Fitchburg, Mass. - The full team of Legal Sea Foods Cycling converged on the small city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, last weekend to compete in the men’s “2” category of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Stage Race.  Long heralded as the midway point of the New England road bike racing season, Fitchburg, as it is known, provides a chance for four straight days of stage racing without having to travel massive distances to do so.  Four uniquely different stages provide enough variety so that most racers have at least one opportunity to race in his/her strongest discipline. 

Hot, muggy air of late June greeted the full Legal Sea Foods team before the race’s first event, a new 10km time trial that steadily climbed 8km before dipping downward the last 2km.  Peter Bell set the early mark to beat for the team at 17:48 and for a short while was standing in second overall before Charlie McCarthy bested him by just five seconds in 17:43.  Charlie ended the day in 13th and Peter nabbed 15th. 

Day two’s challenge was the 62mi circuit race course which bordered Fitchburg State College.  A steep two-level climb every lap made the course especially difficult and with the high speed a circuit race usually generates, the fast pace was constant.  With a 10-man squad, the team had the opportunity to go for a stage win while also protecting the general classification hopefuls.  Breaks moved up the road early in the race but with a determined field charging just behind, the moves ended up being just temporary threats.  Nick Bennette grabbed valuable points in the points competition, making his way to the top of the hill first after LSF riders amassed at the front to get him there.  As the race made its way through the final turn one last time, Alain Ferry, Nick, and Brad Sheehan emerged with a very good 9th, 10th, and 12th respectively.

The Wachusset Mountain road race is the crown jewel of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic.  92 miles of rolling Massachusetts terrain is capped off with the nearly two mile ascent up the steep grades of the mountain itself.  With only two miles complete, Aaron Molloy, Noah Harwood, and Brad Sheehan attacked and formed an early breakaway with a couple of other riders.  No one in this move was a threat to the overall and so a complacent field let them go.  At times, the gap grew to a ridiculous length of 7:30 minutes.  Chris Coutu, Ryan Fleming, Graham Garber, Nick, Charlie, Alain, and Peter were settled into the pack comfortably while the breakaway steamed somewhere way up the road.  On the backside of the course, Graham miss-shifted, dropping his chain.  As riders often do in a peloton, another racer put his arm out to help Graham along but in the process kicked his bike, bending his derailleur and breaking spokes in the process.  This tough luck would end Graham’s chances for a high stage placing.  Meanwhile at the front, other teams not represented started to reel the break back in.  Noah and Aaron had dropped off the pace but Brad was still motoring along, determined to make it to the top of Wachusett before anybody else.  But with one and a half laps remaining, a group of highly-placed GC riders bridged across.  Brad latched on but the fresher riders took advantage and as they finally entered the mountain road, an exhausted Brad couldn’t match the pace.  The field stormed the base of the mountain following only a minute behind.  The battle up the mountain was fierce and a group of riders, containing Charlie, separated themselves from everyone else.  Brad struggled upward ahead and as he crossed the finish line in 11th, Charlie managed to sneak right up behind him in 12th. 

The final day of the race was the criterium, a fast two-corner, one-roundabout course that makes its way through the streets of downtown Fitchburg.  The goal was to deliver Nick for the sprint win and to make sure of this by driving the front of the race with an LSF pace line with five laps to go.  Charlie, Ryan, Peter, Brad and Alain covered moves early on with Alain eventually joining a break which remained up the road for over 9 laps of the 0.9 mile circuit.  As the race approached the final laps, a group of four shot out of the peloton and although the LSF train tried to bring them back, a late-race melee ensued, shattering the team’s rhythm and any chance to get Nick to the line first.  With three to go, so determined to deliver his sprinter to the line, Chris Coutu went down in turn three, scraping his back badly.  This tremendous effort did not go unnoticed and Nick did what he could to repay the favor, destroying the field to win the field sprint, taking fifth place.