RMM's 3rd Annual Guide to Local Road Teams--Part II

Back Bay Cycling Club--B2C2

Membership: by request with some screening process.

This is the newest of the local road teams mentioned here. B2C2 has built up a respectable road team from a solid background in mountain and cyclocross. They are a Boston based team, who competes with Cambridge for prizes such as "hippest team," "most exposed tattoos," and "most fun to invite to a party." I am very good friends with some B2C2 riders and respect them highly for their racing prowess, as well as their personalities.

Socially, B2C2 is filled with younger riders who skew toward liberal and hip. As racers they tend to field small squads who ride cohesively.

B2C2 is a good team to join if you are young, live in the city and are looking for a team that competes in off road events as well as on the road. If I wasn't on Cambridge, I would be asking B2C2 for a membership.

Green Line Velo

Membership: Unclear, though they seem to be looking for young people.

GLV is a post collegiate team that makes a point of recruiting kids who have raced collegiate. Even their name "Green Line Velo" is a reference to the MBTA's notoriously slow Green Line which services most of the city's colleges. It is unclear whether GLV accepts collegiate riders who got degrees from schools on the Red Line, such as MIT and Harvard.

GLV comes deep. They might have had some of the best race representation of any team in New England in 2010. And they are young, so some of them get real fast, real quick. With their youth and fitness, they are a team to watch. Sometimes you get to watch them attack foolishly. Other times the foolish attacks stick.

GLV's spokesman, Stephen Hopengarten, assures me that GLV will be cohesive and bringing the pain down on the cat 3 peloton in 2011. I look forward to it.

GLV is a good team to join if you have been racing collegiate and are looking to continue the good times in the less fun world of USAC category racing. Bonus if you are socially awkward.

Cambridge Bicycles

Membership: By request, screening. Open only to active racers. No club.

This is my team. I have had considerable influence in the way the team is run and how we race. So I apologize if I sound biased. I am biased. I am proud of my team.

Cambridge focuses on team tactics and getting one person on the podium. We share prize money and work together cohesively .

CB is an urban based team that has traditionally been made up of alternative types, such as bicycle messengers and hipsters. While our demographic has expanded (Kyle Smith was on CB), we remain very urban and very liberal. We field and support both men's and women's teams.

As for racing, we've had some successful road seasons. 2010 was not one of them. With the exception of Stephen Pierce's and Matt Aumiller's great results, 2010 was marked by injury and illness. Our cat 3 squad has been thinned by upgrades, which was great for the upgrading riders, but ultimately bad for the team, since we moved them along to other teams (Embrocation) since we do not actively support any riders above cat 3.

We have rebuilt for 2011. While we are still upgrading riders, we have some aces up our sleeve for 2011.

CB has traditionally been a sprinter's team (we started on the track), our repertoire has expanded since our inception.

CB is a good team to join if you live in town, are a cat 3 or 4, take racing very seriously and can pull off white lycra. You won't fit in well if you just like to "wait until the end and see what happens," as we generally have a plan.

If you are interested in joining, contact me directly (rmckittr at G mail dot com), as we are currently looking to round out our squads.

Threshold Cycling

Membership: Unclear. I have it on anecdotal data that Threshold screens.

Powerhouses. These dudes produce Watts. If you don't believe me, go to their team blog and read about WATTS.

Seriously, Threshold takes training and racing seriously. They advocate systematic training and over panache and verve.

They have a number of strongmen in both the cat 3's and 4's who are capable of putting the hurt on the whole race. Generally, if a lower category race has a successful breakaway, Threshold is in it. If not, they are bridging to it.

Threshold is a team to watch. It is better to work with them than against them.

Socially, they Threshold skews more toward the scientific, numerical types. As mentioned, they spend lots of time (and bandwidth) discussing power data.

Threshold is a good team to join if you like analyzing your power data, discussing said data and you like putting the hurt on a breakaway.

Cyclonauts

Membership: Open.

While not a Boston based team, I mention them for a number of reasons. Most importantly, I am writing this post from their team training camp in NW Georgia, which they were kind enough to invite me on.

