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.

RMM's Guide to Local Road Racing Teams

There are a number of competitive cycling teams in the Boston area. If you are new to the sport or move here from somewhere else, it is hard to figure out which team you should join. Once you join a team, simple minded folk become very upset if you leave the team to join another local team where you fit in better. In the following post, I will try to give a snapshot of all of the local club teams. Even though I am friends with many of them, I do not include any of the upper level teams like Embrocation or Kenda/Spooky since these teams do not accept lower category riders.  Many teams have mountain bike squads as well, which I do not consider in this post, since I am mostly ignorant of the off road scene.  

North East Bicycle Club-



By far the biggest team in the Boston area, this team blanket recruits everyone. It is not uncommon to see 10+ riders on the starting line of a race. It is also not uncommon to see those 10+ guys introducing themselves to their teammates on the starting line of said race. In the lower categories, it is not uncommon to see NEBC riders chasing down breaks that have 1, 2 or even 3 of their riders in them. They sometimes sprint against each other.
Very rarely does this team race as a team, it is more a collection of riders wearing the same clothes. I have even heard one NEBC rider refuse to block for a teammate because the team mate "won" the race last week. When asked what he meant (everyone knew who had really won), he explained that he wasn't blocking because his teammate kept getting better results than him, so he hoped that the break wouldn't stick.
Since it is a large club, there are many people to socialize with. The club is so big that many riders feel lost.
I am told that the upper category squads are more cohesive.
Perhaps NEBC's greatest strength is the women's team. They have an active and well supported group of women who kill the women's races. In fact, there are so many strong women on this team that competition amongst them is common.

Quad Cycles-

This was my first cycling team. Mostly this is a shop's cycling club with a competitive arm. The team often recruits new team members from the club; which is how I began racing bicycles. This is a great team to join if you are not sure if you are interested in racing, but want to try it out.
In races Quad sometimes places well, but is not as cohesive as other teams. While they can be tactically savvy on occasion, their strong riders spend themselves in fruitless and poorly timed attacks.
While two Quad riders may work together, this is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the Quad riders who get results have gotten them as a result of their own talent, as opposed to the support of a team.
The shop and the team are supportive of riders' material needs. There are generous sponsorships.
The social life of the team revolves around the shop, which shop owner, Rustem Gode, actively encourages by keeping food on hand and buying beverages often.
Quad has a small women's racing team and a strong female showing at the weekend club rides.

Boston Road Club-



BRC is a developmental cycling team that does a great job of adding value to the local scene while developing strong racers. BRC has put on the Wells Ave Training Series since the 1980's. In addition they run clinics for members on teamwork in races, sprinting, climbing, cornering, ect. They generally have a coaching sponsor to help new riders make the most of the early years in the sport.
BRC has many members, but most of the guys who race week in and week out work together as a team. If they have a man up the road, they block for him, or at the very least, they don't chase. They take race tactics seriously. In cat 4 races, especially criteriums, you can always expect them to be a factor.
They have many team rides where they test each other at KOM's and townlines. BRC is a very male organization and they have social gatherings at Redbones (sponsor).
For 2009 BRC may be weaker in races since there has been a large exodus of riders to other teams.
Small women's squad, though BRC has been sponsoring elite women to try to develop and support a women's team.

CCB-



Mostly a masters team. They are fast, savvy and curmudgeonly. When these old dudes, show up, they kick ass and take names with a good measure of grumbling and complaining thrown in. If you are getting barked at in race, it is more than likely coming from a guy in blue and pink.
They also have a history of developing junior riders, perhaps you heard of some of them: Tyler Hamilton, Tim Johnson, Gavin Manion
It may sound like I am making fun of these guys, but that is not the case. CCB has been winning races since 1979 and there is no reason to think that they will not continue winning.
It seems like there is little logical place on this team for newer racers. It seems that they have an elite team, a masters team and a junior squad. If you fall in between this grouping, you may get more support elsewhere.
Unclear if they have a women's squad.


Threshold Racing- 2009 will be Threshold's first year on the road. Most of the squad is experienced and savvy. They will be a factor in cat 4 races and sole 3, strongman Leo Desforges will be attacking relentlessly in the 3's. As far as the 4's go, they have a number of riders who are on the verge of upgrading to 3, so they will be a team to watch in the early season.
They have a membership process that requires potential members to actually be approved by the team before being accepted.
No women's squad.

Minuteman Road Club-



This team usually fields some strong riders. Their cat 4's had an impressive season last year. They are generally getting thier results based on individual accomplishment, though on occasion, I can remember them halfheartedly helping my block for a break that we both had a man in.
For 2009 I would expect that they will get some results, but I wouldn't count on them controlling races.
MRC has recently developed a great women's squad. They have been offering coaching and support. MRC women housed the B field in cyclocross in 2008, so much so that taunts of "sandbagger" and "upgrade" became ubiquitous (3+ minute leads on second place). I am not sure if MRC supports a women's road team, but if they do, it will be one to watch.

