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.