Racer Ed Peterson Report
Smethport Pa, a 53 mile road race known as the "Wheel around the Hub", but what has become better known as "The Race for the Golden Watch" is a race that caught my eye several months ago.

Seems that back in the early 1890's a local dentist by the name of Dr. F.C. Peirce (an avid cyclist) decided to get into the bicycle business as a distributor for Rambler bicycles and in order to create interest and promote sales, decided to sponsor a bicycle race around the "hub" of his hometown Smethport Pa; the first place prize being a gold watch. Ya gotta check out their website, a lotta neat history.
So the bike races continued until the age of the automobile took over thereby squashing the golden age of American cycling. A couple of years ago the race was resurrected in it's current modern era form. Who could resist a race with so much history? Another bizzare twist it that the is listed with no USCF categorys. You sign up for the 15 mile "fun" race or the 53 mile "real" race. And no confirmed rider list. So we had no idea what to expect; it could be a bunch of local recreational riders or the Navigators Pro team on the startin' line. When in doubt, let's go racin' ! So I called my usual partner in crime, Mark Cowin and talked him into it (took about 8 seconds) and started to make arrangements. And I forgot to mention one big downer, it's a six hour drive to Smethport. Their home team is the Buffalo Bills. Drive another half hour and your in Lake Erie. So in an infrequent display of common sense we reserved a room at the Smethport Motel (very nice clean accomodations) and drove up Friday night. It felt good to wake up refreshed from a good night's sleep prior to a race; an uncommon occurence for us.We awoke to a soft, steady rain that was to last all day, but at least it was warm. We raced last month in Hurricane Ernesto and in the brutal cold rain back in March at Newark, so this was downright balmy. The course is a 7.5 mile loop that starts out with a long 1 mile slightly downhill run down Main street that kicks into a drop away right hander that takes you about
another mile to a slight uphill right hander. Then there's about a 2-3 mile stretch of open wind swept road with a very slight climb near the end that drops into anothe tight righthander. It gets tricky here as the road surface turns to garbage and you cross a slippery wooden bridge, hit a little kicker, then another right hand turn. Another long stretch with a metal grate bridge, a small rise, and a fast downhill sweeper into town. A quick left then right, a 1/2 mile past the lake, another right and on to the finish. A short power climb dumps you on Main Street for the final 300 meter sprint. In another interesting twist we all had timing transponders (nice touch) to record our exact finish. Only catch was you had to cross the timing mats which limited the sprint to one lane. Fortunately the small hill tends to string things out. So an interesting day.

So we started at 12:00 noon and right from the gun(literally, they actually had a starters pistol!) the pack took off. We were hammerin' down Main Street at 30 mph and the race was on. We were scheduled for seven laps and I figured things would settle down soon enough. The first lap was pretty brisk with lots of attack what with everyone feelin' fresh and fiesty. Every lap had a minimum $50.00 prime to keep things hoppin'.

By the second lap things had slowed down a bit, I guess everyone realized this was gonna be a two hour and change road race, not a ten mile crit so it was time to conserve a little. My always on the attack team mate Mark made one or to exporatory forays off the front as did a couple of other guys, but it didn't get serious until the 5th lap when a group of about eight started to open a gap coming through town. This breakaway had potential and as we were coming up to the right hander heading onto the back straight they had about 500 yards
and weren't slowing down. Mark took off after them and the chase was on heading down the back stretch. This was the deciding move as Mark and a couple of other strongmen traded pulls at the front keepin' the pace well over 30 mph. This is where the last of the weak riders got shelled off and I just had my nose on the stem hangin' tough.The break started to come apart as they were feelin' the pressure and as they drifted back to the main pack, one guy attacked the break and he was GONE!.

By this time the field was flat out burnt and this guy (sorry I don't know you name) was simply pullin' away. Everyone seemed resigned to a field sprint for second and rode fast but steady into the last lap.

Somewhere during the last lap I noticed the pace car up ahead, I could not believe we caught the lone ironman; turns out the poor guy flatted! Now we were the lead group and the race for "The Golden Watch" was back on. There were several half-hearted attacks, but the group was together headin' into town with me and Mark sittin' somewhere in the top 20. We came around the sweeper, there was a car comin' throughas we tore through the right-left headin' towards the lake. As I jumped out of the last corner I felt my legs crampin' bad; all I could think was "no, not now!" I threw it in a small gear and spun as best I could. The field made the second to last turn and we
raced for the hill and the final turn onto Main Street. By this time I could barely pedal. Mark came through for a nice 12th place and I managed to get across in 25th. The only other guy I knew from back our way was Tim Arnold, a cat 4 from NJ who had probably his best race of the year witha 9th place finish. He was at the front quite a bit on the last lap also. In addition Mark ended up 3rd in his age group as did I. So a respectable if not stellar showing against some pretty stiff competition(I later found out there were a lot cat 3's, a coupla 2's and some serious Master's riders in the group)

So the "Quest for the Golden Watch will have to wait another year, meantime I'll use my Timex and think about the crazy dentist that started this whole thing.

Your"from the back but with the pack" reporter

Ed Peterson
edwardpeterson@hotmail.com