Onion River Racing

Due to volunteer burnout our club regrets that are unable to hold this series in 2011. Sorry.

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An exciting new event, the Barre Grand Prix criterium in downtown Barre, Vermont on May 22, is being organized by ORR with the Magic Wheel Community Bicycle Center in conjunction with a Bicycle and Fitness Festival. The Semprebon Fund, Onion River Sports are among the event sponsors.

Our popular National Life Training Series has been CANCELLED for  June 5th. (The April 24th race is CANCELLED) This low key training races is an appropriate venue for beginners to discover bicycle racing and also provides a challenging early season workout for experienced racers.

On the weekend of the Barre Grand Prix, ORR will also be offering its’ popular Introduction to Women’s Racing and Group Riding 101 Clinic. This clinic is designed to invite anyone to come out and learn the basic terminology and skills of group riding and bike racing. Skills to be learned include but are not limited to the following:

• How to ride in a Pace Line
• How to draft – what to do and what not to do
• How to ride side by side in a group
• What is an attack and how to respond to one
• Basic climbing skills
• Basic Criterium Skills
• What to anticipate for your first race

Participants will encouraged to participate ( and be automatically registered in the citizens racing category) of the Barre Criterium on May 22nd. Participation in the race is optional, of course.

Clinic Flyer: ORR Womens Flyer1

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Onion River Racing is a USA Cycling registered club dedicated to promoting bicycle racing and cycling as a healthy and environmentally sustainable lifestyle in Vermont. Over several years, our club has grown to include more than thirty competitive athletes who train and travel regionally and internationally to compete. We are an outgrowth of a cycling team supported by Onion River Sports, a sporting goods supplier in Montpelier, VT which sponsored the first professional cycling team in the United States in the 1980’s and has provided material support to riders for over three decades.

We are accepting applications from riders of all ages and abilities who seek to participate in our rides, hone their road and offroad skills, and train and/or race with us. Membership in our club is $30. ($15 for Juniors). Club members may order their 2011 ORR clothing through our group order which will be completed in early January 2011.

Membership applications are available the “Join Us” page:

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The Confluence Gym is holding informal indoor team trainer rides for club members on Tuesday Nights 7-9 Pm at the Confluence Gym in Montpelier. We usually watch a movie and ride on the Confluence cyclops trainers or bring our own torture devices and bikes of course.

The Confluence has an Indoor Cycling Center with professional coaching, power testing and power based workouts offered on a daily basis please see: http://www.theconfluencevt.org/indoor_cycling

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This September I got myself invited to race in Trinidad and Tobago at the Tobago International Cycling Classic. The stage race attracts European and American racers looking to finish up their seasons with some hard racing and fun on the beach. As a warm-up for Tobago , I arrived a week early and joined New York City’s Foundation Team for the Newsday Classic Criterium and the San Fernando Stage Race. Although we didn’t get in much good training in Trinidad, if was a nice introduction to Trinidadian culture, and I got some hard chasing in at the front of Newsday classic, a flat 50 km criterium oval in downtown Port of Spain. I was 10th in the field spring there and 10th at the Criterium Stage of the San Fernando Stage Race in the spookiest, rainiest and craziest race I have ever done – which started at 8:30 PM under streetlights!

At the main event, the five-day Tobago International Cycling Classic, I was a member of Team Quebec, organized by Chris Atkins from Toronto. My teamates were Joe Lewis from Minneapolis, who I knew from Superweek, Andre tremblay from Val D’Or Quebec, and several other young Canadians. With its’ oppressive 100+ degree heat racing in Tobago can be brutal. The Tobago race features several monstrously hilly stages. This year, the Classic attracted ten international elite and professional teams with riders from Germany, Austria, the US, Canada, the UK and the top teams from the Caribbean nations. There was one Continental Pro team in our race from the UK, Rapha Condor. Despite having not ridden international races in a long time, I was in decent form and OK for most of the race. On Stage III, I barely missing the lead group of pros on the last lap and finished in the top 25. On the final “Queen” stage, I stopped to avoid an early crash on the first big climb, and never really regained my rhythm or contact with the field, because I got scared on a really hairy descent – where we were careening through villages and looking over precipices at 50 mph. I subsequently spent four hours in a laughing pack of caribbean and european riders who held onto team cars to avoid riding up every climb. I tried to ride the whole way on my own steam and was really suffering to keep up with these jokers. It was the toughest road course I have ever done. All in all these races were a great introduction to the Caribbean cycling culture, and a fun way to make contacts for exotic racing around the world. Cycling is indeed becoming a global sport!

