The Elite and Master competed in the Greenville Spring Series over the last three weekends. The results can all be found on the results page but here is an Elite recap of the racing.
2/21-2/22 Here we go around Donaldson Center Races
Day One. This was to be the first test of the 09 season for Globalbike p/b Catoma. With 6 riders Josh, Andre, David, Craig, Tyler and myself. We would be well represented. The first Spring Series race always brings huge fields with everyone wanting to show what they did or did not do over the winter months. This field had over 100 racers, with several large team represented. Though we placed several riders in moves, we missed the one decisive move of 9 that stayed away. The team put in some hard chasing and coming through for the last lap, we decided to set up for the sprint and salvage what we could. With about 1K to go the team lined up four riders on the left of the road and began to move to front. At about 600 meters we were sitting on the front left ready to make a push, when the moto official that had been strictly enforcing the yellow line moves up the road to help with blocking traffic. I guess this meant to some that we had the full road and due to some very inexperienced bike handling skills and racing intelligence, a crash happened taking down Tyler and Andre. David managed a top 20 for the best team place.
Day Two. GB p/b Catoma again had could representation with the same 6 from day one (though Tyler and Andre were banged up but determined to help),Austin joined us as well. It was discussed and determined right away we wanted a much better result than one top 20. The day was was really windy with gust over 40 mph and we decided to make it hard from the beginning and keep many people from just sitting in and riding around. Within a half lap David was off the front solo. He began gaining ground with us patrolling the front for another half lap. Knowing the wind and group would not allow him to solo away, we let ones and twos ride up the road. Soon there was a group of 5 established. They began to work well and put time into the SLOW moving field with us again patrolling the front. A few more attempts would go and and come back always having a GB rider attached for a ride. Eventually some solo riders did get off the front and form a chase group of 4 later catching the break of 5 with out having another GB rider with them. This was our one mistake of the day. The break stayed away, DFork brought home a 5th and a banged up Tyler managed a top 20 not bad…but the team still feels capable or more.
2/28-3/1 Fork Shoals and Donaldson Center
Day one. The race has always been a good course for us, Jimbo Cunningham has won 2 SC elite RR titles and Chris was 4th last year on this same course. We decided to stick with what got us those results, put a guy in a move early and make others chase or give us free rides. The weather would help with attrition as it was cold and wet. Within in 5 miles of the race I soloed off, only too be joined by Boyd Johnson and Chris Bulter, both of whom can out climb me on their rest days, not good. I managed to stay with them for a lap and half but got popped on one of the hills. The team seeing this came to the front and we worked to keep the break at a manageable time gap over the next 2 laps remaining. With about 5 miles to go we decided to attack and counter attack to get our guys in smaller groups up the road. This picked the pace of the race up significantly, which enabled us to catch Boyd about 3 miles from the finish. This left only Chris Butler to catch for the win. Craig put himself in a move of 3 that created a big gap. The team patrolled the front jumping onto wheels of attack after attack of anyone trying to bridge. At about a K out another attack occurred and Andre glued himself to the wheel and created another gap. Unfortunately we never caught Chris Butler (great ride on his part) but Craig stayed away with his group for 4th and Andre jumped the guy he was with for 5th and David put in a great sprint for 9th. 3 Top 10s…now that’s more like it!
Day two. Donaldson Center was cancelled do to the weather
3/7-3/8 River Falls and BMW Crit
Day one. Our goal for the day was to place David (now is 2nd overall in omnium) as high as possible. The River Falls course is tough with a 1.5K hill every lap that we go up 10 times….ahhh OUCH. The team had David, Josh, Andre, Tom and myself for accomplish this goal. Knowing a bunch of climbers we weren’t,as the lightest person for that day was Tom at 160, Josh and I both tried sneaking off the front in the first lap. NO doing and when went up the hill the first time at ridiculous speed, it set the tone for the rest of the day. However, somehow we all got in moves and drug our big arses up the hill only to have them fizzle out. A group finally did get up the road with Josh in it, but once again up the hill tyring to follow guys weighing 130 is well HARD. Josh came back and we again resigned to just getting David to the finish. The break was brought back from 1:30 to :40 about a 2 miles to go. However, that is as close as we would get. David put in a good effort to finish in the top 20, gain some more points and stay in the top 4 overall.
Day Two.
Ahh Crit Finally, dont get me wrong we have some climbers but some are hurt and some were racing collegiate. So with the 160lbs and above crew, a flat windy crit is just what the doctored ordered. The team lined up with David, Josh, Andre, Austin, Rod (doubling) and myself with a goal of getting David and one other team member in a move, in order to move him back into a top 3 overall finish. The field was once again large with a about 70 guys starting. Three pros team of Jelly Belly, Mt Khakis and DLP, 200 Lees riders and good representation from other strong elite teams. From the gun I went hard to get the race single file knowing the wind (again gusting up to 40 mph) on the back side would create huge gaps. It worked out well and Austin countered my move to stay away for 1.5 laps with one other guy. This dropped 20 guys right away. I countered Austin agian, and David hopped on a move that countered me. The group of 5 containing 2 Jellys, Thad Dulin and a Lees Mcrae ride quickly opend a big gap and never looked back. A chase group got organized with 3 Mt Khakis and one DLP, both of whom missed the move. Josh attached on the back of this group of 10 as well, but soon with MtK driving the pace in TTT mode, Josh had to close one too many gaps and came off along with about 5 other guys. About this time the break of 5 containing David lapped the field and Andre and myself went to the front to help drive the pace and stay away from the chase group. This splintered the chase group down to 4. As we rode a few more laps, the original break got off the front again, and began putting time into the field. The field now content on slowing a bit, allowed the chase group to catch a few laps later and the MtK continued to pull what was left of the field around. Josh and I stayed up front at this point, ready to jump on any wheels. No attacks were attempted, as the field being down to about 25 guys were content to just ride it out. The break finished with David fighting hard for the win but coming up just short to John Clark, a very good sprinter from Jelly Belly . David did manage a 2nd and thus securing a 2nd in the omnium overall. Josh and I finished 14th and 12th respectively.
Team Goal of moving David up in the Omnium check
A podium finish check
Informing more people about the Globalbike mission check check
Big thanks to Little River Roasting for all the FREE hot coffee, RJ Rockers for the FREE beverages after racing, and all our sponsors for your support.
Thank you to everyone that purchased Globalbike items, you just help better a LIFE with a bicycle!
More to come from Globalbike p/b Catoma….no question…this was just a warm up.
Sean
