Let start by saying that besides it being a cool place to hang as a cyclist, the Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington MA really did it up for us last night. They took care of the food and drinks and setup the large screen TV with some Giro and TDF footage. We spent the night mingling among Cervelo’s, Seven’s and some of the best cycling clothing and accessories in the industry.

It was great to see a good number of the team together after being scattered through most of the season due to different race schedules and life commitments.

This was our first year as a team and getting a late start at that. Kristen Gohr and I met during the cold month of January and after some coffee at a local Starbucks decided that she would be the team director and I would serve as coach and director sportif. Great! Now all we needed were teammates, clothing, sponsors, a website….

In a couple of months 25 people joined to form our team, we pulled together sponsors, designed and ordered clothing and put together a team schedule of clinics and events. So considering our jackrabbit start, everyone was absolutely floored to see the results in just 8 months:

• 9 Wins including 5 Pro Women Wins!
• 3 Records Set (Mt. Washington Tandem, Okemo and Mt. Washington Women 35-39)
• New England Women’s Road Race Champion
• Current BUMPS Series Leader
• 15 Podium Appearances
• 21 Top 10 Finishes

And there are still more races and opportunities to come in 2010.

In addition to racing, we did some great events and supported the community:

• Stage5 Members volunteered at this year’s Fitchburg Longjo Classic.  It was impressive to see the willingness of the team supporting a national race and fellow riders for 4 days in some of the hottest weather we’ve experienced this year.
• We held 3 cycling clinics.  One focused on performance testing, another on cycling fit and biomechanics and the third a day dedicated to climbing tactics and technique.
• This coming weekend, Stage5 Cycling team members will support the first Boston Soldier Ride to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

Next year we are planning much of the same.  Our team clothing will be upgraded as we look for more sponsors.  In addition to our clinics we are planning 2 training camps: one local Boston-area camp mid February and a spring training camp in Virginia around March/April.  We are also planning a monthly indoor cycling training ride once per month at the Reading YMCA during the fall and winter months.

Many members were thanked for the numerous ways they helped and supported each other and everything we did.  The team presented Kristen Gohr with flowers and a gift card so she could take her husband Greg out to dinner as a thank you for all the support he has been to her.  Kristen whole-heartedly gave her time and great effort to build the team while managing her family and delivering on a full race schedule.

It was a great night and everyone was in agreement – “we need to do this more often”.  It is at the top of the list for 2011.

Here is an except from the August 22, 2010 article in Velonews as they catch up with some of the riders after the finish of the Mt. Washington Uphill Bike Race.

“Second woman was Kristen Gohr, 39, of Reading, Mass. “I wanted to stay with Marti a little longer,” said Gohr, “but she’s a machine.” Gohr finished in 1:08:23, followed at a respectful distance by Selene Yeager, 41, of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in 1:17:36.”

Read the full article

Here is an article from WMUR 9 (New Hampshire) which mentions both John Baley and Kristen Gohr’s strong rides up the Mt. Washington Auto Road:

“Hollenbach, 29, eventually finished fourth (59:31), followed by Timothy Tapply, 35, of Sherborn, Mass. (59:57), and John Bayley, 41, of Watertown, Mass. (one hour 7 seconds). Bayley, a veteran of many Mt. Washington rides, shares with Kristen Gohr the record for the fastest tandem racing pair here – a 1:06:32 they rode in July.”

Here is the Full Article

The Tokeneke Classic Road Race started with the largest women’s filed to date of 63 starters. Also, Tokaneke is designated as the New England Road Racing Championships so the excitement was high. The race included 2 laps, each including a moderate climb followed by a screaming downhill which led into the 2 mile finishing climb.

Kristen prompted an attack on the first climb which split the field up into a small group of approximately 20. She attached again on the first climb of the second lap to break free of the group and solo to the finish winning by 2 minutes and 35 seconds.

In addition to her win, Kristen took her second New England Road Racing Championship title.

The Gear Up For Lyme Mt. Equinox Uphill Bike Climb is a challenging 5.4 mile bike race up the scenic Mt. Equinox Skyline Drive finishing at the top of Mt. Equinox in beautiful Manchester, VT. While the average overall grade of 12% is equivalent to that of Mt. Washington, the course includes one downhill section as well a .07 mile section with a 28% average grade!

Despite the terror the climb instills in those that attempt to ascend, John Baley practically grew wings to win his age category 40-49 and finish an amazing 4th overall @ 39:29. Is should also be noted that the only riders to beat him were 11 years younger.

Kristen put in a stellar ride taking second place in her age category and the entire women’s field @ 45:32.

John Baley’s wife, Pamela Blalock, also took the challenge and completed the climb in 1:03:15. Another great day of racing for the Stage5 crew.

