Full results on road-results.com

If you’re looking for photos, they are available in two spots: Google Images (lower resolution highlight images), SmugMug (high-quality, available for purchase, full collection of photos). All photos are by Katie Busick.

Well, the 2017 Exeter Classic (the 34th edition of the race!) is a wrap! A great night of racing in both of our fields. Here’s a rundown (from what the announcer could see):

Women’s Race

Our women’s race had a well-balanced field of 20 riders, with Green Line Velo the largest (and strongest) team in the field. They also came into the race with the Verge Sport New England Crit Week leader’s jersey (on the shoulders of Regina Legge) and leading the NE Crit Week team overall after the first race of the series in Greenfield, MA on Sunday.

We got the prime bell ringing early (as soon as the lap cards were up) awarding the Nate Miller prime to collegiate racer Ashlyn Woods. Ashlyn was on a tear on Tuesday night – winning the Irreverent Road Ride prime, The David Barrows 9th lap prime, and the CCB/Loco Cycling Chad Young memorial prime – going home with $400 in primes alone!

The race stayed mostly together, and the constant bell-ringing during the 45-minute race couldn’t break a group off the front. Emma Bast (Zubaz Racing) won the Brian Bogart Halfway Prime, and Laura Summers (Team ERRACE p/b DSO Manufacturing) won the Site Structures $1.50/lb prime.

Green Line Velo controlled the race throughout, content to sit out the primes in the hopes of going home with the win – and keeping Regina Legge in the New England Crit Week leader’s jersey. To this end, they burned up riders at the front of the race in the final five laps as they kept it under control.

Legge opened up her sprint from way out, and was came across the line with a sizable gap over Emma Bast in second.

Men’s Race

The Men’s race saw 93 starters (but only 59 finishers – the pace was no joke!) racing for one hour with the same prime list and value as the women’s race. The Exeter Classic is a favorite race of many, so the field was stacked with some of the best road (and cyclocross) racers in the country. A bandaged Sam Rosenholtz (CCB Velotooler), injured from a training crash on Sunday and on great form after a stretch racing in Europe, joined us on the start line. Adam Myerson (Cycle-Smart) left Tour of America’s Dairylands (and a top-ten overall finish) on a red-eye flight to make it to the race in Exeter. Cyclocross superstars Curtis White (Rally) and Stephen Hyde (Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld) also joined for some racing on pavement.

The mens race stayed mostly together, with some small groups going off the front but none lasting more than a lap or two. But the prime bell kept the pace up (and kept a stream of riders getting spit out the back)!

The Nate Miller prime, five laps, in went to Stephen Ramirez (Monster Media p/b ButcherBox). That was followed shortly with Curtis White winning the David Barrows 9th lap prime, and Thomas Barnett (ERRACE p/b DSO Manufacturing) going home with the IRR entry fee/beer/straight cash prime. Former Exeter Champion Adam Myerson won the Brian Bogart Halfway Prime (and I will have to check – but his name may already be on the plaque for that one!).

Gaelen Kilburn (Hot Tubes) went home with the Site Structures $1.50/lb prime.

The final prime of the night – the Chad Young prime – went to Mike Morse (Colonial Bicycle Company).

Green Line Velo tried to control the race to the best of their ability to keep their man Cole Archambault in the NE Crit Week leaders jersey, though GLV was challenged by CCB Velotooler for the front-end of the race as the lap cards counted down.

Unfortunately for GLV and Archambault, the series leader was caught up in a crash in the final few laps and did not finish.

In the midst of this, a group of five worked their way off the front of the race within four laps to go. This group contained Curtis White, James Brookshire (Chainheart Cycling Development), Sam Rosenholtz, Alan Rego (Lupus Racing Team) and Adam Myerson.

The group of five came onto the finish together, but Curtis White opened up his sprint and won by half a wheel over Brookshire and Rosenholtz.

Thank you!

Thank you to all of our racers, volunteers, the businesses and residents of the town of Exeter, and our sponsors – Exeter Hospital, Unitil, La Festa Brick and Brew, Exeter Cycles, D Squared Java, Las Olas and Dodge’s Agway.

Hope to see you all in 2018!