BALLOON FESTIVAL RR – MASTERS 30/40+

CAMBRIDGE NY 6/7/08

MARK ALDEN CRCA/BLUERIBBON-TRANSLATIONS.COM

 

The Cambridge Balloon Festival race was extremely aggressive right from the gun. The field was small but potent with guys like Troy Kimbal, Dan Staffo, Stephan Badger, Max Lippolis and Michael Barton (P12 winner at Hilltowns last year). That combined with the 90 deg. plus heat I knew that we were in for a hard day of racing. Right from the gun most of the marked men were attacking, including a cheeky move by Ciaran Mangan/CCB and few others literally 50m into the race. 

 

About 8 miles in a guy from Westwood had attacked and got the first real gap of the day. When I saw that he seemed to be motoring pretty good I decided to bridge across. It also felt like a good time to go because most of the field seemed a little tired from the constant attacks.

 

When I bridged up to the Westwood guy (Ralph Warmuth) I had no idea who he was and figured that the move would be short lived. However, the dude was motoring and taking crazy long and fast pulls. Then a few miles later 2 others bridged (Paul Wonsavage/Onion River Sports and a guy from Battenkill United). The Guy from Battenkill looked pretty cooked and sure enough was dropped on the feed zone climb. Paul on the other hand was taking very hard long pulls.

 

At first I was a little concerned because these guys were riding so hard that either they were stronger than me or they were overextending themselves and going to implode. It was also a little unsettling that we weren’t getting any time gaps and since the wheel car was not behind us I was worried that our gap was not very big.

 

About halfway through the 2nd lap Ralph was starting to struggle a little on the climbs. I told Paul to back off so we could keep things together. It turned out to be the right decision because Ralph was still taking long hard pulls on the flats. A few miles into the last lap Ralph was having an even harder time on the climbs and Paul started to unravel. With about 15 mi. to go Paul could no longer take any pulls and sat at the back. Even though Ralph was having a hard time on the hills he was still able to take long enough pulls on flat terrain for me to recover and then go to the front for long hard pulls. I was feeling good enough to possibly attack and ride to the finish solo but the 3 of us had worked so hard together it seemed liked the right thing to do was to stay together until the end.

 

Coming into town Ralph put his hand on my shoulder and said that I should cross the line 1st (Paul had express earlier that he was not going to contest the sprint). So I was able to sit up and zip up my jersey and give a very long victory salute across the line.

 

I have to express a strong sense of gratitude to my break partners. Even though Ralph was starting to fade he still pulled as hard as he could. The guy knows how to dig deep. I was very impressed. Even though Paul couldn’t do much towards the end he was a critical part of the break. Like Ralph he wasn’t scared to give it 100%. Without that level of commitment from both of them the move would not have worked.

 

This win meant more to me than any other win that I’ve had. My Dad lived in Cambridge for most of the 90’s. During my visits I used to ride regularly on those roads. Over time I developed a real fondness for the region. My Dad passed away 8 years ago and the race passed the cemetery where he is buried every lap on the run into town. With each passing lap I became more motivated to win the race.