Kristen Gohr conquers more unusual circumstances during a challenging race weekend.  She started the stage race with a great effort in the TT placing herself only 30 seconds off the leader.  However, she will more readily remember the bear cub that wandered onto the road in front of her.  Any speed or time she may have lost slowing before the bear was surely made up for as she accelerated away from the cub.  Kristen maintained her time during the second stage finishing with the peloton.

As planned, Kristen attacked hard on the 21% grade climb near the end of the final stage.  She caught and passed her rivals taking the KOM and then hammering a solo 8-mile effort to the finish winning both the stage and general classification.

Read Kristen’s Race Report

John and Kristen are at it again. This time on a tandem. In the air of some controversy, they joined forces on a tandem and crushed the Mt. Washington Hill Climb tandem record. In addition to breaking the record by 6 minutes, they also finished 11th overall.

To top it off, John and Kristen even led overall winner (and record holder) Tom Danielson up the mountain. Tom declared them both insane when they spoke at the top.

While Danielson just missed matching the record he set in his first ride up Mt. Washington, the team of John Bayley and Kristen Gohr smashed the existing record for tandem bicycles. Bayley, 41, originally from Dublin, Ireland, but now living in Watertown, Mass., and Gohr, 33, from Reading, Mass., shot forward with the leaders at the starting cannon – they actually led Danielson at one point — and rode an impressively strong and steady race, finishing in 1:06:32. That time was nearly six minutes faster than the old tandem record of 1:12:20, set by Dave Lamb and Freemont Matthew in 1997, and it was good enough to place them 11th among all finishers.

“That was the one thing that surprised me in the race,” said Danielson, smiling. “Those guys who passed me on the tandem!”

“We just thought we’d show Tom how it’s done, y’know?” Bayley quipped. “And actually, it put some pep in our step.”

Check out the full article at the Mount Washington Auto Road website

Stage5 Cycling will be participating in the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in two capacities this coming weekend. We will have riders in the Men’s 4, women’s 3/4 and Women’s Pro/1 fields, as well as, many of our riders volunteering at the event.

Come by and visit us on the course at our team tent! We will also have a team headquarters setup at the Fitchburg Marriott where riders and team members can shower, rest, store stuff and hang out. It should be a fun weekend.

It is always amazing how much logistical planning goes into an event like this. Besides pulling together parts, equipment, tools, food, transportation and housing needs, we are trying to time everything perfectly around the race schedule. Oh yeah, at the same time we are also trying to stay as calm and relaxed as possible.

Tom Scotto with by Stage5 Cycling’s director sportif for the weekend. If you need anything from race strategy to water bottles to misplaced race numbers, Tom is there to help. Many of our team will be on the course marshaling corners and assisting with race details. Don’t forget to say hi.

See you at Fitchburg ready for a fast, fun and exhilarating weekend.

Be Safe!

A First Year Team

Over the last 4 years, many of Stage5 Cycling’s clients have consistently ask when we were going to start a cycling club and team.  They continued encouraging us with their desire to ride in Stage5 colors.  At the end of 2009 we decided it was time.

Tom Scotto met up with Kristen Gohr, a talented Cat 1 rider, who had a strong interest in seeing another women’s team developed.  After a meeting over coffee at Starbucks, Kristen accepted the role of Team Director and ideas were put to motion.  Kristen has done an amazing job pulling the club and team together.  We thought we would only have a handful of people the first year, but that quickly turned into 20.

We’re learning as we go and have run into a few issues common to starting a team.  First we needed sponsors and then our team clothing.  Fortunately, we got a good group of sponsors which was very exciting.  Our team clothing was another issue.  We got our design completed and clothing orders, but most teams place their order before the beginning of the year to have it before the spring races.  We didn’t have a team until Jan, and since people were joining, we didn’t want to place a order too soon.  We did get our clothing this week, but a few riders had to race in neutral kits for the first 2 weeks.

2 Crashes and a Win

Both the women’s and men’s teams have both been strong from the start.  Rich Batten almost pulled off a podium finish at Marblehead, but got squeezed between 2 riders coming in to the final turn and was taken down.  Rich was poised well at the front, and with his power, would have put in a good show if allowed to launch.  He got banged up a bit, but survived without breaking anything.

Kristen won the women’s Pro field at Myles Standish, but crashed at the line.  Totally bizarre.  Kristen broke away from the field early, taking another rider with her.  They stayed away the entire race.  Apparently, there was a thick painted line at the finish.  The other rider’s front wheel slide side-ways slamming into Kristen’s back wheel.  Kristen when to the hospital but also suffered no broken bones.  Maybe a little whiplash?

We just added Race Reports to the Team section so check back from time to time.  Kristen, John Bayley and Bill Northup have already contributed their interpretation of events.

This is looking to be a great first year (minus some road rash).