Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma 6th at Mayor's Cup

Saturday afternoon Whitney and I staged in front of over 10,000 folks in downtown Boston for the 2012 TD Bank Mayor's Cup, the final National Criterium Calendar race of the year.  This was Whitney's first visit to Boston, but perhaps she felt like she had raced there before since it seems like I've talked about this race (and how great New England is) non-stop all year!  As a Massachusetts native, this race is a special one for me as I get to visit home, spend time with my family and friends, and satisfy my fix for New England food all weekend long.  *Yes, food will make an appearance in this blog. For those that know me, would you expect anything else?

Blades succumbs to Ameerah's charm during our race.  

I've raced the Mayor's Cup since it began 4 years ago and it's one of my favorites.  Not only is the venue great (we race around City Hall Plaza), the crowds are the best (mostly because they consist of my family and friends who are especially enthusiastic...and of course the average Bostonian enjoys a good sporting event so you can count on the city folk to join in on the fun), and the race is exciting.  Although there was a change up in the race's structure this year, the Mayor's Cup is action packed with primes galore.  Over 3,000 dollars in primes alone which generally makes for an animated race.   In years past, there were primes given on both sides of the course.  Theoretically, a rider could go for 2 primes within one lap.  With big money being given away every lap, this makes for a hard race.  This year, they limited the primes to the start/finish line which made the race a tad mellow in comparison.  Another reason this race is exceptional is their fair AND EQUAL treatment towards both the professional women and men.  The TD Bank Mayor's Cup is one of the very few races in the country where professional women pay the same entry fee as the men, race on the same course for the same distance/time, and are awarded EQUAL prize money ($12,000 to be split among the top 20) and EQUAL primes.  If you're going to travel and do just one big race all year, I would urge you to consider using your resources to do this race.  That's our team philosophy at least: Support the cities and promoters that do right by women cyclists.

Okay, back to the race....

Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe- Whitney's on the right

The 40 person field was stacked with some of the most decorated female cyclists in the country and the accolades of the various riders given call-ups were quite impressive- a number of national championship, grand tour, national calendar, world championship, and Olympic medal winners were racing. As we began the 60 minute race, the race was aggressive from the get-go.  Most notable was the solo attack from the Optum team, one of the few teams with the most numbers.  Janel Holcolmb stayed off the front  for quite a few laps.  With a field of many individual sprinters, many were looking around to other small teams to see who would bring her back.  Although my perception of the race was probably a little skewed from my vantage point mid-field or so, sure seemed that when the announcer mentioned she had grabbed at least 1,000 dollars worth of primes as she rode 25 seconds ahead of us, the attitude in the field shifted and the field closed in on her.  With about 13 laps or so left, Janel was within 8 seconds of the field, and I found Whitney to see how she was feeling, hoping she was feeling good and wanting to counter as soon as Janel was brought back.  As we were moving up along the side with this in mind, a rider in front of us hooked her bars into the barriers and took out several riders in front of us and causing us to stop and get bumped around a bit.  Whitney and I were both OK and we made our way to the pit to check out our bikes and get back into the race.  Unfortunately a number of riders were not OK, including Lyne Bessette (cool person, role model, and incredible racer) and they neutralized our field so they could tend to Lyne who suffered a fracture shoulder and knee cap.  After a couple laps, they restarted the field giving Janel 8 seconds ahead of us.  After the neutral laps and with less than 10 to go, the field caught her instantly.  Unfortunately Whitney wasn't feeling great, to be honest I was also somewhat surprised at how tiresome I found the wind coming through all the buildings to be as we came through some of the corners.  So, nabbing some primes wasn't in the cards for us Saturday.


Heading into the final laps, Whitney and I found each other and Whitney did a good job of getting me closer to the front along the side and out of trouble.  Whitney dropped me off near the front just before the last corner as Jade Wilcoxson from Optum launched a pretty fierce attacked.  Although I was hoping I would get a little bit of a breather before the sprint began, that was not how it worked. I had to come around Whitney immediately in order to follow the other sprints dashing through the corner.  I attempted to get on someones wheel but I was just far enough off that catching their draft didn't happen, (oh crap), and I stood knowing the sprint had really already started.  I was hoping my legs would cooperate when I stood up, oh crap (again), not the case.  I sat back down, really just grasping  to see if anything would make up some of that ground...nope.  Realized I wasn't going to pass anyone, but might be able to hold off the rest of the field.  So, I stood back up again and gave everything I had 'till I got to the line, coming in 6th.  Not too shabby of a result for us.

Post-race hang time with Paceline Projects

The rest of the evening was spent cheering for our friends in other races, catching up with friends and family, and enjoying cannoli.  Yes, that's right.... I ate more than one cannolo...and they were not mini.  Amazing.  I would do it again, anytime, anywhere. Yum.

A huge thank you to our supporters and friends who came out to cheer for us at the race and enjoyed the city with us afterwards: my dad Steve (Paceline Projects), mom Erin, and the new cute ball of fluff Ameerah, Matt, Leslie and Fred, my brother Matt and his girlfriend Kelsey, Josh from Veloforma, our good friends and forever Sunapee teammates Bruce & Debony, Kevin Wolfson and Amalia, and Whitney's good friend Tammy to name a few.

Liz Lemon style.  

Back to UT reality of work, school, etc this week.  Luckily, I was allowed to check one free bag last night and filled it with as many Macintosh and Cortland apples the bag would hold to slowly ween me off of my New England trip.  I had to chug my apple cider though.  Very sad to leave.