Mark Alden at Tokeneke

Tokeneke RR 8/9/09 Masters 35+

For years I have had a bit of a love hate relationship with Tokeneke. It is one of the nicest races in the northeast. The course is beautiful and challenging with great views by the dam at the southern end and tough climbs and blistering descents throughout. Being one of the few races in the area that finishes with a climb the race is well suited to me. Yet I have always been a bit bummed to finish repeatedly somewhere around 6th place. Well that all changed this time around and I finally won the damn thing.

The first lap was pretty much done at a mellow group ride pace since most of the guys were probably worried about doing 66 miles on such a hard course. About halfway through the 2nd lap I countered a move by my teammate David Taylor (our 1-2 punch combo was in full effect) and several good riders went with me (Ed Angeli/Target Training, Erin Korff/Axis, Rob Lattanzi/Westwood). We joined up with 2 guys who had been hovering a few seconds in front (I might have their identities wrong but I think it was Doug Thompson/Keltic and Peter Petrillo/CVC Subaru). Angeli was keeping the pace high on the start finish climb and Korff was pulling strongly on the rollers. By the time we reached the registration area our gap looked promising. However, the break was not so cohesive and we were missing representation from corner cycles so I didn’t work it too hard. Like a bad omen the rain started to fall and our break was coming unraveled. We were eventually caught by the dam. The rest of the race would be ridden in dreary misty conditions – and I loved it. Once we were reeled in I focused on recovery. I downed a bunch of gels and waited for wheels to follow as the relentless attacks persisted until the start of the finishing climb.

Going into the climb what was left of the field was all together (about 20-25 guys). About halfway up a few guys stepped up the pace and the group was reduced to about 15. David Taylor said to get on his wheel and when the finish line was in sight he accelerated drawing me out of the fanned out group. I jumped hard and immediately got a good gap. I was so far ahead that I was able to sit up and cross the line with a few good fist pumps.

An extra thanks has to go to my teammate David for laying on the line for me. His help gave me a tremendous amount of confidence. I also would like to thank the promoters for continuing to put on this great race. It was well run and everyone involved was extremely nice. I also like that they added a podium this year – even though they made me wear a ridiculous looking pink foam whale hat.