BWR’s Chris Emory Takes State RR Gold!

September 11, 2007 on 11:39 pm | In Road Racing |

Sept 1,2007

This past Saturday the NC/SC road race championship was held in Greenville, SC.  The course was a 15 mile loop made up of fast straits and some rollers.  Representing Biowheels were: Mike Jackson and Andy Pooser for the masters 35+, Chris Emory and myself for the Cat 3’s, Daniel Crone for the Cat 4’s, and Travis Fender and Bruce Steinfurth in the Cat 5’s.

Mike and Andy had to get up early for there race which started at about 9am.  They were doing 4 laps for 60 total miles.  The race was steady and somewhat “surgey” as Mike put it.  Heading into the final section of stair steps up to the uphill finish, Andy put in a little dig to string out the pack.  The plan was to lead out Mike, but Mike dropped his chain.  After getting back into the race Mike finished up in the top 20.

  -Chris and Zach

 Just before starting the Cat 123 race, a vote was held.  The Cat 3’s decided to have a separate field.  This made for a much more interesting race.  The first lap was somewhat slow until a break went off containing several very strong guys.  I figured my job might be very easy at this point, just block!  But the break was brought back.  On the third lap a one man break was away.  This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but the guy in the break was dangerous.  There was a fairly organized effort to pull him back.  But when he sensed it wasn’t going to happen Chris went to the front and put in some large pulls.  I was going to tell him to back off and save some energy.  But I realized that if not for his efforts, this break was not going to be reeled in!  Coming through the final feed, and going into the final lap the break was neutralized.  It was around this time that I popped.  However, Chris decided to make his move.  After blowing through everyone up the road except one, he was away.  Chris and the other guy worked together to get about a 2 minute advantage over the field.  On the final set of rollers Chris powered away from his breakaway partner to take the Cat 3 state title!  As a side note he is also the SC state champion.  Way to go Chris!!!

Later in the day the Cat 5’s raced.  Travis ended up in 5th place.  Bruce finished up 15th.

That night Daniel, Chris, my wife Tracy, and I attended the awards ceremony at Barley’s in Greenville.  But there were no awards, just free beer!  So we celebrated until we passed out at the hotel.

Sunday was the US pro championships!  If you haven’t been to this race, you need to.  After 4 large laps up Paris Mountain, the race ends in downtown Greenville.  The crowds were huge as we watched Levi win the “Captain America” jersey.  Also in the race were current and past Ashevillians; Justin England and Dan Timmerman.  Seeing these two suffer was a first for us!

Written by: Zach Bannow