Pedro/+3 Network --



This is a cat 3 only team, chock full of strong, savvy riders. Everyone agrees that these will be the team to watch in the early season. Cort Cramer was belting out 360 watts in 20 minute indoor TT's in February, what is he going to be doing in May? But CCC is not the only threat, this team is stacked. They have sprinters, climbers, TT guys and hardmen. There is not a race that they can't contest.
No women's squad.
I have Diane Fortini's phone number on speed dial so that I can request forced upgrades when the time comes.

Cambridge Bicycle-




If you were having a cycling party and wanted to make sure it would be bumpin', you should probably invite us. We are an urban based cycling team with its roots in urban culture. Sponsored by PBR and Mad Alchemy Embrocations, we have the best party tent(s) at every cross race.
We race road too. Our cat 4 squad is cohesive and team focused. I am not betraying any secrets when I say that every individual works as a team for the team result. We don't want 5 guys in the top 20, we want one person on the podium and the rest of the results don't matter. Our forte has been criteriums, though we had wins in stage races and strong placings in road races too. For 2009, we have some hungry new riders who are committed to continuing the momentum from 2008.
The cat 3 squad has been beefed up by points-based upgrades. Many of our fours couldn't approach a cat 4 registration table without harrassment for sandbagging, even before we had the points to upgrade. We expect to contest every race, and no, I am not going to tell you any details.  Just rest assured that we have some riders and some plans.
CB is a huge supporter of the New England Velodrome. Our track team is the best represented every week up in Londonderry. Our results on the track speak for themselves, podium sweeps were common. 
We have a strong women's squad for this road/track season, both 3 and cat 2's. While this is the first season for the women's road squad, they are enthusiastic and organized already.
Memebership is invite only. We recruit based on personality. Our biggest question in considering a candidate is : "Do I want to spend the weekend with this person?"  Second question is: "Will this person be willing to work as part of a team?"  If you want to join CB, start hanging around and make it known that you want to join. You can almost always find some CB racers at Zuzu on Sunday nights.

International Bicycle Centers-- This team has strong riders and seems to ebb and surge on a multi year cycle. Last season, they were a factor in races, but they were not executing team tactics. For all I know, they are building a monster of a team for 2009.
They had an elite women's team in 2007 and field a few women every season.
IBC provides support for the team.




There are many other smaller teams around Boston. If I left a big one out (yours), please email me and I'll edit the post to include it. 

If you don't like what I had to say about your team, use the comment section to explain why I am wrong or race smarter.   

New Year--New Training Plan--Reflections on the 2008 Racing Season

I am currently writing my 2009 training plan. While doing so, I have been checking last year's results, reflecting on my successes and failures.

I have drawn a few conclusions:

In order to make yourself eligible to win a bicycle race you must prepare well. Proper training; properly working equipment; support of teammates, family and friends; and tactical savvy all play a role in success in any given race. Becoming eligible is merely a first step.

Overall, luck plays a huge role. The strongest man does not always win. Parts crap out, tires puncture and sometimes a break unexpectedly stays away. Luckily there is another race next weekend.




Opportunities are limited, so take them when they come. If you see a strong break coalescing, you should get in it. Even if the break gets brought back, at least you tried to win the race. You can't win if you don't try. Also, you will have more fun if you do something other than sit in and you'll have something to talk about over beers.

If you know that you are unable to win a race, you should try to help someone else win. It's more fun, it creates good will, and if you just wanted to ride your bike fast, there is probably a fast group ride nearer to your home that doesn't charge anything to join.

If you find yourself getting good results in a category, savor it for awhile. You will have years to suck once you upgrade, don't rush it. Personally, I got crappy results for years before I was able to even contest a prime in a cat 4 race. I felt that I deserved to hang around for half a season as a strong cat 4 and get some good results before moving on. Mind you, I never gathered enough upgrade points for a mandatory upgrade; had I been approaching that situation, I'd have upgraded before reaching that point. I am not advocating sandbagging.

Having a good team is important. If you work for your teammates, they will work for you when the time comes. I just found this out this last season. I have never been happier racing my bicycle than I have been this last season with CB.




Plan. If you don't have one, you will not succeed. You need a training plan if you want to have the most possible fitness. If you aspire to win a race, you need to have a plan before reaching the starting line. I have heard more strong team's say "We'll wait for the finish and see what happens" only to watch every member of the team get mid-pack results when they could have dominated the race if they had made a plan and the worked together.

I am anticipating a great season for my team. We have 3 great squads forming: cat 4, cat 3 and a newly formed but strong, cohesive women's squad.

I am going to get back to my training plan. If anyone needs a 2009 template for a Joe Friel yearly plan, Mashburn made a great one that I'd be happy to forward to you.

Happy New year.