This year’s Harriman Cat 4 race was extraordinary for many reasons. A long, tough race filled with climbing, it ended in a seven up downhill sprint–a seemingly capricious finale. For Alex Gulla, it proved he was a powerhouse climber, even though some had ruled him out with calculations based on assumptions about his power to weight ratio. For Michael Sherry, it was a welcome breakout from an injury plagued early season. Jason Beerman went from independent rider to hot commodity, to be picked up by Hell’s Kitchen soon afterwards. And Tom Bencivengo’s ride cemented Hell’s Kitchen’s place as a team to be reckoned with. All would upgrade before the end of the year, and all would ride strongly as 3’s.

But what really made the race unique was Marco Quezada’s photos (gallery 1 and 2). Shooting from the back of a moto, Marco snapped away for the whole last lap, climbing off in time to document the finishing sprint. He showed the race in such detail one couldn’t help but wonder what was going on behind those masks of pain and intensity. NYVC contacted the protagonists of the race and got their stories, from Jaime Garcia, who made an early break, Justin Reid, who won the pack sprint, and Michael Sherry, Tom Bencivengo, Jason Beerman, and Blake Longacre, who made the final selection.

Lap One:

JR: Blake scares the shit out of 1/2 the Cat 4 by descending at 45+mph in the rain with his hands off the bars–mental note to self–don’t get on his wheel on any descents.

@##=#<3,L>@##=#MS: Nerves still a little jittery on the first (neutral) descent. I think I flame broiled my carbon rims a bit and used about $20 worth of brake pad. We hit the first climb and the race is on. To start the trend, Blake and Alex make the pace up the climb. When we get near the top Jaime and another rider get away. Thank God I don’t have to work yet. I’m still frozen from the delayed start.

JG: The other rider attacked right after the final rise. I bridged and we caught the remnants of the masters field that was trying to bridge back up to their group just before the roundabout. We kept pushing to get away from the masters and the pace vehicle eventually forced the masters off our wheel. A third rider bridged just as we were turning right onto the rise heading toward the feed. The pack was about 20 yards off our wheels at this point and I chose to reintegrate to recover. We were caught before the feed.

JR: I get a flat along the top and have to do a quick wheel change. Get back on without too much trouble. Catch a bunch of masters riders–time to shed the leg warmers–with a nice push from George Suter–no problem.

BL: The race in Harriman was on my mind for many days and rides and months before the day arrived. Most of my climbing in Malibu was spent dreaming of how I would simply dance away from the rest of the field on the first time up the hill. And although I knew that such a strategy would never work, in the back of my mind, even up until the moment it was happening, I thought that I would be better suited in the race to stay at the front. And so I did, and subsequently pushed the pace quite a bit in the beginning stages of the races, as did Justin Reid.

Lap Two:

@##=#<4,R>@##=#MS: Blake and Alex make the pace up the climb again and a few more riders are shed. ML is a little excited and we wanted to force more of a selection since the pack still seemed super sized. Blake, Tony and I push the pace up Seven Lakes, and Tony slips away solo. This was not by design, Tony just took a hard pull and rolled off the front. I wasn’t going to match the pace nor was Blake and Tony was happy to enjoy the descent alone.

JR: This climb was a bit uncomfortable considering I see myself as a climber! There also seems to be an awful lot of bodies still around–was rather hoping it would be down to about 15-20 by now. Worried by how well Sherry and Blake are riding.

JG: I was just trying to recover after the first lap, but I kept getting gapped on the last part of the climb and having to work to catch back up. I rode with Will Alvarado (Toga) and Ted Neu (VB) and we bridged back up.

Lap Three:

@##=#<1,L>@##=#MS: Tony is caught at the bottom of the descent, the pace steadies, and Gulla and Blake assume their positions at the front. It was nice to not have to worry about any breaks slipping away on the climbs with the tempo these two were setting.

JR: Catch and drop another pack of Masters Riders including Tiger and JT–hhhmmm maybe we’re not dawdling after all.

JG: Same scenario, but this time Will and Ted could not hang on. I bridged on my own with the help of a support vehicle.

(Ed.’s note: Jaime was dropped on the initial climb in his first attempt at Harriman. He hung on for three laps this time, fighting his way through the field to deliver one last bottle to Michael Sherry before letting the field go.)

Lap Four:

MS: Showtime! It looks like some guys just woke up. Everyone wants to be first through the hairpin. Alex underestimates the speed for the turn and goes into the grass. Tom gets a gap as soon as the road goes up. For one last time, Blake and Alex set the pace to bring him back. The pack becomes severely strung out on the climb, with gaps opening and closing all over the place until the elastic finally snaps. Only seven make it over the top together. Alex attacks on the very first flat but Blake, Huppert and I take turns closing. With Gulla settled, Blake organizes the group into a paceline to make sure no stragglers have a chance to get back on.

JR: Don’t feel as though I’m climbing any slower than previous laps but “ooops there’s a gap–and nope my legs aren’t responding”. Think that if I can just get over this climb we can get a group together to work well along the top we may bring back the spurting climbers. Reach the top–thank god–nice pack of 6-8 or so–a quick show of hands and we all agree to take pulls to try and bring it back–only problem is they are long gone.

