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Friday, August 17, 2007
Dahlonega - Gold Diggers Stage Race
Where to start with a race that is all about climbing and our climbers are on the mend? Not a great recipe for success, but that doesn't mean we aren't going racing! Reid should be back for Augusta after his collarbone fracture; Chris is still working his way back from his broken leg so we needed some luck.
Well, we got it; in the form of a vague phone call from ... They called to tell me that one of their customers had called asking about group rides for at guy who was staying at his house. Not much info but the guy was here for the Dahlonega race and they thought he was a cat 1 or 2 racer, maybe a top 20 finisher. Not much for me to go on, but misery loves company, so bring it on buddy. I returned the call and after a little phone tag I was introduced to Matt Shechtman, which turned out to be the missing spice for our climbing weekend recipe. We also brought on Nick Housely for the weekend. Well Matt showed us what he could do in an up 5-mile (4 of them being uphill) TT by snatching a very strong 7th place. Chris, Nick and I finished in the high 20's, so barring a miracle, we were out of the General Classification.
We were getting more troops for the 50-mile circuit race Saturday night, Charles, Chad and Darren where on their way up. With temps hitting 100 F we needed to make sure we were getting feeds regularly and luckily for us, Matt's dad and godfather where going to be at the race to help with just that. In normal temperatures (what is normal for august in the dirty south, anyway) we would drink 2-3 water bottles during a 50-mile race, Saturday I drank 5 bottles. I would have drank more if the feed zone wasn't on the climb that turned into the attack zone as well. Well we all know you do anything better when you have a plan so before the start Chad and I intended to lay out the marching orders for the troops. Basically, they were to protect Matt. Darren and Charles got the fun job of covering the first lap, then it was Chad and Nick on the second lap, with me for the final lap. It worked to perfection as Charles made almost every break on the first lap, the one he didn't make Darren worked with Tim Henry () to pull it back. Then on the second lap Chad and Nick worked it perfectly with Chad going first and when his group got caught Nick rolled off with a group. Of course the start of the last lap the attack went on the main climb/feed zone, and Matt made the front split, I worked my way to the front on the decent. Matt's group went from about 10 riders down to two; him and Tim Henry. With Matt in 7th on GC and Tim's teammate Thad Dulin sitting in first, Tim wasn't going to be doing much work to help Matt. The gap got up to 1minute 15 seconds, and all I had to do was cover the moves that were trying to go across to Matt and Tim. It was one move after the next, coming into the home stretch I went for it with a couple of guys and I was catching guys left and right, coming into the finish. It was Matt and Tim 50 seconds in-front of the group with Tim taking the win and Matt taking second. I held the group off, till about 100-meters from the line when they came charging by me and I finished in the field. Matt moved up to 3rd on the day.
Sunday was crazy, but with no real climbers to help Matt, we did what we could. Chris went with the first move of the day, which contained 2nd on GC, which meant we started chasing from the gun. I did what I could for Matt, which wasn't much, but I helped Tim Henry pull from the bottom of Woody's - till mid- climb on Wolf Pen then he was on his own for the next lap and a half. Matt rode like a champ after 8000ft of climbing in 90-miles he finished in 7th and 6th in GC. I finished 23rd but Matt was the man of the weekend. Great Job to Matt!
Next up is Augusta; we should have Reid back and a full squad so it should be a good race weekend for us.
Thank you for reading,
Tyler
Christian Leask
11:22 AM |
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