Dave, Brian and I (Jon) headed out for the first race of the Fast/IF powered by Lionette's season. The race was at Charge Pond in Plymouth, MA. It is only early March, and we knew that miles are more important than racing at this time of the year. Plymouth is only 40ish miles from were I live in Roslindale, which is in southwest Boston. It is not a suburb of Boston, but a neighborhood of this unfair city (sorry about that geography lesson.) Brian arrived at my house at 10 am and we got dressed and ready to roll while we waited for Dave who lives in west Somerville. Somerville is not part of Boston. It is its own city. A nice, safe, very white city next to the Republic of Cambridge. The best thing about Somerville is that two of our sponsors are located there. Our title sponsor, Independent Fabrication and the best Barbecue this side of the Pacos, Redbones. If you haven't eaten and drank there, you haven't lived. Rob the owner and Jeff the manager are longtime IF riders and big, big, not fat, fans of bikes. They rule.

So, anyhoo...Dave showed up a little after 10:30 and we made minor adjustments to the saddle on his temporary IF. He was bikeless after an accident and we were able to get him a steed to use until his new Reynolds 953 IF is ready. Soon Dave will have the most coveted bike in the peloton. So we headed out on our jaunt to the race. Forty fabulous, humor filled miles later we arrived at a Dunkin Donuts near the race. We refueled on crappy coffee (I am a coffee snob) and rode another 20 minutes to the race located in a state park that used to be an Air Force base/bombing range. (Side note: Can you have a "state" park in a commonwealth. Massachusetts isn't a state but a commonwealth, like Virginia. OK teach, shut-up) We were presently surprised to find that a whopping 40 plus riders were registered. This is a good turnout for early March in New England.

Diane Fortini, the greatest official ever, started us off with her usual calm, straight forwardness laced with sarcasm, New England way. Holy crap, it's 2007 and we are racing. WORD! The race was on. Attacks started from the line. Nothing panned out really, barring two guys slipping off the front on lap three, barely noticed. Dave, who had ridden so much in the last 4 months that he wore his components to stumps, had gear troubles and was unable to finish. I forgot to mention that at the D&D stop, his bike had a bit of trouble staying upright as we joked around. Too bad he couldn't hammer in the race, but we laughed hard enough to not have to do any sit-ups today. Brian and I made numerous attempts to get something going. When Mark McCormick took a group of 5 up the road, Brian tried to bridge with two others, but his mates suddenly gave up. I spent most of the race at the front, pulling the peloton along while getting in some good hard tempo, while Brian tried to get into breaks. We almost caught the break before the line and Brian and I finished around 10th. We had a good time and got some quality training in. The three of us then headed back to Boston.

By the time we got back to my house I was spent. We chowed on some tortillas and guacamole and I fished Dave some less used chainrings out of the basement. Brian drove him back to Somerville and the day was done. Race one in the books and fun was had by all. Dave could have had more fun, but there is always tomorrow.

Thanks to all our sponsors, Independent Fabrication, Fast, Lionette's, Shimano, Hutchinson, All-Star, Clif Bar, Giro, FSA, Champion System, WTB, Cycle-Smart, Redbones, Adidas, Cat-Eye, for making this happen. We will continue these race reports throughout the year and the results wil soon pile up.

Thanks again.

Jon