained somewhat calm until lap 11 when several attacks shot off from the front of the race instigated by the resident New England pros.  Unfortunately, MetLife wasn’t able to respond, nor were any of the big elite teams except for Bikereg/Cannondale who snuck three guys into the break.  Ted King, Shawn Milne, Adam Myerson, Justin Spinelli, and Mark McCormack drove the pace and managed to get a gap of :45 seconds at one point.

At the same time while the superstars were strutting their stuff, the field split in two catching Aaron and Andrew off guard.  It was a few laps later that Brad, Chris, Charlie, and Peter, who survived the split, moved to the front of the first pack and drove the pace until with one lap to go, the gap to the break was only ten seconds.  Unfortunately, the race ran out of room and the break stayed away by a slim margin, Ted King outsprinting Johnson and Myerson for the win.  Chris Coutu proved he’s got great form by finishing 14thsixth in the field sprint, followed closely by Brad in 17th overall.