@##=#<2,R>@##=#BL: I was feeling comfortable the entire race really until the last time up, when I needed to be a bit more stealthy and rational and, more than anything, totally exploit my greatest asset–climbing. 20/20 hindsight is perfect, but if I had to race that race again, and I hope to one day do so, I would, somewhere near the top of the climb, a good distance before the lake, take off hard, real hard, so only Alex and maybe one other could join on. As long as the man who was really doing the pacing up the hill on the last go around (Gulla) was with us, I think that he could’ve driven the pace hard enough to stay away until the line. And then I would’ve been happy to give him the win. I was feeling, once the break of seven was established, that he was clearly the strongest, and would push as hard as anyone else. The point is the selection would’ve been smaller, but it would’ve meant attacking Mike, and plus I was getting winded and didn’t know if I had it in me. So with the break established, I began scheming about how two Merrill guys would end up with a first and sixth place, rather than a third and fifth place.

JB: Judging from the previous three trips up the main climb, I knew I was strong enough to stay with the lead group up the climb after the hairpin. This was my first race with a substantial climb and, heading into it, I had been unsure what my racing strengths were so this was elucidating, especially in the immediate context of the race. Once we crested the top of the climb and formed the paceline, I did my pulls and tried to ascertain how everyone else was feeling. I didn’t know any of the guys in the group at that time, so it was a pure guessing game. At the top of the long, highway climb, I considered attacking through the feed zone, but I decided to play it conservatively and leave it to a sprint. I have since learned that my sprint is somewhat lacking as I came off Tom’s wheel too early and caught a stiff breeze on the downhill finish. I thought I had eked out third, but Mike pipped me at the line. It’s funny: since that day, I’ve joined Tom on Hell’s Kitchen and we’ve raced all over the northeast with Mike and Alex and I always think of Bear Mountain and how it set the tone for the whole season for all four of us.

MS: On the last little climb Tom puts in an acceleration, to be chased down by Alex, Blake, and I. Alex tries to get away on the flats but it settles into a sprint. Alex is initially first, Tom second, I’m third until I let Blake in to ride leadout. Tom comes around Alex for the win. Jason Beerman is second for a while on the far right, but fades to fourth. I come out of Tom’s draft too late (it kills me to see those pics!) to take third. Justin takes the field sprint, picking through a bunch of masters. It was a well deserved win for Tom and Alex was a workhorse and is always tough to contain. This was only my second time racing against him and all the hype was true. I was satisfied with the result considering how much I suffered (once again, see the pics) to get it but can’t help thinking that with the numbers in our favor there was no excuse for not taking home a win.

JR: Hats off to Tom (big surprise to me), standard balls-out performance by Alex, but again impressed by the ML guys Mike and Blake who climbed superbly. Last 1/2 lap made more entertaining and bearable by Tony Falk’s observations on life, the universe, and everything. Can’t remember what they were but do remember they were funny.

BL: Things were relatively calm into the last rise and rollers on the back. The Gulla just sat at the front and seemed content to do so. Coming down past the feed for the last time, I managed to slip into third position, right behind Tom from Hell’s Kitchen and Gulla, I think Mike was right behind me. I was satisfied to give him a lead out as we had designated. But what can I say? The speed picked up on that long downhill, and I couldn’t get any more speed by standing up and stomping on the pedals. I managed a bit, but only enough to come side by side with Tom, who yelled and that sparked Gulla and the sprint was off. I muttered some apology to Mike as all body functions begged for mercy… I had said no many times before, but one can only go to the well so often. I felt all in all very disappointed with myself, but it was my first time to the Bear. So much of what we do is experience.

TB: My plan was to attack every ascent of the final lap and try and put the hurt on as many people as I could (mainly Alex) to stretch the field. I attacked right after the hairpin straight into the ascent as hard as I could. I got reeled in by the “crew” (led by Alex I believe) somewhere in the middle and jumped in line. I made another small attack towards the top of the climb which I nearly did not recover from in time to hang on to the rear. Around the circle and back into the draft I went. With the field no longer a concern we settled into a bit of a groove and I tried my hardest to stay quiet and conserve until the next climb. Alex made a couple of attempts but we all responded. I made another attempt into the gentle climb and took off, again to be reeled in by the gang towards the top. We all played around position-wise for a moment at which point I grabbed Gulla’s wheel and prayed he would try and pull off the front straight to the line. Came over the rise, saw the finish, legs felt good, came around Alex’s left screaming like a banshee and took the win. Fun race.

L to R: Beerman, Gulla, Bencivengo, Sherry, and Longacre. Photo courtesy Marco Quezada.

Postscript:

We heard that Tom had called the win in advance, so we asked him some follow-up questions.

NYVC: Was it true you told Leo you were going to Harriman to win? Way to call it.

Can you talk about your pre season prep going into the race? Why were you so confident?

Were you at all concerned that ML had two guys in the finale? Did you try to pre-empt their attacks by going first, or were you planning on attacking every rise anyways? Did you envision soloing for the win instead of sprinting? Are you normally a strong sprinter?

TB: I did in fact call the win way in advance. A little bit of bold luck I guess. I just knew it was my kind of race, being a hills-and-distance guy rather than a speed guy. The funny thing is that I didn’t know I was actually going to race until a half hour before because I was on the wait list. Thank god for the shitty weather.

My plan from the start was to attack first on all the ascents of the last lap. Make them chase and hopefully wear themselves out. To be honest, by the time the finish was in sight I felt great because I really didn’t do any work until the last lap. My all out sprint sucks, but it improves along with the mileage, and I could tell everyone was hurting just to hang on (which is definitely evident in the photo). I was worried about the ML guys along with everyone else. All I wanted was to win. In terms of prep I just did miles mixed in with hill repeats on river road. That’s it. A solo win would have been nice, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen with Gulla in the mix.