Tour of Somerville, Somerville, NJ Memorial Day 2007

 

 

The Tour of Somerville is the oldest bicycle race in America. It’s a very flat, very fast four-corner criterium. It is run as the fastest race in the US and they still judge the race based on how fast the pro mens race is, usually just over 30 mph.

 

We do the junior race, which has been one of the most competitive junior criterium races in the US. It’s a harder race to win than the national championships. We make it a point to do this race every year. This year the field was about ninety riders. There were juniors there from Australia and all over the US and Canada. The track sprinters from Trexlertown like to do it because it usually is a field sprint. The junior race usually has an average speed of 30 mph as well.

 

We started the race with only three guys. We had Danny, who had missed going to Europe with the team, Alex, who just returned from Europe and Nick Bax who just placed sixth at the national championships in crew for his high school in Washington DC.  The other three had prom’s, or other commitments that prevented us from having out full squad.

 

As usual, the race started of very fast with Alex setting tempo. We wanted a break to get clear since there were way to many track sprinters sitting in doing nothing until the end waiting for their chance. A small group got clear for twenty seconds but the high pace brought it back after several laps. A second group with Nick driving it got the biggest gap, but the other two riders were wanting Nick to do most of the work so that break was doomed. The best group happened with five laps to go. Alex caused a split that got six riders clear. With one lap to go, they still had half of the finishing straight on the field. The pace in the break dropped when nobody wanted to lose their chance by doing to muck to keep the group away.

 

 Coming through the last turn it was all-together, so it looked like the sprinter teams were getting their wish. Danny Estevez, probably our best sprinter, was in very good position with 400 meters to go when there was contact between two riders that caused one rider to rip his rear derailleur off and shot to the side and right into Danny. Danny had to hit his brakes to avoid going down and reaccelerate to the line. He caught the lead three, but was unable to pass them before the line so fourth was what we got. It was an exciting race and the team executed the plan just right. Sometimes it’s just someone else’s day. We will be back next year to do it again.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Toby