Sponsors and Friends,

Living and training in Vermont can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you have super cold winters that relegate you to the monotony of the indoor trainer and sweaty spin classes, but on the other hand, you have the awesome climbs of Bolton and App Gap to train on in the summer. It is a tough trade off, but in the end the climbs win out over the cold! For most of us in northern New England, the season ramps up a little later on. May is a building month, June things are starting to warm-up, and July and August are the months to shine.

The end of June and the month of July turned out to be a fantastic month for the team! I started things off with a strong time trial at Fitchburg. I have been working on my time trialing a lot this year: Ian from Fitwerx fine tuned my TT position to perfection and I worked on improving the engine. These changes made me go from a time of 18:56 last year to a time of 17:08 this year, only a second back from Saturn's Chris Horner! With a strong time trial I was able to "hold on" to 26th overall and was the 8th amateur rider.

Bill Dillon also had a great Fitchburg race. He finished top 10 in each stage leading to an overall placing of 5th. He also gained enough points to get his cat 3 upgrade! You can read Bill's full race report a little further down the page.

Dan Cassidy has been on fire lately! He showed some great form moving up the rankings each day at Fitchburg to an overall placing of 48th. However, this was only a foreshadow of things to come. While I was doing some reconnaissance training at Mt Washington. Ian and Dan headed down to NY for the Union Vale Road Race. Dan ended up riding everybody off his wheel on the final climb to take the team's 1st Pro/1/2 victory of the year! The full race report is below.

The team is now gearing up for the Green Mountain Stage Race at the end of August. Look for a full GMSR report in our next newsletter.

Andrew Knight
Team Director, Louis Garneau Racing

Team Members Update's

Damon has returned from racing/touring in Europe and is looking forward to getting back into the domestic racing scene.

Dan is racing this week in the 7 day Tour de Toona stage race. He joined forces with Kevin Bouchard-Hall and four members of the Backyard Burgers team. So far Dan has been doing awesome! After 5 stages, he is 25th overall and the 6th armature in a stacked field of pro's.

Ted is on the mend and is back to training full time. The doctors have not yet cleared him for racing, but hopefully he will get the green light to start up again soon.

Josh continues to rehabilitate his ankle and is making steady progress. The surgeon has not removed the screws yet, but Josh is hopeful that those will come out soon.

Top Results:

July 21, Mt Ascutney Hill Climb    full results
Andrew Knight 1st

July 20, Union Vale Road Race   full results
Dan Cassidy 1st (Pro/1/2)
Ian Beilby 14th (Pro/1/2)

June 27-30, Fitchburg Longsjo Classic  photos | full results
Andrew Knight 23rd TT, 26th GC (Pro/1/2)
Dan Cassidy 48th GC (Pro/1/2)
Bill Dillon 5th TT, 2nd CR, 7th RR, 4th Crit, 4th GC

Ride Reports:

Union Vale Road Race - July 20th   full results
by Dan Cassidy
As often as not, races that ultimately go well can seem at points to be going poorly. Also, I'll preface this account with a recommendation that results are often born of serendipity, as when I ignorantly and/or inadvertently form chase groups or breaks. To give you all some idea of what's going through my head during a race, imagine a dog with its head out the window of a moving car, complete with vacant stare and speed drool.

Two laps into the 75 mile race the 6 man, relatively anonymous group that slipped off the front of the field in the first lap had ridden to considerable advantage, and it seemed Ian and I might be racing for seventh.
By the third lap the field was picking up fragments of the break, along with several of the smaller groups that had attempted in desperation to bridge. My legs needed opening up, and I was bored, so I attacked. Within minutes I, along with an Ideal Tile rider, stumbled unexpectedly upon three riders attempting to preserve a fast-closing gap. Our new companions sat on for nearly three laps, but they didn't offer - indeed, they refused - to do any work.

I am an admittedly jittery personality in a break, riding not unlike a horse that has been unexpectedly slapped on the butt. As a result, I inadvertently rode the group off my wheel on four occasions, which detracted from the cohesion that we didn't have to begin with. When, on the final lap, we hit the finishing climb, I though the Wheelworks rider that had been sitting on would smoke me for sure...so I did what I do best, and pulled dumbly at the front of the group like a chicken with its head cut off. Minutes later I heard a frantic "they're coming!," but when I turned around, my riding companions of some 3 laps were several hundred meters down the hill, leaving me to ride alone in search of that lovely white line we'd been pedaling toward all afternoon. Ian rounded off the day's performance with a strong 14th place finish, for two in the top twenty!

Mt Ascutney Hill Climb - July 21st   full results
by Andrew Knight
This past weekend the team headed to Massachusetts for the Tour of the Hilltowns Road Race. It is a straight shot down I91, so I decided to head down a day early and do the Mt Ascutney hill climb on Saturday. It would serve as a good warm-up for both Sunday's race and Mt Washington in a few weeks. I had never done Ascutney, but I figured it could not be any worse than my Mt. Washington ride the week before!

Ascutney is a beast of a climb rising 2200 feet in only 3.7 miles. I went off in the lead group and after the first half mile I had opened up a gap. By the time I got to the first mile marker I was out of sight. I felt good and continued to power up the climb in my 30x25 gearing. I won with a time of 25:43! I found out later on in the day that the record was set last year at 25:29….now I know what to shoot for next year.

Cyclonauts Road Race - June 14th   full results
by Ian Beilby
The Northerners on the team were committed to shmooze with the Louis Garneau sponsors up in Quebec this weekend so I did my part and went down to race in the inaugural edition of the Cyclonauts Road Race. With a huge race on the following day - Housatonic Hills RR, turnout was light in the Pro/1/2 field. 48 of us came out to try this new course, two riders short of the minimum to keep the full prize list and the billed mileage so we ended up racing a sprint distance, 54 miles.

