Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Siege on Rome
What do you get when you put 5 weekend warriors that have never ridden together for a team time trial; cohesion! It was so smooth and enjoyable. Battle number 1 at Rome would test Chotas, Rossignol, Martindale, Grahovec, and the new comer Madan with a 25k team time trial. With all of a few minutes of warm up and a quick discussion to let everyone know that we were going to go at it "kind of hard, but not too hard" off we went. Well, how exciting can a tt be, it hurt, we smiled at the end and ended up with a respectable 5th; and all 5 finished together.
So, now round 2 was to be a 6 corner crit, add in a little rain, off camber corners, and badly placed barriers, guess what you get; an express lane to the ambulance. Well, with 75 minutes of gloriously riding in circles slated, we set forth into the ill-tempered fight for control of the race. At about the 15 minute mark a most spectacular wreck started about 5 riders in front of me and looked like I was going to be one of the casualties, but luckily Christian had parted the steel barriers in the previous race giving me a clean shot up and over the curb, except for the back wheel, all is well. Apparently it was a decent job of missing the wreck given the following quote from the 70 year old corner marshal; "this one boy just came out of nowhere, gliding over the curb, dodging the guy wire, and then barely missing the big oak tree, that was impressive." So, needless to say, I think we might have a free place to stay next year in Rome. In the end, all the Pacesetter gang ended up on the right side of the day and came across the line ready to fight another day. Knowing what was to be on hand for Sunday, I maybe should have provided myself with an excuse to lie in bed.
Now onto the mountain goat portion of the weekend. The 24 mile rr loop would be so easy if it wasn't for the last 1.5 miles. You would think one would learn from past mistakes, but I can't say that I fall into that category. Philip was one of the first riders to attack after the little neutral roll out gaining almost 5 minutes on the group before the climb, which I should have done so that I would not have to chase the whole second lap with Tyler, only to catch on 3 miles before the climb. Well, I made the mistake not going on the first lap so I decided that I would get a few of the non-climbers to roll up the road with me to try and get at least a minute on the group before the climb, but some lone joker was having none of it and chased us to the base of the climb. Well, completely fried, my day was over, but Chris was still riding strong in the group. From what I heard, Chris hung in there on the last lap only allowing a small group go off the front and then finishing strong on the 3rd time up the beast of a climb. In the end it was an enjoyable weekend and gave us a great start to the second half of the season.
Christian Leask
11:53 AM |
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Travis on the podium at Georgia Cup # 3
Christian Leask
12:53 PM |
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Trvais Hanger 8th place overall in the Georgia Cup Series
Christian Leask
12:09 PM |
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Georgia Cup # 4 Dahlonega, GA
Wow this is what I was talking about in taking a rest at Savannah. We come in to this Georgia Cup well rested and ready to kick it. On a 5 mile up hill Time Trial up Neal’s Gap, we get set to throw down, Chris our best climber can’t make it today so it’s up to Travis, Russ, and Tyler to represent and we do. Travis kick’s 15th, Tyler 21st and Russ 24th.
We go into the circuit race looking to pull out something special. Travis is feeling it today and lets us know so Russ and I work totally in support of Travis. With breaks going up the road almost from the gun Russ just keeps attacking with each group. With a steep short climb about ¾ of the way in to each lap everything settles down just before we hit it then it all breaks loose towards the top, with the climbers trying to distance themselves for the flat Landers. On the last lap Tyler starts to attack to keep the pace high soften everyone up for Travis. On the last rise before the finish as the group slows Travis comes from the back and hit’s the gas! He gaps the field quickly putting time into the rest of the group to easily take home 3rd!
Chris is back for the for infamous 6gap road race with a mountain top finish on Woody’s Gap. The race was 2 laps of Woody’s Gap, Wolfpen Gap, and Neals Gap all climbs from the Tour of Georgia. About 8000 feet of climbing when it was all said and done. Again today was then same as yesterday with attacks starting from the gun! Russ killed it to be in every attack to make sure nothing got away and Travis and Chris could sit in. The first time up Woody’s Chris went to the front and set a killer pace riders were dropping left and right. After two laps Chris and Travis closed the deal finishing 9th and 12th! Chris pick up 3rd in the King of the Mountain competion and Traivs was 6th overall!
Christian Leask
11:45 AM |
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Georgia Cup #3 Savannah
What can you say about a Team Time Trial when you have 4 riders and 4 pro/elite teams each show up with 9-10 riders. You soft pedal and save the fight for another day. The weekend that just wasn’t to be, with our best finish being Travis in 19th in the road race. It’s been four hard months of racing for us, with little rest. Time for a short break before to rest before the summer races.
