Peter Maher '09 and Brian Moses '09 Win Exeter Cup Cycling Race

 
Two Friends, Two Months, Six Seconds

The Exeter (NH) Cup is a prestigious competitive cycling race that takes the top high school road cyclists from New England and pits them against each other in a unique two-man team time trial format. When Peter Maher and Brian Moses were positioned as a team at the start of Saturday’s Exeter Cup, they believed they had a special edge.

Maher and Moses, two Kimball Union Academy seniors, knew each other’s intricate body language, quirks and strengths as competitive cyclists perhaps better than any other teammates in this annual competition.  Last summer the pair spent the months of June and July raising money to help educate underprivileged children a world away. The two friends successfully secured sponsorships and raised thousands of dollars for the newly founded Beverly School in Kenya. The donations and pledges that they were able to raise were in response to their promise to complete a circuitous 4,000 mile bicycle journey from Seattle to Boston, while spreading the word about the needs and hopes of the Kenyan children.

Maher and Moses spent hundreds of hours riding only inches apart while pacing each other over the Rockies and Appalachians and taking their turns at the front pushing through the headwinds of the prairie. It was during this successful transcontinental journey, that the two aspiring competitive cyclists began to learn about the intricacies of each others’ ability and unique riding style.  

However, that was last summer’s accomplishment and now they were to be tested on an equally important journey. While the Exeter Cup event was far shorter, (slightly under 10 miles) than their transcontinental ride, it nonetheless posed a challenge and an opportunity for the pair.

High School bicycle racing in New England is fiercely competitive. On the brighter side, it fosters a sense of health, fitness and camaraderie. However, it is also an inherently dangerous sport where young athletes often approach or exceed the take-off speed of small aircraft. While there are many schools such as Exeter, Andover and Deerfield Academy who field dozens of hardened competitive riders, other smaller schools can still enter talented athletes with similar hopes and dreams of success.

A year earlier, Maher and Moses had won the developmental class in the Exeter event as first year riders but now they were moved up to the more competitive level. Despite the odds against them, they believed in themselves and had every intention of winning this year’s challenging two-man team time trial.

The Exeter course is demanding and technical. Riders are subjected to 6 major turns per 1.2 mile lap. Additionally, the narrowness of the streets and placement of the spectator barriers mandates that good judgment is used to avoid crashing. However, when riders are too prudent, winning can be elusive. To win at this level, Maher and Moses knew they had to believe in each other and they needed to take risks.

As each pair of riders left the starting line at ten second intervals, the crowds began to congregate to see the action in the corners. While many two-man teams safely changed their lead positions on the straight sections, the more skilled riders were able to make a faster switch in the corners. By midway, it became apparent through the network of timers and officials that this year’s race was going to be one of the tightest finishes in the Exeter Cup’s history. Maher and Moses were once again on a mission. They entered each corner with great speed, sometimes elbow to elbow as they made their position change. Occasionally their tires touched and often their shoes brushed against the hay bales at thirty miles per hour. As the bell sounded to indicate the final lap, most of the top teams were within sight of each other. While there was the normal raucous cheering from the crowd that indicates the end of a race, this cheering suddenly turned into a strange and eerie stillness as the riders and their coaches were not sure which team had won.

As the official began taping the results to a board, the riders and coaches began crowding around them like a school of piranhas in a gold fish bowl. The usual celebratory atmosphere of power teams of Exeter, Andover and Deerfield curiously wasn’t there. A group of smaller teams from the Upper Valley area had upset the traditional power teams and battled their way into the top positions

Hanover High’s Gus Griffin and Jake McLaughlin had ridden to third place, Proctor Academy’s riders were second and Maher and Moses from Kimball Union Academy were declared this year’s Exeter Cup winners in 19 minutes and 45 seconds, a margin of a mere six seconds. These were the two friends who spent two months of their past summer helping a bunch of kids on another continent. These were the two friends who spent two month learning about each other. And these were the two friends who were also able to put their knowledge and desires to good use and on one day in early May of 2009, they found the edge that gave them the six seconds to win a race they believed that they could.

 by William Farrell, KUA mathematics teacher and cycling coach.