The Granddaddy of them All

Previewing the 2024 Somerville Criterium

Now that Nationals has come and the laurel wreaths awarded, we turn to the meat, or shall we say the heat of the criterium season. Memorial Day is traditionally viewed as the official start of summer in the United States. It may proceed the summer solstice by about a month, but we love our traditions. Somerville is one of the most revered traditions that we have in criterium racing. It is not only the second Crit Monument of the year but also the oldest of them all. Somerville’s first edition was in 1940 and the men’s race has survived a world war, pandemic, hurricanes, recessions, gas shortages and everything else that has been thrown at it in the last 83 years to become one of the most cherished weekends of our sport. A women’s race was added in 1976 and since then, both races have featured a who’s-who list of winners, including multiple Carneys, Luke Keough, Tina Pic, Hilton Clarke, Noah Granigan, and Maggie Coles-Lyster.

The race course is relatively straightforward, prone to very high speeds and field sprints. However, it has not always ended as expected, largely due to the above average race distance— 50 miles for the men and 25 miles for the women. The course is roughly a rectangle, with two wide avenues forming the long stretches and two narrower roads on the short sides. Corner three has always been the pinch point where a slight downhill from a wide two-lane road turns left onto a narrower stretch at an angle significantly sharper than 90 degrees.

There are lots of opportunities for attacking racing on this course, but often the screaming high speeds make those attacks futile and set up a dramatic bunch sprint. Temperature is always a factor with the mid-afternoon start time for both fields. The long-range forecast is predicting around 75 degrees which in July would be delightful; but in late May that level of heat and ample humidity could be a serious wake up call for non-heat acclimated riders. We only need to reach back in the annals to last weekend at nationals to see how heat and a motivated field can shake things up. Oh, and then there is the potential for afternoon rainstorms…

Women’s Preview

Last year we saw winner Jessica Chong, who was then riding for Bike Works p/b Fred Beans, escape a last-lap crash at the very front of the field that either took down or delayed many of the women who would have been considered the likely race favorites. Chong returns this year to defend her title now on the Skyline-Cadence team but with only one teammate. She’ll need every bit of help she can get and to read the race right, because this year the field is fully stocked with horsepower.

We need not start anywhere other than with the freshly crowned repeat national criterium champion Cory Labecki of EF-Cannondale, who has proven time and again that she can handle the scrum and make things happen even when racing alone. This year, six teams are coming with more than four women on their rosters. Results-wise the most successful of those teams this year is DNA Pro Cycling who may be out to prove something following a lackluster nationals campaign which saw them off the podium, with a seventh place finish as their best result. Their roster includes Kim Lucie, last year’s American Criterium Cup points leader and Rylee McMullen the kiwi transfer who recently joined the team after the NCL failed.

With seven riders LA Sweat will be an impactful addition to the race as we haven’t seen much of them this year. They are coming off a Belgian race campaign and have done minimal domestic racing so far. Dr. Arielle Coy was their highest placed finisher at nationals in eight; but Emily Flynn finished second at Somerville last year proving that she knows how to find this particular finish line. So it should be interesting to see how they approach the race, and to see if riding the narrow farm roads of Flanders can translate to an advantage in the sharp corners of Somerville.

We are also keen to see how the rivalry between sister-teammates on L39ion of Los Angeles and Miami Blazers continues to develop this year. So far that battle has proven to turn for L39ion ever so slightly with Alexis Magner putting up several good results at Speed Week including the win at Athens Twilight. But, Skylar Schneider and the Blazers, did well at nationals to finish fourth…just behind Kendall Ryan of L39ion. Somerville will also feature the debut of a full Automatic ABUS squad with five riders including diesel engine Kim Stoveld and former Olympian BMX rider Arielle Verhaaren. The two could prove lethal if they unleash their power and punch at the right time.

Men’s Preview

Last year Danny Estevez, then of Miami Blazers, sprinted to a win over Noah Granigan, then of Denver Disruptors. Estevez is now on L39ion and Granigan is on Blazers and both teams will be there in force along with the other Williams Racing Development team Austin Outlaws. Unfortunately Justin Williams will not be there as he is currently serving a 60-day suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct stemming from an incident at Littleton last year. However, the remainder of the squads are well represented with a total 18 riders. Project Echelon will not be at this race, as they split their squad racing at the UCI Tour of Norway or out in Iowa at Snake Alley through the weekend, so the top three finishers from criterium nationals will be out.

However, there is plenty of firepower among the other teams too. For example Automatic ABUS will have three riders there including Athens Twilight winner Thomas Gibbons. Gibbons proved over the 50 mile challenging course in Georgia that he has the power and endurance to hold off motivated riders like Robin Carpenter of L39ion, and Danny Summerhill of REIGN Storm. Unfortunately the REIGN Storm squad won’t be here this weekend because they are at Winston-Salem but all of DCC, Mitoq-New Zealand Cycling Project, and some blokes from Tekkerz will be on the start line. No doubt, with the Kiwis and the Brits, we may hear some colorful turns of phrase that are less common in American English. For example the word “Mega” that we recently learned from Joe Laverick is used to describe a really good time.

Another interesting twist for this year is that an under-the-radar Daniel Holloway is set to start the race. For listeners of the podcast, you’ll remember Holloway talked to us about his adventure live-streaming and commentating in-race during The Hill at Gateway Cup in 2023. Our earnest hope is that we see some more camera action and insight from him this year. On the men’s side this one is hard to call and lay out favorites from individual teams. Of the teams that are in this race we’ve really only seen Automatic in action as a unit and they will be a man down this weekend with Davey Dawson injured.

It will be fascinating to see how the three Williams Racing teams interact with each other since there were a fair number of inter-team transfers among the three squads over the winter. They will also be up against many of the regions top teams including Foundation and Project 412. In addition there is a full UCI devo squad from Georgia, Team Novo Nordisk, which we have yet to see compete. Sommerville will crown its 69th champion on Memorial Day. There are plenty of contenders ready add their name to the race’s storied history.

Photos courtesy of the Tour of Somerville, by Trevor Raab, Steve Kovriak, and Willow Munson.