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Monday, September 10, 2007
Aaron's Buckhead Gran Prix
Sunday marked the last race of the at the Buckhead Criterium in the downtown streets North of Atlanta.
This was the big money race to culminate the series with a $10,000 purse and 30 deep P/1/2 payout. Unfortunately, the Pacesetter team was running a few men short with Charles pulling out sick and Chris' knee still not up to par for an 80 minute interval session.
The course was pretty tough due to the tight turns and rough pavement, but the crowds were out in full force to cheer us on and watch the local amateurs duel it out with the pros on Sunday evening.
Pacesetter Steel Services was represented by Tyler, Darren, and Matt with a similar game plan as the previous day at Grant Park; to sit in and feel out the field for the first 30minutes and mark any serious moves after that. Well, that despite Tyler's first lap attack answering to a few elusive MAR (most aggressive rider) points that were announced on the first lap. The pace really didn't relent from there.
Everything was falling into place pretty well until about 40 minutes in the race when the main move of the day went up the road without representation from the team. It was only three riders, three riders with national reputations, but it still would have been nice to have someone in the move. Unfortunately things don't always work out, but Tyler, Darren and Matt put some good work in the field to get in another move before the finish but to no avail. Tyler is a heavily marked man in the Georgia cup series, Matt's legs don't work very well at this point in the season, and Darren is still a bit green at the P/1/2 level to make a serious go at the breakaways.
However, when it did come down to the field sprint, the whole team managed to place within the money and we all left over $100 richer (enough to pay for Darren's drinks at Fado's, Tyler's wife's payoff for him racing every weekend, and a week's rent for Matt).
Obviously a team of our quality is not looking for a top 30 placing when we start out a race but at this point in the season we have to take it all with a grain of salt. Our next race is the Georgia State Time Trial Championship in Rome followed by a couple races hosted by Hincapie up in Greenville.
Thanks again to all the Pacesetter faithful who came out to the races to cheer us on and to Christian for running the radios.
And a shout out to Andrew in the Cat 3 race who pulled down a 5th place on the day!
Christian Leask
12:36 PM |
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