Cheerwine Cycling has all but dominated the first two stages of the women’s race at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic. After winning Thursday’s time trial, the team took the top two spots in Friday’s 69-mile road race, with Catherine Cheatley and Kristin McGrath finishing one-two. The last step on the podium was taken by Kathleen Billington (Connecticut Coast).

Friday’s grueling route took riders up and over the Princeton Hill climb six times before turning left and ascending through Mount Wachusett State Park. At the top of each lap there were bonus sprint points for the taking. However, none of these factors would prove enough to break up the field, as they rode together the entirety of the race.

Cheatley crossed the finish line with one hand in the air and a smile on her face. This could be partly because of the immense amount of teamwork that went in to putting her at the top of Mount Wachusett first. It could also be because Cheatley, a New Zealander, found out the night before that she had earned a spot on her national Olympic team.

“I found out last night that I made the squad, and since this is going to be the last race with my team I wanted to do a good job.” Cheatley said, quickly adding, “although it's not over yet.”

The green-jersey competition was a hotly contested battle as well with Carla Swart (Team Kenda Tire) and Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) going head to head over points. Coming into the final climb both women had exactly the same number of sprint points, causing a slight bit of confusion in the announcers’ booth, before the tie-breaker was applied, based on which of the two crossed the finish line first.

Carla Swart proved to be the superior climber in this case and was awarded the green jersey.

Ian Macgregor (Team Type 1) held off a hard charging field to claim the mountain top victory

Photo: Action Images, Kurt Jambretz

Men

In the men’s race the surprise was to come at the finish line. After racing more than 100 miles in humid, cloudy conditions the men climbed to the top of Mount Wachusett to finish at its fog-covered summit. Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) had spent most of the day away in a solo effort only to be brought back with one lap to go. With the field all together at the bottom of the climb it was anyone’s guess who would be the victor.

That honor would go to Milne’s teammate Ian MacGregor. Kyle Wamsley, clawing his way to second on the day, moved into the overall and the yellow jersey, while Ted King (Bissell) rounded out the top three.

“It was actually really good,” said MacGregor “As soon as Shawn got away it allowed the race to settle down a little bit … really, for us it was a free ride, which made the race relatively easy and gave us all fresh legs for the finishing climb.”

Another surprise would come with Justin Spinelli’s (KBS-Medifast) finish. Spinelli, without the help of any teammates, secured his spot in second on the GC with a huge effort to the finish. It was a big effort and did all that he could to simply hold himself up after he crossed the line.

“I raced aggressively throughout, but it was obvious that no one was going to let me go, so from there all I did was make sure that I came through that final turn near the front. I surprised myself on that climb; no one has seen me climb that well in a long time.”

Wamsley said he was happy with the jersey, but added that he was keenly aware of the struggle ahead.

“There’s two days left and it won’t be over till the end of the day on Sunday,” he said.