More information about the trip is on my blog: jmcgill2.wordpress.com.

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Andrew takes the lead and holds it for the stage and overall GC.

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ORR’s McCullough and McGill joined Quebec’s Equipe Cycliste Gaspesien in North American’s oldest and longest classic road race , Montreal – Quebec.  We were reasonably well prepared for this euro style point-to-point race which attracts the best elite riders from Ontario, Quebec and New England, having logged several 6-7 hour rides in the previous weeks.  Our job was to contribute to the Gaspesien team effort by riding near the front and chasing breakaways and making sure that our designated team leaders where in contention for the finale as the race unfolded in the last 40 kilometers.

Andrew rode cooly and confidently despite it being his first major Elite race.  After 120 km a large hill after the Gabelle Dam split the field and Andrew drove hard this lead group (he is about sixth in line with a yellow and orange jersey, black shorts and white shoes in the photo of riders making a left turn across a bridge). The break lasted for 15 km but was gobbled up when the road straightened and flattened out and the chasing groups could see how close the break was.   The pace went up above 50 kmh on several of the narrow, bumpy and winding stretches before the Gabelle dam and also after it.

During a lull at about the 140-150 km mark, a major  break rolled away and was not chased in earnest until their lead went up to 3 minutes with 60-70 km to go.  At this point, the Garneau team decided it wanted to bring Aurelien Passeron, their French star, back into contention and strung the field out single file in a crosswind for several long intervals.

Only about 80-90 of the 150 starters were able to survive the brutal distance,  the single file racing in some sections  and the final push over the Donnaconna hills. Andrew and I were beginning to suffer from dehydration despite being able to go back to the cars and get some water. I had trouble getting back into the pack from the caravan and soon become thirsty again and began to panic – when  i thought we had passed the second feedzone and I started dialing Laury on my cellphone, she told me she was waiting in the second feedzone and that the peloton was still 30 km away. This reassured me. The Gaspesien team started driving the pace hard in order to reel in the break and soon we were in the final feedzone. I got one bottle of powerade from Laury and Andrew got a musette from Laury with one water and orange juice bottle and a can of “Slimfast” destined for me – Laury had expected that there would be somebody from Gaspesien in the feedzones, with bottles for feeding, because she had not prepared anything.  Soon after the feedzone we hit the Donnaconna hil and the Slimfast was making its’ way back up from my stomach to my mouth, I made it over the hill because all the attacks over the top were reeled in and began to feel more confident that I could finish. Unfortunately, I think we were both getting dehydrated again, and I began to wish for some coke or another caffeinated sugary liquid to revive me.  Teams were being fed from the road by supporters  in random places along the route because the pace was to high to go back to the caravan and get liquid.  I don’t know what the other riders were getting in their bottles? Maybe something stronger…

