Sponsors and Friends,

The team continued to motor along through the month of August. As most teams were beginning to show signs of burnout, we were just starting to fire on all cylinders.

August saw the return of Josh Dillon to racing. After being out with a broken ankle for 4 months, Josh won the Cat 3 Green Mountain Stage Race! What made this victory even more impressive was that Josh had only been on his road bike for 3 weeks!

With the GMSR now over, the season begins to wind down. Josh, Mat, and Damon are planning on doing some cycle cross racing while the rest of the team members will be resting up and recharging their batteries. As the racing season comes to a close, "Sponsorship Season" begins! Over the next three months, the team will be working hard on recruiting new sponsors and riders. Look for an update in our Fall newsletter.

Andrew Knight
Team Director, Louis Garneau Racing

Top Results:

August 10, Bow Road Race    full results
Dan Cassidy 5th (Pro/1/2)
Ian Beilby 7th (Pro/1/2)
Andrew Knight 12th (Pro/1/2)
Damon Parke 2nd (Cat 3)

August 16, Mt. Washington Hill Climb   photos | full results
Andrew Knight 3rd

August 24, SMCC Crit   full results
Damon Parke 6th (Cat 3)

August 25th SMCC Road Race   full results
Damon Parke 5th (Cat 3)

August 29th - September 1st, Green Mountain Stage Race   photos | full results
Josh Dillon 1st GC, 4th Prologue, 2nd RR, 2nd Crit (Cat 3)
Bill Dillon 13th GC (Cat 3)
Andrew Knight 20th GC, 10th Prologue (Pro/1/2)
Ian Beilby 14th Prologue (Pro/1/2)

Ride Reports:

Green Mountain Stage Race (Cat 3), August 29-September 1  photos | full results
by Josh Dillon

Cycling is a team sport, and during the 4 day stage race in the Green Mountains of Vermont over the Labor Day weekend, there was no stronger team than Louis Garneau Racing. From 3 hours prior to the starting gun of the Prologue until Dick Ring turned off his microphone and music Monday evening, the Cat 3 squad of Bill, Damon, and Josh carefully calculated and executed every move together. Every meal, every drive, and every ride was done as a team with one focus in mind...the General Classification victory.

Friday's Prologue provided a stage of epic proportions as the starting gun went off and the skies opened up with a torrential downpour of rain. A couple miles down the road awaited the eastern ascent of the Appalachian Gap, now augmented with shallow rivers flowing down its switchbacks and across its tarmac. When the peloton made the turn to begin the climb, the pace picked up and the 2003 Green Mountain Stage Race was underway. The truth that hill climbs often reveal is beautiful; as a climb carries on, the lead group continues to dwindle in size until the summit is reached and there is only 1 man standing. But with the strength of the field and the freshness of the athletes’ legs, the lead group was not breaking down and Josh decided to change the complexion of the race with an attack at 3 km to go. A small lead was opened up that looked like it could be a winner. However, at 500 meters to the summit, a group of 3 strong climbers swallowed him up and put Louis Garneau Racing 4th going into Stage 1. Bill and Damon climbed to 21st and 41st finishes, but their best riding was still to come.

Louis Garneau Racing exemplified the importance of team tactics over the course of the entire weekend, especially in Stages 1 and 2. The race NEVER proceeded without representation of the red and black jerseys of a Louis Garneau racer. The point scoring system emphasized the need for pulling in all breaks since bonus points were available for moving up in the standings. So Damon and Bill road exceptionally to reel in all attacks and give strong lead-outs to Josh for the bonus points on the road. During Stage 1, there was a crash at the first bonus sprint point taking down Bill, who spent the next lap (20 miles) chasing back onto the peloton. Upon returning to the pack, he proceeded straight to the front to assist Damon with the race control and then to join the lead-outs for the following sprint points. It was that type of selfless commitment that left Josh poised after 2 days to make an attack on the GC on Sunday's Stage 2, the Mad River Road Course that features the western ascent of the Appalachian Gap for the finish. From the start Sunday, Damon moved immediately to the front of the peloton to continue the Louis Garneau control of the race. He successfully held the peloton together all the way to the first major climb of the day, the Middlebury Gap, allowing Josh to conserve energy safely protected near the front of the peloton. After the descent into East Middlebury, Bill and Damon picked up the pace, making and effectively regulating the race such that at the base of the final ascent of the day, the peloton was 30 strong with one of them a relatively fresh Josh. This time, the beauty of a hill climb moved Louis Garneau Racing into 2nd on the GC and only 4 small points behind.