As I have mentioned in the past Cyclonauts revolves around Mike Norton, who often rubs people the wrong way. That said, the Cyclonauts take cat 3 and master's racing VERY seriously. If they show up to a crit, they come deep and they race hard. Mostly they dominate crits, though as I have seen down here in GA, some of them can climb.

Cyclonauts have caused considerable controversy by promoting unsanctioned races. I think that their success in doing so is what makes it so controversial. Personally, I have no problem with unsanctioned races.

I respect their racing style, since they work cohesively to put a man in first and not always the same man.

Socially, Cyclonauts tends to skew toward conservative.

Cyclonauts is a good team to join if you are looking to be part of an effective criterium domination squad and you find yourself uncomfortable with most cyclists' liberal rantings.

545 Velo

Membership: Unclear.

545 are mostly master's riders. The team was born out of the "Crack O Dawn" ride, whose slogan is "show up on time or ride alone"

545 fields a huge team, who do close to nothing in races. Most of my experience with them has been in the Wells Ave A race in 2010 where their cat 4's cause crashes with their sketchy riding and lack of understanding of race dynamics. In fact, thier behavior has kicked off a conversation amongst BRC about banning cat 4's from the A race, since there have been so many complaints about 545's foolish riding. I have nothing against cat 4's and nothing against 545, but when they endanger me, I take notice.

545 is a good team to join if you are already friends with people on the team.

__________________________________________________________

I am sure that I left a critical team off of the list. Please contact me if I left your team off and I will update the post accordingly if:

1. I agree that your team should be included

2. I have the energy and time to make said update.

The Post You've All Been Waiting For: RMM's 3rd Annual Guide to Local Road Teams--Part 1

Every year this is one of my most controversial posts. The fallout generally lasts for months with riders commenting in person and online. I do my best to just present things as I see them, while acknowledging my biases.

Again, I am category racer, so I will only be offering observations about lower category teams.

Part II will be published this coming Monday.

Enjoy.

North East Bicycle Club--NEBC

Membership: Online, no screening. NEBC recruits everyone they can. Regardless of skill level or personality.

Initially in my bike racing career, I had little respect for NEBC as they field huge squads of lower category riders (4 and 5) who do not work together in races. In fact they often work against each other.

But after I upgraded to cat 3 and began racing with some of their seasoned riders I began developing some regard for the team, while striking up friendships with a few riders (don't worry guys, I won't publicly shame you by outing our friendship on the internet). The cat 3's generally work well together, while not dominating any races.

I think that NEBC would be a great team to join if you were looking for a large social club built around bicycles, as NEBC has a huge membership. Also it is good for someone starting out racing, but maybe is not 100% committed to racing, as they do some good work around development and training. Also, they do some work around women's development, so women will probably be comfortable on this team.

NEBC's shop sponsor is the sketchy, underhanded CycleLoft, which made itself famous when its owner Jeff Palter stole the New England Velodrome from the founder, Tony Eberhardt. You can read about it here, here, and here if you missed it.

Boston Road Club

Open membership, no screening. There are 2 levels of membership, Associate (discount at Wells Ave) and team. I maintain an associate membership to this club even though I've never raced for them.

I love the Wells Ave Training Series, therefore I love BRC. Wells is an incredible community resource for us racers. I am thankful that they put it one week after week, year after year.

When I was starting out as a 5 and then a 4, BRC was the team to beat. They had a large squad and generally took charge of races. I think that BRC's luster has waned recently, but they have been at this for a long time, so I have no doubt that they will have another strong crop of new riders at some point.

BRC is a great team for a new rider looking to learn how to race and train effectively. Collectively, the team has decades of racing and training experience under its belt. And they are eager to pass this knowledge down to new riders. BRC has lots of social events for members. Many of the Boston area's best racers spent time on BRC. Highly recommended for new racers.

Quad Cycles

Membership: Online, no screening. Club and team.

This team started me racing. And for that, I'll be forever thankful.

In early 2011, Quad's race team is a shell of what it had been in the mid 2000's. They seldom field teams of more than 2 0r 3 guys and teamwork is sporadic at best. Any decent results are generally earned on individual rider strength as opposed to focused teamwork.

Quad does have a very active club rider community that sometimes intersects with the racing community.