The race finishes on a criterium circuit around the Louis Garnaeau factory after climbing a short steep wall from the St. Lawrence River to the escarpment above it. Both Andrew and I were in mid-pack positions coming into the hill and were not well positioned to responded to the accelerations at the very front which launched a winning move of 20-30 riders who blasted the peloton apart up the final wall. Initially we were both chasing only 30-40 meters in arears until the group hit the false flat and pulled out of our reach. Andrew lead the second chase group through much of the criterium lap and initiated the final sprint in the last 200 meters, when several guys started to come around him in the final 50 meters,  I sped up a little and was able to throw my bike to win the group sprint for 30th while Andrew was 34th. Although disapointed to have so narrowly missed the winning move, we were consoled at being the third and fourth US finishers in a field which of 150 riders. Our team had two riders in the top 10 and 6 in the top 50 so the race was a success for them. The race winner was Aurelien Passeron riding for Garneau CLub Chassures, a former French Espoir Road Champion and Tour de France professional from the Saunier Duval squad who is rumoured to have been mixed up in the Ricco affair which saw that team ejected from the Tour. For results see:  http://www.tourdebeauce.com/images/stories/Classique2010-08-15.pdf

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My adventure began on August 7th on a cheap AirTransat flight from Montreal to Nantes.  After an easy train connection to Lorient, I  was met by my gracious hosts at the bar run by the organizers of the Velo Club du Pays Lorient (VCPL), a successful local amateur squad.  The team director, Monsieur Trehin had arranged for me to stay for free in the unoccupied team clubhouse apartments – where I could sleep, and cook for myself.  I was  flabbergasted by this generousity.

VELOCITY CHALLENGED
Adapting to the higher wattage euro racing again after some time off was tough.  My only peloton miles beforehand were a couple hours in the Montreal-Quebec Classic before I crashed. Despite adequate base, the lack of speedwork and race legs showed:  Although  the day after I arrived, I survived a 90 km criterium for Category II-IIIs and finished an Elite level 100 km race in the remnants of the peloton on the third day, I generally lacked the speed to survive at the front in the normal cycle of attacks and single file echelons encountered here.  Because the VCPL team was preoccupied with stage races elsewhere, I usually rode considerable distances to each race by myself. This was great training and nice sightseeing but tough for getting results.  At the races, I  soon gained a reputation as some strange “touriste” who showed up at races on bike with a big backpack, camera and roadmaps.

There were some fantastic touring moments in the rustic Morbihan and Finistere  regions , but my racing never really hit its stride.   There is no excuse except old age for getting dropped in three elite road races  and only finishing one.  I did  finish three out of four 90 km Cat II-III criteriums that I entered, I was more or less just hanging on for dear life, except for an easier one in Southern France, where I got off the front for most of the last lap until I was swallowed by chasers, 200 meters from the line.   In Brittany, if you don’t attack out the peloton and into the breaks or chase groups, usually the peloton will eventually be a receptacle for the weaker riders and it will give up, and you will thus become  part of the laughing pack.  If I dared to race again in Brittany I would prepare the same way I would for Belgium with strong doses of one, three and five minute intervals and motorpacing. Climbing App Gap just doesn’t help for this stuff.

French races are often  held on unbelievably narrow and  hilly but well paved circuits which were almost always completely closed to the car traffic, well marshaled and much safer than in the US – also because the skill level of French riders is higher than chez nous.  French road circuits are fairly turny and often only 4 or 10 kilometers long so they almost feel like the criteriums. On the other hand, the criteriums I encountered had longer 2Km + circuits with little hills,  and were at minimum 80 kilometers long- making them less much more like road races.

FRANCE VS. BELGIUM: WHICH HAS A BETTER RACING?
I’d recommend Brittany over Belgium to any aspiring racer with an entire summer or spring to invest in racing. The cost are about the same: once you get over their its’ really much cheaper than racing in the US because the teams in France will host you and take you to races which cost about $8 to race in. Breton races have more hills, less wind, and the speeds are steadier than Belgium, and the riders are possibly less juiced up- although local races do not seem to have dope controls at all.  On the other hand, Belgium would still be my pick for anybody who wants a race quick fix in 21 days or less because, you can race any day of the week there and usually locate yourself where it is easy to ride your bike to races and thus avoid needing a car.  Below are some photos and links to race vids (posted on YouTube)

VIDEO LINKS:

Cornering  in Concarneau

Cherves – Race Scene

Hilly race near Poitiers

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