Nancy Morgenstern Memorial 9/13/09 masters 40+

Mark Alden

When Mike Green announced the new finish at the top of the Lake Welch climb for Bear MTN a while back a smile came across my face. With the way I have been climbing and sprinting this year I knew that this would be my best chance ever to get a win in this race.

About 50 of us set out onto the course and proceeded to ride the first lap at a pretty mellow tempo. It was nice to start off easy and soak in the beautiful terrain and weather. It was also nice to not have to breathe in the smell of burning carbon and brake pads on the old neutral start down the hill. At some point on the first lap Eutimio Quintero (Foundation) and Todd Cassan (Westwood) and maybe another rider or 2 were up the road but it was pretty early and the situation seemed under control. I decided to test the waters by attacking up and over the false flat just after the Kanawauke circle near the end of the first lap. I accelerated out of the saddle at about 28-29mph up the hill with Troy Kimball (Westwood) and Max Lippolis (Target Training) on my wheel. We traded a few pulls over the top but the field was not ready to let anything serious go so early and brought us back into the fold pretty quickly.

The second time up Tiorati teammate David Taylor attacked hard on the steepest part of the climb. The field started to unravel and about 15 of us crested the top ahead of the pack. With most of the heavy hitters present it seemed like this split might stick. Westwood had the numbers with Troy, Rob Lattanzi, and Todd Cassan all present. We had myself and David Taylor. Unfortunately most of the group was along for the ride with only a few willing to put in the effort needed to stay away. Lattanzi put in an impressively fast pull that lasted for almost the entire length of Seven Lakes Drive. Max Lippolis was also contributing but it wasn’t enough and things came back together near the start area.

The third time up Tiorati David attacked the steep part of the climb again. This time the field blew up for good into groups of ten or so and we came over the top with about 10 guys. All the Westwood guys were there so it looked like it might be a bit of a Westwood – BlueRibbon showdown. Also present were Max Lippolis and Kurt Gustafsson (Axis) – both guys to watch. Todd Cassan launched repeatedly off the front to either get away or to force me and David to chase. I had to put in a few efforts to close down some gaps but I never really felt like I was overextending myself. David attacked several times forcing the others to respond while I jumped on their wheels.

As the finished approached it looked like the group would hit the climb together. Kurt Gustafsson had other ideas however and put in what I would say was the gutsiest move of the race. He attacked just after Kanawauke circle while the rest of us watched each other. He was smartly playing off of the BR – Westwood infighting. Fortunately Lattanzi went to the front and drilled it going into the base of the climb keeping Kurt within striking distance. Going up the climb we were fanned out across the road with Kurt a few second ahead. I didn’t want Max or Troy to be able to use their fast field sprinting abilities so I jumped very early and could immediately sense that I had the win. I was able to back off a little as I came to the line with Max just behind me in 2nd and David making it a great day for BlueRibbon by taking 3rd. Overall the race was deceptively hard. Our lap times were pretty slow but didn’t reflect the fact that we were either going full tilt with attack after attack or we were crawling. Basically it amounted to 56 miles of intervals and my legs are still sore two days later. Even two back to back 70+ mile days in the cat 2 race at GMSR didn’t hurt me like that.

Back at the parking lot we had a nice podium ceremony. Nancy’s brother Jeffrey was there along with her good friend Tara Parsons to present the stylish blue jersey with Nancy’s name on it. I told Nancy’s brother and Tara that winning this race was a pretty moving experience for me because my mom was in tower2 when it was attacked. She was fortunately not in her office on the 75th floor when the plane hit the building. She was in the elevator around the 45th floor. A shockwave came down the elevator shaft and knocked everyone off their feet. They managed to get out of the elevator and walk down to the subway and came out onto the street a few blocks away – she never saw the devastation outside. Most of her co-workers who were still on the 75th floor when the plane hit lost their lives. I was actually thinking about the events of that tragic day during the race. In some small way those thoughts gave me some incentive to win – my mom who loves riding her bike is going to look great wearing that pale blue jersey with Nancy’s name on it.