The skies looked ominous on Saturday morning at the start of the Topsfield Circuit Race in Topsfield, MA. With Tropical Storm Hanna threatening the eastern sea board, we were lucky to race in relatively dry conditions… well, it wasn’t pouring at least.

The course at Topsfield is composed of winding and narrow roads in a rural residential area just outside of downtown. It’s an excellent course for fast and challenging racing, with many short steep rollers and twisty descents.

The attacks came often as there is usually a breakaway that succeeds here and everyone wanted to be part of it. CCB Racing, the host club, made it clear that they wanted to win their home event and had at least one rider in every move.

Michael Zagachin | www.redberryphoto.com

MetLife brought a strong roster with Corey, Brad, Peter and Alain toeing the line. Unfortunatley, Peter’s luck was not on his side today and fell victim to not one, but TWO flat tires. With a strong member of their quartet now missing, Alain, Corey and Brad had to step it up, patrolling the front of the race, attacking and following dangerous moves up the road.

It wasn’t until the last lap when a small breakaway containing Skip Foley (Landry’s/360 Racing), Matt O’Keefe (CCB/Volkswagen) and Colin Murphy (Kenda/Raleigh) looked to have stolen the show… Until Corey, with Brad on his wheel, dug in and reeled in the trio in the last kilometer, placing Brad well for the final turn up the long finishing hill.

As the trio made the turn just meters in front of the charging field, Foley slid out on the slippery roads, forcing Brad and several others hesitate and adjust their line through the corner and up the hill. This was just enough for sprinter Brendan Cornett (Mechanical Services), who had taken the inside line through the corner, to fly past the rest carrying all of his momentum up the hill for a commanding victory. Second place was CCB’s Ciaran Mangan and Brad was able to hang on for the final podium spot. Alain also put in a great result finishing inside the top ten.

Redberry Photo has some excellent photos of the race, which can be found here.

Results are posted on BikeReg.com and a brief report was also posted on VeloNews.com.