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.