Christian Leask
11:39 AM |
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Roswell Historic Criterium
What a race after racing till almost midnight on Saturday night in Athens we were back at it in Roswell Sunday at 1p. Luckily Litespeed brought an extra fork down so Tyler could replace his fork from the crash in Athens. We raced much better on today, Tyler took off on the first couple of laps to set a hard pace from the gun, with Charles and chris just sitting in the group nice and comfortable, with four laps to go the was a crash in turn two that caught Chris, Charles and Tyler were fine in the group but two riders went up the road. The two guys in the break had a nice 30 second lead when we came around with one to go, Tyler jammed it to the front a caught the breakaway on the back side of the course leaving Chris and Charles set for the sprint. Charles came out of turn 4 and kicked it just a little to early and was caught about 50 meters from the line to finish 8th, with Chris and Tyler finishing in the group.
Christian Leask
11:39 AM |
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Athens Twilight Cirterium Pro Race
The race known as the fastest crit in America! It’s 1:45 long around downtown Athens. Which for those who don’t know is where University of Georgia Athens is located so it’s a party… One of the few races that you finish smelling like a brewery from the fans throwing beer on you as you go into the turns, for the fans it’s NASCAR on the bike. The race started at 9:30 at night with Pacesetter Steel was looking pretty pro when we lined up. All of the pro teams where still around from the Tour of Georgia so it was going to be a fast race. With in 5 laps from the start there was a big crash at the exit of turn 4 which took out Russ, Chris, Tyler and Travis. Charles was still in, Chris, Russ and Travis where able to jump back into the race but it killed them going from zero to 35mph in a couple hundred yards puts a big hurt on so half way into the race we were all out. Of the 190+ starters in the pro field only 15 finished. What a race! Thank you to Litespeed for setting up a tent for us to use for the race warm-up.
Christian Leask
8:38 AM |
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Tyler trying to hit the camera man at Gainesvile 2 of 2
Christian Leask
8:32 AM |
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Tyler at Gainesville getting close to the camera man 1of 2
Christian Leask
8:30 AM |
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Monday, July 17, 2006
Tyler at the Gainesville TT
Christian Leask
4:17 PM |
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Georgia Cup #2 Gainesville, GA
Pacesetter Steel Cycling Team pulls 2 top 10’s and 2 top 15 results…
What a weekend Gainesville was. TT was awesome it started raining as Travis started with Tyler starting 30 seconds behind him. With the Australian National TT Champion starting 1 minute behind Tyler. So in the downpour Tyler’s only job was to try not to loose much time to him. Which netted Tyler 13th, Charles 19th and Travis 23rd.
The cirt was a barnburner, fast tight and hot. Russ, Travis and Charles rolled it. Chris pulled back and early break, spent. Tyler went off the front towards the end to pick up the pace to help pull back a late break. Travis continued rolling (average speed 27mph) it to the finish leaving Russ and Charles to finish the job. Russ 10th, Charles 15th, and Travis 35th.
The road race was a rolling 5-mile loop with two big climbs. Tyler jumped in the first break, which got pulled back; Travis went with the second break the stuck. Chris, Russ and Tyler shut it down in the group. Travis stayed away to grab 8th and Tyler 25th.
Travis finished the weekend by taking 11th overall.
Christian Leask
3:55 PM |
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Georgia Cup #1 Albany, GA
A wet and wild start to the season! Of course it was dry when we left Atlanta at 5 am to head south to Albany for the kick off to the Georgia Cup Series, and about an hour from Albany the sky opened up like a fire hose. It rained right up to our start for the TT, which was an out and back on the criterium course so it was 12 turns of wet fun in the sun (which had come out).
Russ 6th, Tyler 9th, Charles 20th, Chris 29, and Travis 44th
It couldn’t stay sunny for the criterium so after a 6 hour wait we started to get ready for the crit opened the door to the hotel to have it start down pouring again as we loaded up the cars to head to the race. It was so nasty and raining so hard you could barely see up the road. We averaged 26 mph for 1.5-hour race in the end it shook out with Russ in 6th, Tyler 23rd, and Charles 29th.
Sunday sunny and hot! It was a rolling 25mile loop with a stiff crosswind which we did 3 laps. The road race didn’t pan out so well for us, Russ 31st, Tyler 41st and Chris 44th.
Christian Leask
3:40 PM |
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Greenville Training Race #3 River Falls Road Race
Well the whole team showed up for our first race of the year, the River Falls in the Appalachian Mountains. Its 10 laps of a 6-mile loop that basically consists of 1 big climb and a lot of flat back to the climb with a hill top finish. All the big Southeast Elite teams showed up to test each other before the first Georgia cup race two weeks later. We rode well as a team make it over the climb in the lead group each time and on the last lap a break tried to go away, Charles and Tyler worked hard to pull the break back so Chris, Russ and Travis had a good shoot going last climb it worked all three finished in the top 20, perfect results for our first race of the year.
Christian Leask
3:37 PM |
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