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The Turner Hill Classic - Ipswich, MA- May 13th, 2001

Turner Hill was a fast 2.5 mile loop -- four climbs (three were pretty tough) each followed by a screaming downhill. The only downside was counting laps -- the upside was getting fired up by Ragers every 12 minutes or so.

Rob the announcer does most of the National races and was brought in by the promoters to make the race feel like a big-time event. Rob loves Rage -- he took a Rage-stickered pickup to Steamboat and had a bunch of requests in Colorado for Rage stickers ("Who are those Rage on Boston guys?"). We set him up with a new set of stickers and at some point he started cheering on Rage / Harpoon racers from the podium.

Thanks to Coach Doug, everybody was well hydrated. Udder and Christine took some killer pictures that are already up on the site (thanks a ton -- just a question though - why did Udder take so many pictures of Tristram? Is there something going on there?). Anyway, here's what happened:

* Two Ragers now wear Massachusetts State Champion Jerseys: young Jacob Ringquist won the beginner men's under 14 class -- and Joselle Crandall won the Sport Open class. Congrats to Joselle and Jacob (Nate better look out for his younger brother)!

* 26 racers, 15 Top 10 finishes, 2 wins

* Some color commentary followed by individual results:

Jeff "Udder" Udell pulled off three laps in 57:38 for his first (sugarless) race of the season racing in the 19-29 beginner class. Hmmmm...if he was 12 minutes faster he would have finished first. Udder ended up with his first top 10 finish of his career! Tim Post had a leisurely ride around the course a few times (I finished my beginner class race only marginally worse for wear - however my time and placement should remain classified), screamed at Ragers for about 4 hours and enjoyed watching Alex and Christopher begin to get an idea of what fun competitive cycling can be. Speaking of the Post boys, they raced again and did well.

At the starting line, I wondered what the heck I was doing lining up against Dale Stephanos. I now have my race against Dale strategy dialed in (the thumb tacks put under his tires worked well and lending him that leaky tube helped even more). Nate and Damon impressed the pros on the course ("Who was that kid racing up the 3rd climb?"). Joselle's combat shorts should be adopted as official team attire.

The Rage beginners men's wrecking crew (Leo, Matt, Eric, Tom, Ed, Steve, Max, Joe, Jeff, Hank and Tim) basically muscled every other racer off the course in their race (we dare you to pass us) and Chris Smith deserves a round of applause for breaking into the top 10 in the Expert Vet race.

There were some speedsters in the Sport class as well with Leo taking 5th, Tim Sweeney taking 8th, and Zach Rouse ("I think I just threw up), Scott Sablan ("glad the old guys only have to do four stinkin' laps) and Brendan English rounding out top 10 finishes.

PICS

• Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - From Udder

• Page 8, 9 & 10 - CH

• Page 11 & 12 - Tom Walker

I THINK...

...we need more women racers. Where are you?

Chris S.

Dale S.