by Craig Cook

Our story starts at the end: the post-Junior-race ritual known as “roll-out”. This is where junior gear restrictions are checked. A junior is permitted a maximum gear that corresponds roughly to a 52-14. So after every race, in the vicinity of the finish line, there is an area cordoned off for this purpose. Two bits of tape placed 26 feet apart and an often-surly USCF official are the arbiters of the roll-out. The bike is placed in its highest gear -the pedals squared at 6 and 12 o’clock- and rolled backwards.

@##=#<2,L>@##=#The cool thing about roll-out is that it creates a moment after every race when all the competitors who think they are “in the money” converge. If you win or place and then disappear for even a minute, you are automatically suspected of running behind a bush and changing your rear wheel. So, still heaving and exhausted, the juniors line up to await their turn. At races like Jiminy Peak most of the racers are horizontal, stretched out on the ground waiting for heart rates to dip below 200 bpm. This weekend after the pancake-flat criterium at the Can-Am U19 Challenge in Augusta NJ, the ambiance at roll-out was a bit more boisterous, almost jovial.

Except for CRCA Junior Development’s Lewis Almonte.

“Homeboy over there decided to move in on me.” Lew told me, gesticulating over his shoulder at a rider well within ear-shot. Little Lew -our ace-in-the-hole- got taken into the curb in the last lap of Saturday’s Skylands Park Criterium. He held it up and yanked himself back into contention, but the momentum lost cost him the win. He could only watch as New York City’s other racing prodigy Filip Capala, took the win. Lewis would cross the line in 12th place on the stage.

The day started with huge promise. A five-mile uphill time trial placed CRCA Junior Development’s three competitors in the top 20 in their respective events. Juniors from all over the East coast and Canada flock to the hilly northwest corner of New Jersey for this three-stage race, but due to the convergence of various teen-age academic rituals (final exams, proms, etc.) CRCA Junior Development fielded only half a team. Backing Lew in the fifty-strong 15-16 year-old peloton was Ryan Storm, riding his first race for CRCA. Pascual Caputi was doing solo duty in the 17-18 age group.

Lew was our first rider off, he would complete the time trial course in 15’58”, eighth in his age group. Ryan took 19th in 17’02”. In the Colorado ski-racing academy where he spent the last academic year everyone knows him as Storm, and so it will be in bike racing: the kid rode his first bike race of the season two weeks ago at Colt’s Neck and is already making an impression.

Pascual Caputi had an ignominious start to an ill-fated weekend. Due to a registration error the quiet Venezuelan was given the last starting spot in the TT, taking off behind the 10 to 12 year-old age group. Pascual slalomed through riders half his size to an official time of 15’41”, precisely a minute slower than the time on his computer when he crossed the line. Protesting was not an option as the results were posted over three hours later, minutes before the start of the next stage. Pascual glowered in the car, his feet on the dash – for two hours.

In the 15-16 year-old division the afternoon criterium saw serious mayhem as Storm set a killer pace for the first few laps of the half-mile circuit. The wind was a pack-splitting 25-30mph and Storm’s pace only added to the whiplash at the back of the peloton. After about five laps of this I gave Ryan the textbook “piano, piano” hand signal, to which Ryan responded “they won’t let me get off the front!” Ah youth. Storm is not a lightweight. Physically the kid is a cross between Salvatore Commesso and a young Mike McCarthy. It is clear that he knows how to compete. His time in the morning’s uphill TT was remarkable considering his heft. I expect rapid development from him, there is a motor under there.

In the 17-18 year-old race Pascual Caputi’s doomed weekend continued in the afternoon, as his early aggression came to nothing, and the one successful move came as Pascual was nodding at the back. At 125 pounds Caputi is very much a climber, he may have been the only rider to do the entire uphill TT in the big ring. This flat wind-blown crit was not going to be his race. Nonetheless he finished a respectable 18th in the 42-strong field.

@##=#<1,r>@##=#For Lewis all would be avenged in Sunday’s circuit race. Sporadic rain dampened the 1.5 mile course, making for numerous crashes. A ten rider pile-up took down Lew and stage two winner Capala. Both were quickly back in the thick of things and Lew laid down a brilliant attack with four laps remaining, taking Nathan Larson of Erie, PA with him. The sprint was no contest, Lew took the line with a handful of bike-lengths. Back in the field Storm got caught behind the same crash but bobbled on the rebound and ended up 20 seconds off the back. For almost half the race he chased, mostly solo, picking up and dropping slower riders. On the last lap Storm remarkably reconnected and sprinted in for eighth place.

Race Notes:

Pascual Caputi crashed twice in the rainy 17-18 age group’s circuit race. The second time he was in the winning breakaway. He broke his rear derailleur and his front brake lever/ shifter. He hasn’t ridden his bike since this weekend. If anyone can supply him with these parts (Ultegra 10 ideally) the team would be greatly indebted. We need to get him up and running for Somerville.

Little Juan Pimental took part in the 10-12 year–old race, finishing 9th out of 22. The next generation awaits…

Major thanks to superlative Director Sportif Kurt Hoffman of Metro-Sanchez for taking care of the team this weekend. Thanks also to VisitBritain for funding the trip.

Ian Harris sent me this brief report from his race at Binghampton two weeks ago. Ian is learning the ropes quickly and has found himself a worthy rider to shadow…

“The course was a 1.6 mile, windy circuit with an uphill finish, similar to the first half of Harlem Hill. The Junior field was combined with the 4/5 field and altogether we made up about 50+ riders. For the first 12 of 15 laps I stayed towards the front, marking Filip Capala, the junior who won the Bethel overall, as closely as I could. I sat in the bunch, matching the attacks of the 4/5 riders, none of who were successful in getting away. Every lap I would lose places on the downhill and make them up on the uphill. I had trouble keeping up on the downhills with my junior gears especially with so many guys swerving and rubbing handlebars and with three laps to go I was at the back. On the last lap I carried my speed off the downhill and moved all the way up to about 8th position, right behind Capala. Capala was one of many who I couldn’t keep up with last year in the Can-Am junior race, so I was very pleased to be able stick with him so easily this year. I felt really good coming into the finish, but was blocked out and never really had the chance to sprint. I probably should have followed Capala around the left side, but before the race the director told us that the yellow-line rule is still in effect during the sprint, so I played it safe. Capala crossed the line first and I rolled in for third a little disappointed but still happy to get my first LAJORS points. (I was given second after the second placed junior was DQ’ed for gearing).”