Suffer

The Fitchbugh Hammer

Just before we set off to the Fitchburg stage race, Dave sent me an e-mail with a picture of a big hammer and some words of inspiration for the upcoming suffering. I decided to print out the picture in all its 8x10 glory and post it in the hotel room. Each night, the men’s cat 4 team would vote on who deserved the “Drop the Hammer Award”. It wasn’t necessarily the person who has the best result that day but rather the person who caused themselves, others or both to suffer. There are many ways to drop the hammer; here are a few.

Stage 1: ITT
We all decided before the stage that anyone who puked during or right after the TT would automatically win the award for the day. Well no one did that but when Chris DeCarlo came across the line, the left side of his face was COVERED in snot. He had suffered his way into an awful mess and he was crowned the first Hammer of the race.

Stage 2: Mt. Watchuset
As any competitive cyclist knows, it’s much easier to suffer when you at the front of the race. Towards the back motivation can easily fail. Well in this stage of huge mountain climbs, Charles Gardiner found himself towards the back for a long way but he kept his head down, determined to make it to the finish ahead of the time cut. As his 5 teammates stood on the summit wondering what happened to him, he mystically appeared out of the fog the shrouded the mountain and, upon hearing our cheers, sprinted up the steepest part of the climb across the line, despite having ridden so many miles alone. He suffered a great deal that day in the toughest of conditions and was crowned with the Hammer that night!

Stage 3: Fitchburg State College Circuit Race
After the huge stage the day before everyone’s legs were beat and EJ Klock-McCook was at the top of that list. However, after suffering up the circuit race climb 8 times, and being last coming over the climb on the bell lap, he rode right to the front, blew past the 3 Cambridge Cycling guys who thought they had the lead-out organized and stomped down the back side of the course. Chris had hopped on EJ’s wheel and said the man on 3rd wheel was making all kinds of grunts and groans trying match EJ’s pace. When he was finished, EJ dropped his teammates off at over 30 mph despite almost being dropped from the race a few km previous. For that, he was given the Hammer award!

Stage 4: Fitchburg Downtown Criterium
9th in the TT, 4th in the RR, 15th in the Circuit Race, 5th in the Crit and 5th on GC. Need I say more? The final day’s Hammer went to Sean McLaughlin who time trialed, climbed, sprinted and suffered to truly spectacular results in the biggest amateur race on the east coast. WELL DONE!

-E.J. Klock-McCook