South Carolina Low County Velo / Pivotal Fitness Weekend 4/18-19

This weekend Dan, Jafer, Thomas, and Rebecca headed to Charlestown, South Carolina for another weekend of crit racing. Anthony came along to help support the team and to sell coffee, as his wrist is still recovering from last weeks crash. Saturday’s course was in a small planned community in Mount Pleasant. It was a “scenic yet technical course” as there were multiple turns, a roundabout, and a small brick section towards the end of the lap. The race was aggressive, but with little results as none of the teams worked together or used their numbers. The group seemed content to chase anyone brave enough to attack only to sit-up after the catch. However, with five laps to go, a few riders went up the road but was reduced to just one rider after Jafer pulled the riders back. The lone rider was still ahead with a five second lead on the final lap. Jafer took another hard pull on the last lap in an effort to bring the lone rider back but the other teams were of no help. Dan then helped to keep Thomas at the front of the peloton for the remainder of the lap. Thomas slightly miscalculated his line with two turns to go, sending him over the rough brick section of the turn. This resulted in him popping out of both pedals at high speed but was able to stay upright. Despite this setback, he still placed second in the sprint behind Jelly Belly’s Jonny Clarke for 3rd place. In the women’s event, Rebecca dominated the field by riding away solo. Early on she split the field by herself and then rode away with another rider. After a few laps she dropped her breakaway companion and held off the chasing field for a well deserved win.

Sunday’s race was a straight forward course, as it was essentially a large oval with only one real corner. Because of the simple and fast course, no breaks were able to gain more than a few seconds. With 5 laps to go, Jafer, Dan, and Thomas began moving up to the front of the field. They quickly took control of the race with a little more than two laps to go, keeping the pace high enough to prevent attacks. The trio was still setting the pace on the final lap and Jafer took a massive pull down the backside of the course. As Jafer pulled off, Thad Dulin tried to control the front but Dan jumped on his wheel while Thomas stayed protected behind him. Coming around the last corner with about 500m to go, Dan took over and began the sprint. With 300m to go, Thomas powered around to easily take the win by several bike lengths in the long straightaway sprint. Rebecca also raced with the men and represented the team in several moves while getting some good speed work in to prepare for next week’s Twilight event.

Hoover Crit (4/4/09)

The taste of victory continues to be sweet. Racing in Hoover, AL, the Jittery Joe’s U25 p/b Kudzu.com boys proved that they really have themselves dialed in as a unit for the local pro-am races. Even without the largest team in the race, the guys showed that it was really quality that mattered, as they worked together to come away with the win and more. A straightforward 60 minute criterium with a small hill on the start/finish straight allowed the guys to take turns, methodically attacking, until the elastic finally snapped. After a 14 rider selection broke away (including Anthony, Oscar, Thomas, and Dan) from the main pack, “Beno” (Anthony Bennett) escaped out of the break with Atlanta’s Tony Scott. As Oscar and Thomas patrolled the front group, the main field was eventually lapped by the break, with Anthony and Tony still ahead of the field. While still helping to race for primes, Jafer lead Thomas out for one the prime. With his burst, Thomas was not only able to take the prime, but was also able to continue forward alone, eventually making contact with the two leaders. After arriving on the final lap, he was able to jump through and lead out the sprint. Only Beno was able to come by him and the team sealed a dominant 1-2 finish. To cap off the day, Jafer kicked it again, to lead Oscar out for the field sprint (5th). A still proud director (Dan) had a front row seat and finished 7th.

Not to jinx things, but the season could not have started much better. To date the team has: 4 wins (by 3 different riders), five 2nd place finishes, a few additional podium appearances, and no race worse than 5th!

On tap for the next two weeks: the team will essentially be resting and doing some final preparation for their first big challenge of the season, the Tour of the Battenkill in upstate NY. In the meantime they will be racing on the Dick Lane Velodrome in Atlanta for the next two Wednesday nights. If you are in the area stop by to say hello and watch the action! Buy some coffee while you are there too!

Tour de Tuscaloosa (3/28-29)

This weekends race in Tuscaloosa could be put down as a big success for the almost full team minus Mikey. Saturday consisted of what was supposed to be 45min +3laps which eventually became 30mins+5laps. The race started fast with lots of attacks in the first 3 laps on a criterium course which was a bit dark in parts, which made it a very nervous first few laps. This eventually resulted in the race winning move, which consisted of 3 riders, one of which was Joey. This made it an easy race tactically for us, where the rest of the team followed moves and let the break gain a 45 sec gap, a gap which never came back. Joey eventually out powered the break to take the win. Meanwhile in the bunch Jafer (double flatted) and Dan unfortunately fell victim to a pothole, which made Oscar take a 2 lap leadout effort for Thomas and Anthony, whom managed 4th and 5th respectively.

The road race was an undulating course made up of 7, 10mile laps with one major hill in it. As the race started, all the riders were feeling the cold but not for long as the first of many attacks began going up the road. Our tactic was simple, have someone in the breaks the entire day, the first major break to stay away was Oscar, who went solo for a lap before being caught by a chase group of 4 riders. Shortly after Jafer and another rider bridged, which looked dangerous as they had a good break of nearly 1 minute and were out of sight. The break was brought back to the field with about 30miles to go, due to a lack of cooperation.

This opened the door for another wave of attacks which resulted in Joey going solo with 25 miles to go and he quickly opened up a gap of a minute. Three riders chased after Joey but only managed to close slightly on his lead as he soldiered on to hold nearly a minute over them. With less than two laps to go, Anthony went off the front with 3 others and caught the 3 riders ahead to make a 7 man chase group, with Joey still holding just under a minute gap, with the bunch 45secs back.

Last time up the hill Joey still held the same margin and was all but guaranteed his 2nd victory in as many days. Anthony’s chase group began to break apart from the myriad attacks and he managed to follow taking them down to a bunch of 4. On the final lap Jafer followed a move that went up the road and Thomas bridged shortly after with a small chase group. On the last hill Jafer rode away from his chase bunch and managed to hold his gap to the line.

Joey went on to take the victory with a minute to spare, Anthony took the 4up sprint to take 2nd place and Jafer rode strong to catch the remains of the chase group to finish 9th and Thomas barely missed out on the money coming in 12th.

Overall it was a great effort, everybody contributed to dominate the final results for the weekend.