My assessment of Quad: a good club to join if you are starting out cycling and are looking for some club rides and you may be interested in trying out racing at some point.

Minuteman Road Club--MRC

Membership: Online no screening.

MRC has a large club that focuses both on road racing and triathlon. While avoiding the normal jokes about triathletes, I will point out that triathletes often have monstrous levels of fitness coupled with comically bad pack riding/bike handling skills. Working as a team is alien to the triathlete mind. When MRC gets good results, it is often due to individual fitness, as opposed to the cooperative effort of the team.

MRC has done some great work with women's development, especially in cyclocross.

MRC is a good team to join if you are like it all three ways, but want to be sketchy in a road race once in a while too. MRC is not a good club if you are looking to learn effective road race tactics. It may be a good team for women looking to get into the sport, as MRC maintains close contact with Lady's First, one of the area's most effective women's racing teams.

Svelte Cycles

Membership: Contact Justin Spinelli. If you can't figure out how to contact him on your own, you don't belong on this team. Cat 3 and above only.

Brainchild of Justin Spinelli. This is a cat 3 and above team, not for beginners. Overall, Svelte has firepower, but doesn't appear to work well together, most of the time. I keep waiting for the cat 3's to gel and smash every race. So far this hasn't happened. Good results tend to get earned individually. Obviously, there are exceptions.

I have it on good information that Spinelli is opposed to sharing his prize money, so maybe an individualistic ethic runs through the team?

I am friends with many Svelte riders and enjoy hanging out with them and racing against them.

Svelte is a great team to join if you are a cat 3 who is on the cusp of upgrading to cat 2 and you don't want to change teams after the upgrade. Once you upgrade to 2, you will get the pleasure of being Justin Spinelli's domestique, which is really like being a domestique to Mario Cipollini, since Justin rode for Cipo back in the day.

Georgia Death...er...Training Camp Update

So as many of you know, my team mate Matt Wheatley and I drove down to Georgia to hook up with the Cyclonauts to ride ourselves inside out in preparation for the upcoming spring campaign.

Instead of boring you with details about rides and climbs, I'll just say that I have ridden 3 days in a row and have none of the rides have been under 3000 kilojoules, or under 7000 feet of climbing or under 80 miles.

As for the camp, the level of organization is reminiscent of the military. Mike Norton has all of the routes in his Garmin. Acting like a general, when Norton says a ride rolls out at 9am, everyone is clipped in at 8:59 yelling for the last guy to get his shit together. Groceries and meals run smoothly with all of us sharing cooking and cleaning duties. In other words, we are keeping it tight.

Here's some pictures:

I played poker the night before the trip hoping to win enough to pay for gas for the trip. I only earned 1 tank out of 3 or 4. I felt like a failure.

We left Friday after I got out of school and drove straight to Georgia. I knew I was in the South when I saw this.

Then I considered ordering this for dinner



We arrived at the house and I set up shop. This is my bedroom dresser.



There was climbing. Not pictured is a gloating, victorious Mike Norton who rode us off his wheel on the climb.


Signs like this are all over the South. Notice that the hikers are shot multiple times.

This should give you some idea of the kind of riding we are doing down here.

I am trying to talk Mike Cavros into allowing me to post some of helmet cam videos he has taken. Hopefully he complies, as there are some great descents...

CB is Promoting a BIG Stage Race: The Giro de Fred

Well, maybe its not quite a race. But it is an event. While this will compete for cycling traffic with my new favorite website, therollercam.com , if Ryan Kelly sucks up enough, I may be able to arrange a webcam feed of the event. How bout comping my upcoming banner ad big guy?

I am getting ahead of myself. The Giro de Fred is an indoor stage race that will take place at the Bikes Not Bombs Hub at 6:30 am on Tuesday February 15th. The promoter will be using a video from TheSufferFest, CB's newest sponsor. I wish that my day job didn't start so early in the am, or else I'd be there kicking ass and taking names.

In order to race you will need a bike,

a trainer, $5 to donate to Bikes Not Bombs and perhaps a towel and some water.

I have it on good information that GG Bavolar will be in attendance.

Either way, you should get your lazy self to JP and sip the sweet nectar of victory.