The MetLife team took to the lakes region of New Hampshire this past weekend for the annual Lake Sunapee Road Race. This beautiful course circles the lake in a very rolling 23 mile loop and finishes at the top of the Sunapee Mountain Ski Resort access road. The P/1/2 field complete 3 laps around the lake for a total of 69 miles.
Even though the race is traditionally held mid-May, the weather always seems to think it is April still. Many of the past editions have been run in the rain with temps as low as 40 degrees. I remember them even cancelling the race one year because it decided to snow 3″ the morning of. However, this year, the weather gods must have felt sorry for us. The morning showers that had so depressingly woke us up went away and the sun came out for what turned out to be a warm spring day.
The race started out aggressive as a few tried there hand at an early break. Charlie, Corey, Aaron and Thom found themselves covering the early moves. Near the end of the first lap, a large break of 12 found themselves with a gap, but it was not meant to be as this was pulled back quickly. On the second lap, Will Letendre (Boston Scientific) and Toby Walch (Kenda) managed to roll away from the field leading into the windy, exposed highway climbs that make up the front half of the course. Constant attacks on the climb resulted in little more than wearing out legs. Attempting to make the bridge, Thom found himself in a chase group with Toby Marzot (Fiordifrutta) and Kirk Carlsen (VMG/Felt). However the pace set by Carlsen was too hot and he rode away from his two companions and bridged by himself. Once the pair were absorbed back into the peloton, we realized that we needed to keep trying to get a chase group up to the leaders. Unfortunately, we missed the boat again when Jason Baer (Kenda) and Peter Bradshaw (NEBC) rolled away on the back side. Even with constant attacks, the field would not split up on the climbs, most likely due to the strong headwinds. On the last lap, a chase group of 7 finally got away about 5 miles from the finish. The group contained Adam Myerson (Time Pro), Al Donahue (Nerac), Brendan Cornett (Mechanical Services), Eric Tremble (Kenda), and Kevin Wolfson (IF) along with Ryan and Thom. The group worked hard together and quickly got half way across the gap to the leaders, however, the miles had run short and only a few stragglers from the break were caught in time. The chase group finished 50 seconds back of the lead group. Myerson, a professional sprinter, handily won the sprint from the group for 8th place, while and Ryan and Thom finished 10th and 13th respectively. A top 20 finish from Brad was foiled when he flatted his front tire about 2 miles from the line.
The team raced very well together and are really starting to gel. A break-through result is just a matter of time now. The team heads down for an action packed long weekend in Somerville, NJ starting this Saturday with the Hills of Sommerset County Road Race. Look for a full report next week.