A New “Hope”

Espoir – “hope” in French.

The Massachusetts State Criterium Championships were on Wednesday in Beverly, MA.  My race happened to be a Pro/1/2/3 race, which I had found somewhat surprising at first – I thought for the State Championships they might have split the races differently.  The GLV squad consisted of Gregg, Sam, AJ, Keith, and myself.  The weather was cooler than it had been the few days prior to the race, which “offered the riders some respite.” (…thank you Paul).

Beverly offered a technical course.  Designed by USA pro Tim Johnson, the crit had 6 turns that included two greater than 90 degree turns and one semi-chicane sequence.  Overall road surfaces were good and spectators were lining the course.  100 riders were staged at the start line.


As usual with a Pro race, it went quick from the gun.  All the GLV guys started in the second row, but we found ourselves at the back end due to the hectic start.  It was important to move up as quickly as possible due to the technical nature of the course, so I expending some energy to move up to mid pack right after the start.  There were a few early crashes, all of which were at turn 4 and put everyone on edge.  One rider crashed directly in front of AJ, subsequently causing him to crash as well as Gregg.  I was also caught up behind the crash but didn’t go down.  A number of us all rolled to the pit and got our free lap.

Later in turn 4 there was another Crash causing AJ to go down again.  One lap later my front wheel met the quick release of a CCB rider when he idiotically drifted left into my line, wherein started yelling at me a stereotypical old-man-CCB-rider-I-know-everything-about-everything-and-then-some fashion.  By this point in the race Sam had pulled himself due to sickness, as had Keith.  Now working for PEDROS, he was there to meet AJ and I in the pit.


Contrary to most people’s post-pit stop visits, I felt great.  We integrated back into the main pack (where we were originally) and continued racing.  I hammered and hammered and moved up to the front.  By that point, however, the field had already been lapped by the three riders off the front and were still riding behind the chase group who was desperately trying to get to the three lead riders.

We got the bell lap.  Less than half the field was already pulled from the course – there were only 43 of us left.  I was around 5th wheel on the wide turn 5 when an attack went.  I covered the attack and settled in for the final sprint.  One rider from CCNS kept barreling through the last turn at 30+ mph and lost control in the apex of the turn.  His shoes became unclipped and he skated on the road sitting on his top tube.  His front wheel hit the curb, he went over the bars and promptly hit the top of a blue USPS mailbox and flew another 5 feet in the air, then wrapped around a concrete lamppost 9 feet in the air and promptly fell to the ground.  I was safely out of the way of the incident and I sprinted to the finish after witnessing the worst crash I had ever seen in person.

I was fairly dumbfounded after the race as well as fairly irked at that CCB rider.  I know I had finished decently but I took two laps to soft peddle around a simmer down.  I saw the CCNS rider on the ground lying motionless in a pool of blood.  Recent word from his teammates is that he’s fine and dandy and racing again within the week.  Apparently he came of the incident with only a few bruises and a mild concussion.  Sam and I regrouped and headed back to the finish line to seethe podium.

“Hey, Sam.  Wouldn’t it be funny if I won the U-23 title?”

He and I met up with the rest of the team at the finish and started talking.  It was promptly interrupted by my name “Kyle Bruley” being called over the PA by Richard Fries.  I didn’t win, but Bronze ain’t bad.  I joking earlier when I had suggested the idea – I hadn’t even expected to place at all.  The rider who won, Gavin Mannion, is on Trek-Livstrong…so I mean, c’mon…like I was going to beat a pro rider who lapped me.  3rd place in the Espoir Massachusetts State Criterium Championship. Nice.





I was even more dumbfounded down than before.  This was all completely unexpected.  After exchanging a few pleasantries and another handshake with Gavin I headed back to the team who had been yelling at me on the podium.  I can haz confusion:


The U-23 category is known as the Espoir category.  I was a new Espoir – a new “hope.”  It gave me a boost of confidence despite the proximity of the “victory” so close to the end of my season.  Overall in the race I finished 23/100.  If you break down the results further, you’d see that GLV swept the Cat 3 podium (had there been one) and we all finished in the top-30.  I was predicted to finish 61st, and AJ and Gregg were supposed to finish 74th and 70th, respectively.  The Road-Results predictor had us way off, and it’s not the first time that’s happened.

Beverly was the beginning of the end of my season.  New England Regional Road Race Championships were next at Tokeneke.