I figured with a relatively short race coming up, someone would be looking to get of the front with the hope of going the distance. As soon as the neutral start ended three riders attacked hard. Three more quickly
followed and I had to make the decision whether to chase, with no warm up worth mentioning, or hope the pack would pull everything back a few miles down the road. I chose the first option and worked like a dog with one other rider on my wheel for next mile to get integrated with the break. At his point there was a good 20 seconds between us and the field and the road was starting to go up hill and get twisty. With a few solid pulls we were out of site from the main field. We never saw them again. The race had quickly turned into an eight man and then a six man, 56 mile TTT. The break worked well together except for one rider who refused to take a single turn at the front, claiming an injury.

Approaching the final mile, which was up hill, we queried the rider whether he would sprint and he replied that he would not since he sat on the entire length of the race. The pace up the climb was very civil with each of us watching one another. With about 250 meters to go, the rider who was injured attacked from the rear position of the group. He had about 5 meters on us before we were up to speed. With 100 meters to go he was maintaining the gap, probably because he was afraid of getting caught and beat up. He crossed the line just in front of me for first. I was able to stay in front of the other breakaways to grab second place.

The event was well run and the course top notch. I'm really looking forward to doing the full distance next year.

Fitchburg Longsjo Classic -- June 27-30th
by Bill Dillon
The Fitchburg Longsjo Classic has a wonderful reputation as a very competitive stage race for all categories Pro/1/2 to Cat 4, men and women. Racers come from all over the country, and even some from Canada, to race in the premier stage race in the New England area. The 2003 version of the Longsjo Classic once again lived up to it's competitive billing, and provided spectators and racers alike with four hard days of racing during
what was one of the hottest weekends so far this summer.

The category 4 race started Thursday morning around 9:30, and the heat and humidity already reared their ugly heads. Bill was scheduled to go off at 10:36 in what was to be the first time trial of his career. As Bill warmed up for the event, many cat 4 racers were already returning and discussing how much the heat really played a factor in their performance. Bill stormed through his first time trial, not worrying about the heat, but worrying about making every second and every pedal stroke count, as it is very important to get off to a good start. As the finish line drew near, Bill gave every last bit of energy he had, and crossed the line in a time good enough for 5th place on the day. What he soon found out was that the first and second place riders were 48 and 47 seconds ahead, respectively. Very pleased with his result, Bill looked forward to the next day's stage, the circuit race.

Talking with team director, Andrew Knight, Bill was given some good advice as to the necessity of being aggressive with this stage, as it had been very fruitful for Andrew and Josh the year before. The first four laps of eight went by with little to no attacks, and only picked up during points laps. After the sprint lap with 4 to go, Bill saw a rider with small gap up the road, noticed a teammate of his coming to the front and decided to bridge up to see if a break could come together. Soon after Bill caught the lone rider, a third had joined the group and the three of them had agreed to give the break their all. Even with the intense heat and humidity, the three were able to stay out front; 27 second gap with three to go; 19 second gap with two to go; 23 second gap with one lap to go. It was going to come down to the finishing hill for these three riders because the break was working. Bill was taking a lot of the high speed pulls because he was able to maintain a higher average speed than the other two riders, so unfortunately Bill's final pull took him and the group to the bottom of the finishing hill. Bill was able to hang on for second place on the day, gained 13 seconds on the leader, as well as moved himself up to third overall in the general classification.

The third day of racing was the road course, finishing atop of Mt. Wachusett. The race itself was fairly uneventful after a near crash on the 55+ mph descent almost ended Bill's day, and his race in the very first lap. Bill and the other riders were able to maintain themselves and continue in the race unharmed. The race stayed together through the first four 11 mile laps, and turned up the access road for the finishing climb. Bill had been near the leaders in general classification that day getting to know his competitors and enjoying their bid for the Longsjo win. At the bottom of the access road, Bill and the leader said good luck to one another and the race was on. Bill maintained a good tempo on the ride in order to keep himself in the race and not blow up. As the climb was unfolding, one of the GC leaders was pulling away from Bill and he had to react knowing he could not give up any time. On doing this, Bill was able to drop the overall leader. Bill kept his tempo going on the climb keeping very close the leaders on the hill. Unfortunately, Bill made a tactical error, and picked up speed too far from the summit. At the 100 meters to go sign, Bill was not able pick up the pace another gear, and did not catch the leaders on the hill. Bill ended up in 7th place on the day, losing 30 seconds to the stage winner. The general classification was completely turned upside down after the hill climb, and there was a new leader of the race. Bill was now 15 seconds behind the overall leader, and fell back to 5th position in GC; the race was very close, and near conclusion, but there was one more stage to try and move into a podium finish.

The criterium race was the final stage, and although Bill has not had huge success with crit's this year,
today would have to be different. Because of the time gaps, Bill would need to not only win the race, a 10 second time bonus which would move him into a tie for 4th overall, he would also need a gap on the main field in order for there to be a difference in finishing time. Bill was at the front of the race all day, trying many attacks to get off the front with several different riders, but each time was pulled in due to the motivation from the main field and leading riders to keep the race together. Finally with 3 laps to go, Bill had made up his mind to just position himself for the stage win. It came down to a massive sprint, and with no lead out man, and not a tremendous sprint, Bill was able to capture 4th place on the day. A bit disappointed, but he couldn't help to think what an excellent weekend of racing he had. The team was very happy with his result, and he was very happy with his result, 4th place in the general classification, 15 seconds out. Now just to tell you how competitive it was within the top four positions, second place finished 1 second out, and third was 5 seconds out. A very competitive race, and a very good result for Louis Garneau Racing.