Locals Play Key Roles in this Weekend's Gran Prix of Gloucester

It’s easy to understand the bikes. Take road bikes you’re used to seeing and give them stronger brakes and knobby (but still skinny) tires. 

Then comes racing. Ride that bike through dirt, loose corners, sand and - if you’re lucky - mud or snow. With people on all sides, racing against you.  And do all this while pedaling until you can’t really see straight, for one hour plus a lap. Sound like fun? No? Yet cyclocross is the fastest growing segment of cycling in the country. 

It turns out that some of the discipline’s greatest minds are right here in Hamilton and Wenham.

Wenham’s Christopher Igleheart is an artisan, who takes steel tubing and a torch and hand builds some of the most respected bicycles in the world.

“Having the Cambridge Bicycle team riding my bikes is a real thrill,” he says, “…it does add a big feeling of honor and pride to see these riders giving their all on something I made with my hands.”

And Stu Thorne, owner of Pinnacle Bikes (formerly Bay Road Bikes in Hamilton) is the owner of Cyclocrossworld.com, a leading source of cyclocross products and information online. Additionally, he runs one of the sport’s most dominant teams, with former US and Swiss national champions in its ranks and is considered one of the sport’s best mechanics. 

“If you were a beginner looking to get into the sport, it’s got a little bit of running, its got a little bit of mountain biking, it’s got a little bit of road biking in it," Thorne said, explaining cyclocross. "The terrain’s not so technical that you have to have really good mountain biking skills, not so road-oriented where you’re afraid to go around fast corners on pavement, the running aspect isn’t enough running where you have to be a marathon runner or a sprinter, or anything like that. It involves all those different disciplines. People say, ‘I can do all these little things and I don’t have to be really good at any one of them, I can just kind of put them all together.’”

When the Gran Prix of Gloucester is held each fall, these local residnet shave a chance to perform close to home. The race, taking place this weekend at Stage Fort Park, includes people like Igleheart, Thorne, and race organizer Paul Boudreau, from Hamilton and Wenham. And so do the many area residents that are part of the Essex County Velo club, who volunteer and make the race happen.

The two day events has races each day, with amateur racing in the morning and the elite racers taking to the course at 2:30 p.m.

On Saturday, after a grueling hour, Brit Helen Wyman was victorious in the women’s race.  After a hard-fought race against Northampton’s Jeremy Powers, Swiss champ (and current Manchester-by-the-Sea resident) Christian Heule took the first day’s title.

Racing continues on Sunday, with pro races starting at 2:30 p.m.

As Igleheart says, “A spectator can walk the whole course and see riders deal with hill run-ups, clearing barriers, sand traps and usually a good sprint at the end.”