Fitchburg, MASS. – It may come as a surprise to many of you but the MetLife Cycling Team did not win the 50th Fitchburg/Longsjo Stage Race.  Nor did we manage a top-ten finish.  A top-20 result though?  Yes, we did pull off one of those, or, Nick Bennette, king of all that is suffering through three days of road races and time trials to get to the criterium, pulled off one of those.  It was an intense four days of racing in myriad weather conditions and with five MetLife riders going up against the likes of full pro teams provided by BMC, Bissell, Kelly Benefit Services, Ouch/Maxxis, Colavita, and Type 1, we had our work cut out for us to post even a top-50 result.  (A report on MetLife’s near domination in the Cat. 2 field will shortly follow)

As the race always does, Fitchburg’s GC battle is immediately sorted out in the opening prologue time trial.  Bissell’s Tom Zirbel won and posted a faster time than most cars could have done given the pea soup foggy conditions.  In classic coastal New England style, drizzly, misty blankets of fog settled in over the region and made for a very interesting time trial.  Riders reported, however, that the lack of sight actually subdued the pain a bit, distorting the contours of the slightly undulating road.  The bumpiness encountered within the first two kilometers was a bit rattling though.  MetLife’s fastest rider on the day was Charles McCarthy, coming in with a lukewarm time of 19:10, good enough for 74th, or, as he’d rather put it, in the front half of the race.  Ryan Fleming finished just six seconds slower, with Austin, Nick, and Vinnie in arears.  A top-50 spot was only :15 seconds faster than McCarthy’s time which just goes to show how many talented riders graced the results pages at Fitchburg this year.

Next up, the daunting, leg-shakingly difficult Fitchburg State College Circuit Race.  75 miles of flat-out, full speed, on-the-rivet (insert any other cycling-related saying pertaining to biking really fast here) madness.  With Zirbel of Team Bissell firmly in the lead, the race was expected to be a controlled affair.  Nothing would get too far away off the front that Bissell couldn’t shut down.  In theory, a great plan.  However, about a half dozen riders went up the road halfway through the race and never looked back.  Luckily for Bissell, their man Kirk O’Bee made the selection and eventually won the soggy race.  About 15 miles in, the heavy clouds that had been morphing angrily in the skies all morning, finally burst and brought the central Mass. deluge upon us all once again, only this time, the sand on the back of the course reacted with the water, forming a gritty sludge that pasted the bodies of the athletes.  At the end of the day, riders looked like they had just suffered through trench warfare.  Nick Bennette nabbed MetLife’s top spot for the day in 63rd.

The queen stage of the race this year lost its most famous feature: the climb of Mt. Wachusett.  Race organizers had to look at other options given the conditions of the frost-heaved up and down roads of the small mountain.  Instead, race officials tacked on another lap for a grand total of 110 miles.  With clear skies and a breeze, the racing was fast, almost criterium pace for the first two laps.  The amateurs hung in there as the pros waged war with one another, trying to send their breakaways guys up the road.  Each lap, the pace up the road through Princeton Center wrecked people’s desire to go on and at the halfway point, the field had lost at least 30% of those that started.  The last few laps mellowed only slightly once the chances of the breakaway’s success ended and the catch was near.  But on the penultimate lap, the pace erupted into warp speed and released riders off the back of the pack like a bomb-dropping B-52.  The last MetLife rider in the front group, Charles’ legs seized up and wouldn’t allow him to carry on at the same speed.  He finished a bit off the pace, with Nick Bennette, Austin, and Ryan having a rougher day of it in the back.

With well done legs and a beating sun warming the hostile pavement of Fitchburg, the criterium wasn’t necessarily such a welcome event.  Zirbel had only a six second lead at this point and Bissell was clinging to this like a baby tooth attached by one thread.  The other teams smelled blood.  The amateurs whimpered.  Ryan, Nick, and Austin rode considerably well, especially Nick who managed to plow through the field for 19th in an NRC crit, his second top-20 NRC result this season.

We knew that Fitchburg would be a test of the bodies.  What we learned was that it was just as much a test of the minds.  Lining up against the guys you see on TV who’ve raced the Tour of California, Paris-Roubaix, and countless National Championships, it’s intimidating.  But after a day or so of total immersion within the scene, you get used to it.  And you learn bike racing is hard for everybody.