Fitchburg

       A couple of weeks ago Alex Dayton, my dad, and I went up to race in Fitchburg, MA. As soon as we left our house the skies opened up and dumped rain, people were sliding off the road and hiding under overpasses.  We stopped to borrow some equipment and the rain died down so we kept driving. After a little confusion on the location of our first hotel on the way to pick up Alex my dad and I finally found the hotel. In the morning Alex met us and we loaded up the five bikes on the car, threw a bunch of wheels in the back, and drove off looking real pro. We stopped at James Madison University and tried out our borrowed TT bikes. A graduate student there named Kevin took us on a ride. We showered at the University then kept driving to Pennsylvania for our next stop where we drove by the hotel two or three times before we finally made it in. We watched Last Comic Standing for a while then had Reese’s cups and Cheetos.  

       The next day we drove by NYC and went on a road that you had to pay to drive on, which was kind of weird. Finally after 15 hours in the car we made it to the hotel in Fitchburg. We rode the road race course which had a pretty steep climb. Back at the hotel Alex and I snuck into the water park and went down all the slides. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant called Il Ricordi for some fantastic pizza. We spent most of the next day chillin’ and getting lost riding around the circuit race course around the Fitchburg State College. We carbo-loaded at the Italian restaurant again.

        Friday meant race time so we woke up way too early and headed to the race. We warmed up then ditched some leg warmers and lined up first row next to my bud from road camp, Thomas Wrona. There was a pretty serious sprint from staging to the start line but we held our positions and the race started. I missed my pedal but got it the second time. The next 7 laps hurt so bad. We lapped the Cat 4’s on our first lap even though they started only two minutes behind us. I was in a break with Ben Gabardi for about 30 seconds. Then I mostly sat in and moved up each time on the steep climb to the finish. On the last lap there were two guys a couple of seconds up the road, so the sprint for third was on. I finished eighth overall and was the top 15-16 yr-old. Our average speed was over 28 mph.

Me and Alex

Start Line

Lawson Craddock

Day 2. I had a pretty nasty stomach bug after the first race so I was pretty nervous about my condition. On the bright side I got a call-up. The race started fast but none of the breakaways stayed away till about the second time over the big hill and finish. 3 guys got away and spread their advantage on the 55 mph descent. One guy from Mesa Cycles bridged up. The break had Anders Newbury from Hot Tubes plus the yellow jersey from Turner so it held about 20 seconds to our group. On the final uphill sprint Thomas took off but a little too early. I stayed on Lawson Craddock’s wheel and one guy came around me so I finished seventh and top 15-16 again. My Aunt Helen and my cousin Adam met me and Alex after rollout and she brought us lunch once we went back to the hotel. Now we set up our TT bikes for junior gearing and rode the course then slept some more. Italian again for dinner.

Feed Zone

    Day 3. By now I had the stomach bug for two days and was pretty wiped out. I could never get comfortable on the TT bike and after feeling the muscles I strained in a TT last March crying for mercy, I just had to ease it home at about 80-90%. This made for a poor 38^th place which threw my previous 6^th on GC right out the window. Another bummer was that in the last hundred meters I hit a big bump that made the aero bar pad tear open a scab on my elbow from MTB camp. It bled a lot so this was a double whammy. Thomas rode awesome and moved up to 10^th on GC. Good work. Alex put in a good effort as well. We ate our fourth and final dinner at the same Italian restaurant. Their garlic bread was amazing…

Alex TT start

    Day 4. By now I was mostly recovered from my stomach bug so we rode the six miles to the crit course around downtown Fitchburg. The crit started so fast and with Lawson in second on GC by hundredths of a second Hot Tubes was determined to get him a time bonus. The first 16 laps were mostly just pain and on the last lap someone must have liked my rear wheel cause they put their front right into it and caused a big crash. I held it up though I might’ve dragging someone’s bike for a few feet. I was pretty much spent and in the second-to-last corner I tried to move up in the group and accidently bumped into Alex but he held it up despite bouncing off a hay bale (sorry, Alex). I finished 13^th in the sprint, right behind Thomas so second 15-16. Lawson got second so he won the GC and also points jersey (he just got third at the Junior World’s TT, so I don’t feel as slow). We picked up some medals and t-shirts and rode back to the hotel and headed out. 

The race had 90+ juniors that started the stage race.

Speedy speedy

Vroom vroom..

      We stayed in Boston at my Aunt Helen’s house the next day and went on the Codzilla speed boat in Boston Harbor with my cousin Justin. Later we had cake for my dad’s birthday and watched the Tour on Versus.

     The next day was all driving so nothing exciting except a stop at Dunkin Donuts and when we stopped at a hotel Alex was singing a song about “When you love a woman, tell her how you feel” and some people came around the corner to the elevator and were listening, but we forgot to push the button so we waited for five minutes before Alex remembered. This was the funniest part of the trip. We dropped off Alex at his house the next morning then my dad drove us home.