Last week’s cold and rain were replaced this weekend by ever increasing and howling winds, but the one thing that remained constant was that team EXPO had a blast mixing it up at both the Cat 4 and Cat 3/4 races at the Ris Van Bethel (Bethel spring series crit). Lance and Dennis took turns pressing the pace in the morning’s Cat 4 race (read about Dennis’s observations here), and the duo were joined by Chris A in their efforts at the front in the afternoon’s Cat 3/4 race (which you can read more about here). The trio were also joined by new teammate Joel making his first race appearance in many years.

Looking forward to more racing in the coming weeks!

Team Expo got off to a very competive start to the 2011 racing season during what is considered the kick-off weekend here in New England. On Saturday, Dave D, Jason C, and Dennis D were outnumbered by the presence of a few large team turn-outs in the Cat 4 race, but you wouldn’t have guessed that to be true as you watched the race. From start to finish any attacks at the front were either initiated or countered by the Expo men, and the approach paid dividends for all three racers. Dennis D netted a 2nd place in the day’s first Prime before exiting early after getting caught up in a crash (read more here). Dave D and Jason C remained aggressive until then end of the race (and avoided yet another crash a lap before the end) nabbing 6th and 3rd place respectively. Later in the day, Steve Y added to the Expo success by capturing a 7th place finish in the 45+ race, and Todd B made sure Expo’s presence was felt in the P123 race that capped the day.

Despite the frequent downpours on a cold late winter Sunday, Expo once again had a number of racers lining up at this year’s Ronde de Bethel. Thanks to the support of team sponsor Manchester Cycle, Dennis D (read his write-up here) had his bike recovered from the previous day’s crash and lined up to support teammate Lance in the Cat 4 race. Lance had his foot on the accelerator from the start and opened a huge gap while Dennis D manned the front of the pack attempting to cover and impede any attempts to thwart Lance’s efforts.
Unfortunately fatigue and a mechanical took Lance out of the running and out of the Cat 4 race.  He’d eased back from the two man break when the field closed in, but the other guy kept the hammer down. That’s when Lance went again, to bridge, and then had his flat.

That left him just enough gas in the tank to line up again later in the day with Paul Q. and T.J in the 3/4 race. While TJ had to end his race early, Paul and Lance tried to set a high tempo for the field and pulled their butts off. They wanted to use this race as a very hard training ride so tactics were of no importance. Lance tried to blow himself up and was very successful as he pulled out with 2 to go as there was no need to try and sprint it out (legs were toast). Paul Q. completed the whole race and then did the p123 race as well, where he did about 15 laps before going boom.

Aki did 28 laps of the P123s but pulled out. It was a pretty negative race as everyone marked Bobby Sweeting. 4 guys got away, one got shelled, and the three remaining guys won.

There are three more Plainville races – every Saturday in March – and five more Bethel races on Sundays.  So there’s plenty of opportunity to get that early-season speedwork in.  Or – with teamwork and a little luck – you might even post a Spring result to your palmares!
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The pictures above are from the Cat 4 Plainville race.

Additional brief race reports on the bethelspringseries.com site here:
http://bethelspringseries.com/2011-ronde-de-bethel-reportresults

Biggest gallery of shots so far is here:
http://gallery.me.com/coreylynntucker#100261&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=0