For all of the countless hours spent alone training, preparing, and suffering on a bike for the chance to glimpse the glory of victory, it is amazing how much of the actual competition is the result of a team effort. By Monday's Stage 3, the downtown Burlington Criterium, the team had put forth a winning effort. Imagine every rider in the peloton had a watt-meter on their bike, and at the end of the race the power produced on the day was recorded to determine the rider's place; then Bill and Damon would have been first and second on the GC by an unassailable margin. Needless to say, they deserved the yet unfulfilled promise of the yellow jersey in their team camp and Josh knew he had to deliver in Stage 3. From the gun Josh went to the front of the peloton, never to ride lower than 10 deep and contested all 3 sprint point bonuses on the day. There was, however, a sprinter's competition still being played out on the streets of Burlington and the strongest sprinters were grabbing all but 1 point, leaving the margin still 3 points going into the finish. With less than a lap to go, Josh grabbed a hold of the wheel of the winning move to pull down 2nd on the day and take the general classification lead.

Cycling is indeed a team sport, and the team of Louis Garneau Racing won the 2003 Green Mountain Stage Race.

Green Mountain Stage Race (Pro/1/2), August 29-September 1   photos | full results
by Andrew Knight

The pro/1/2 squad did not have luck on its side this weekend. Things started to go downhill from the moment I pulled into the parking lot. I pulled in next to Dan and things did not look good. It turned out that Dan came down with a fever/sore throat Thursday night and he was really sick. He ended up riding on Friday, but was forced to pull out of the race before the start of the circuit race on Saturday. Although we lost Dan, Ted King joined the team for his first race after breaking his collarbone in June. Ted rode well all weekend, especially considering it was his first Pro/1/2 race. We are looking forward to having Ted for a full season next year!

Friday's Prologue:
I had a little excitement in the first mile when my rear Zipp hub suddenly stopped engaging! I pulled over quickly and got a wheel change from the Mavic support cars. Luckily, the race was a neutral start for the first 3 miles, so I was able to get back on with out too much trouble. Just as the neutral start was coming to an end, the skies opened up and it started to pour with rain. Simultaneously, the guys at the front of the peloton dropped the hammer and we were flying up the road. As we hit the climb, people started getting blown off the back. I quickly found Ian's wheel and he paced me up the lower slopes of the climb. With about a mile to go, I started to gain some ground on the leaders. A final kick to the line got me 10th and Ian was just behind me in 14th.

Saturday's Circuit Race:
The circuit race was pretty uneventful for us. Ian and I were both looking for it to end in a sprint finish so that Sunday's big climbing stage would be even more important. Everything went according to plan. A group of 5 guys got off the front, but the rest of the peloton, including Ian, Ted, and I finished together and received the same number of points. Ian and I both lost 2 places from people getting sprint points, but we were positioned perfectly going into Sunday's Road Race

Sunday's Road Race:
Ian and I were hoping for the race to stay together over Middlebury Gap and then for us to attack at the base of App Gap. Things were going perfectly- a 6 man break had gone up the road before Middlebury Gap, but by the time we had finished the descent, the peloton had all come back together. As the race headed into Bristol there was a 2 mile section of dirt road. About a hundred yards before the dirt section started, I got a rear flat tire! I got a wheel quickly from Mavic and I chased like crazy along the dirt section. Just as I made it back on to the peloton and just as the dirt section is ended, I got another rear flat!!! I chased again like crazy to get back on, but I never got closer than about a minute. While I was having my second rear flat, Ian was having his own problems. Heading into Bristol, a guy in front of him dropped his chain and all of a sudden Ian hit the deck. It was a low speed crash, but at the speed the peloton was going, Ian was unable to get back on. I caught up to Ian and we ended up riding the rest of the course together to the finish. With both of us not scoring any points, I dropped to 25th and Ian dropped to 32nd. A very disappointing day!

Monday's Criterium.
This race was fast right from the gun. After only a few laps, people were getting dropped. Ian and I were hanging in there until 7 laps to go when there was a huge 15 person pileup in turn 1 that took Ian down. I got caught behind it, but managed to skid into it and stay upright. I ran back to the pit to take my free lap, but unfortunately Ian was unable to finish. I finished with the peloton and ended up 20th in GC.

Overall, it was not the kind of weekend the 1/2 squad had hoped for, but Josh, Damon and Bill made up for our disappointing weekend with a fantastic win in the 3's.