Bad karma. Good racing.

The Lake Sunapee Road Race went fairly well for us last week. It was the first time the entire team had ridden together at once and the results were promising. We made our presence known and did our best to pull back a wide variety of breaks in the first couple laps. The course was challenging, as it features long straight sections into the wind, some rolling hills and a couple rather technical sections as well.

Our only disappointment was not placing a rider in the winning break. This break was only 3 riders strong, so we weren't the only team to miss out. We did, however put two riders in the chase group who were able to pull off 6th and 11th, respectively.

Despite this good bit of racing, we also saw some seriously bad karma amongst the cycling community these past couple weeks - or at least some very bad luck.

In no particular order:

Last Tuesday, our friend Colin Murphy of Kenda / Spooky was on his way to a training race and got hit by a car from behind. We hear he's ok, but his bike wasn't so ok.

This past week during the normally very safe and uneventful Tuesday night race at Wampatuck State Park was punctuated by a very bad crash. A touch of wheels at the front of the group sent several riders to the ground hard. At that moment the race was over and the ambulance called in to assist. Best wishes to those involved.

On our way home from that same race, our group was nearly hit by a car. In a moment of inattentiveness I ran into the back of the rider in front of me and toppled to the ground. No serious damage done, but more bad luck.

In another freak accident, the father of one of the IF Team riders hit a pothole, snapped his handlebar, fell to the ground and broke his nose and suffered a host of other injuries.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania one of the Rapha Team riders had an unfortunate run-in with a car and spent some time in a hospital.


It just seemed that in a short period of time so many cyclists close to us had accidents. Thankfully, most of the riders mentioned above are fine and will recover shortly. It has made me a bit more jumpy than normal.

This weekend we're off to a unique event: A gentlemen's race in New Paltz, NY put on by Rapha. I don't really know what this means, but it's sure to be a good time. More on that when we return.

James