Sir Isaac Newton really isn’t an angry fellow. But, he’s still upset about the apple. Not just that it landed on his head and gave him a nasty lump. But because all anyone ever remembers is that he fell asleep under a tree and got conked on the noggin.

“I wasn’t napping!”
Sure, you weren’t.
In his defense, ol’ Isaac was a pretty smart guy. Optical theory. Differential and integral calculus. Method of fluxions. And, a whole bunch of other genius-type stuff. But, the one he’s most remembered for is his universal law of gravitation. Go ahead, hop on your bike and try to pedal up hill for almost 8 miles and see if he was wrong.
What? You’d love to?
Once a year, he gives you that chance–Newton’s Revenge. It’s a bike race up the Mt. Washington Auto Road, and Isaac is pulling out all the stops. It’s long, it’s steep and it’s really hard. Are you up for the challenge? Sir Isaac is waiting.

Tom Danielson Just Misses Record in 2010

Tom Danielson, who eight years ago set the bicycle record for the climb up the Mt. Washington Auto Road, returned to the White Mountain this weekend to try to improve on his time and missed by just eight seconds. On a clear day with only a slight wind, Danielson pedaled up the 7.6-mile Auto Road today in 49 minutes 32 seconds, agonizingly shy of his 2002 mark of 49:24.

Danielson was riding in Newton’s Revenge, the first of two bicycle races held each summer on the ultra-steep Auto Road. He set his still-standing record in the older race, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, and repeated as champion in 2003. Behind him on the same course today were nearly 200 other cyclists, including Marti Shea, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, who won the women’s race as handily as Danielson won the men’s.

At the 6288-foot summit of the highest peak in the Northeast, Shea clocked a winning time of one hour 9 minutes 36 seconds, well ahead of runnerup Dominique Coderre of Montreal (1:21:03) and third-place Carol Meader of Raymond, Maine (1:21:48). While Danielson, a world-class cyclist whose specialty is hill-climbing, was in a class by himself, a close battle for second in the men’s field finished with Charles McCarthy of Middlebury, Vt., breaking away from Gerry Clapper, of Avon, Conn., to finish in 1:01:27. Clapper was third in 1:01:58.

“I was on a perfect pace,” said Danielson as he cooled off at the summit. “But it can be tough when you think you know what you’re doing. I wish I’d gone eight seconds faster, but I overanalyzed it.”

All in all, the 32-year-old pro from Boulder, Colorado, was pleased with his performance, especially since it came only a few weeks after a training-ride crash in which he had broken one vertebra and damaged his pelvis and one shoulder. He said he feels ready for the Tour of Poland, which he will race next, followed by the Vuelta a Espana, a 21-day stage race involving most of the same teams that compete in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, including Danielson’s team, Garmin.

While Danielson just missed matching the record he set in his first ride up Mt. Washington, the team of John Bayley and Kristen Gohr smashed the existing record for tandem bicycles. Bayley, 41, originally from Dublin, Ireland, but now living in Watertown, Mass., and Gohr, 33, from Reading, Mass., shot forward with the leaders at the starting cannon – they actually led Danielson at one point -- and rode an impressively strong and steady race, finishing in 1:06:32. That time was nearly six minutes faster than the old tandem record of 1:12:20, set by Dave Lamb and Freemont Matthew in 1997, and it was good enough to place them 11th among all finishers.

“That was the one thing that surprised me in the race,” said Danielson, smiling. “Those guys who passed me on the tandem!”

“We just thought we’d show Tom how it’s done, y’know?” Bayley quipped. “And actually, it put some pep in our step.”

The other tandem team, Christopher White and Jackie Gallant of Windham, N.H., finished in 1:40:04 and drew considerable cheering for riding the entire way while both wearing pink chiffon ballet tutus.

A few other riders tried to keep Danielson company in the early going. Jean Sylvain, 32, of Morin Heights, Quebec, sprinted off the starting line and led the pack up the first few yards of the Auto Road’s 12 percent grade before being joined by Clapper, McCarthy, Ian Gordon of Wakefield, R.I., and 20-year-old Paul Runyon of Philadelphia. By two miles up the road, however, Danielson was already 90 seconds ahead of Runyon, who held second for a while before being overtaken by older and more experienced riders. Erik Vandendries, 45, of Chestnut Hill, Mass., moved steadily forward to finish fourth in 1:02:19, and Judson Cake of Bar Harbour, Maine, came from farther back to take fifth (1:02:50). Runyon and Sylvain dropped back to finish 10th and 18th.

Originally scheduled for Saturday, July 10, the race had been postponed by one day because Saturday’s thunderstorms created dangerous conditions on the road. Sunday’s weather was mostly sunny, and the dry pavement worked to everyone’s advantage.

“I was ready yesterday,” said Shea, “but I’m psyched that we didn’t have to do it (in the rain and lightning). Today is so much nicer.”

Shea, 47, a former All-American cross-country runner at Boston University, took up cycling later and is a Category 2 rider, the second highest level in amateur cycling. She has won Newton’s Revenge in each of the four years it has been contested, going back to 2006. In 2007 the race was canceled by severe weather the entire weekend.

New for Shea this year was a lower gearing ratio on her bike – a 34-tooth chain wheel, instead of her usual 39, so that she could ride up the mountain’s severe grade while not having to stand up in her pedals as much. “I was experimenting to see how it felt,” she said. “It felt good, but it was hard to tell if I was going faster.” In fact her time was 50 seconds slower than in 2009.

Since Shea wears white cycling shorts and was sitting down most of the race, she rode with her old, cracked saddle, which is white, instead of a new black one. “Black gets your clothes all dirty!” she said, laughing.

Dominique Coderre, 51, followed Shea up the hill as she has followed her in many other hillclimbs. A former member of the Canadian national water-skiing team, Coderre turned to cycling as a way of exercising when she injured her knee while skiing, and she has hardly looked back.

“I rode better today than in the last Newton’s,” said Coderre. “And it’s early in the season. You’re supposed to peak later.” Like Shea, and like several other riders in today’s race, Coderre competes in the Bike Up the Mountain Series (BUMPS) of nine Hillclimb races around the Northeast. Shea won the 2009 series, while Coderre was second overall and first in the age group for women 50 and older.

The youngest rider in the race today was 15-year-old Chad Young, of Newmarket, N.H. Young rode while wearing the blue and white team jersey from his high school, St. Thomas, and finished in 1:16:34, placing 30th overall and third in the junior age group (19 and under) after Ezra Mullen, 17, of Nottingham, N.H. (1:09:18) and Ryan Harned, 18, of North Hampton, N.H. (1:13:08).

The oldest was Ray Gengenbach, 75, an artist from Amherst, Mass., who rode his bicycle to the Auto Road, a six-day trip during which he camped each night. He finished in 2:40:29.

The newest things in the race this year were a pair of “Elliptigo” machines – mobile two-wheeled versions of the elliptical trainers found in most gyms. Their team leader, Bryce Whiting, traveled from Solana Beach, California, to demonstrate the use of his machine on a steep uphill and was waving cheerfully as he made his way up the slopes in 1:54:22. Elliptigo co-founder Bryan Pate, 37, of San Francisco, finished in 2:01:55.

For their efforts, Danielson and Shea each won $1500. Had Danielson broken his record, that prize would have increased to $5000. The women’s record for this course is 54:02, set by Canadian champion Genevieve Jeanson in 2002.