BioWheels-Deltec Road Squad Wins at Upstate Race Weekend

April 13, 2008 on 10:40 pm | In Road Racing, BW/Deltec Road Squad |

4/13/08

              

 The Upstate Race Weekend is held in the Greenville/Spartanburg area of South Carolina.  This year the first of the two race series was a road race on Saturday at the Donaldson Center.  Standouts for the day inlcuded Mike Small, Jason Smith, and Nicole Crane.  The Master’s 35+, and Master’s 45+ fields were combined.  This allowed Mike and Jason to work together.  On the final lap Mike rode off the front in a solo attack.  Jason and a few others were able to bridge up to Mike.  Then after a leadout from Mike, Jason sprinted to 4th place.  Nicole Crane decided to race the Women’s Pro/1/2/3 race and also did very well. 

 

Here is her report: 

I felt stellar. Missed my start due to a pee break and time trialed back onto the field. A perfect warmup actually and felt great the whole race. Lots of thunder and lightening and oh yeah, the ever present Donaldson Center wind and rain. My final effort began on lap 3 and I pretty much stayed up front the next 2 laps because I was too nervous to be behind people in the terrible thunderstorm (especially over the railroad tracks). One girl launched with 1 mile to go and no one countered and I had no jump left so I made a perfect lead out for the BMW women for the sprint for 2nd. I ended up 8th and the BMW girls were nice enough to pay me out for all the work I did for their benefit.

 

On Sunday the BioWheels Cat. 3 team showed up ready to battle at Walnut Grove.  The race was 55 miles long, consisting of 2 laps on a “rolling” course.  The course actually had several significant climbs.  Representing BioWheels were: Chris Emory, Andy Pooser, Mike Jackson, and myself.  We decided at the start that we were all working for Andy.  From the beginning there was attack after attack.  The field, including out team kept everything in check (mostly due to Chris).  The first lap was over after about 1:15.  With that out of the way it was time to start looking for the serious attacks.  They started as expected.  But with Chris working to shut things down, were all crushed.  I have to say; I have never seen the strongest guy at a race totally sell out for another guy.  Chris used all of his abilities to help Andy.  Very classy!  So with the race all back together we approached the final.  After rolling fast, suddenly the bunch slowed.  I was boxed in about 15 guys back.  We were about 1.5k from the finish.  I got cagey and decided to lead out the sprint.  Had I known how far out we were, I wouldn’t have gone, but hind sight is always 20/20.  I did get it strung out a bit to set up Andy.  He sprinted hard and took 4th place.

Nicole also raced Sunday, she said:

Our women’s field was speckled with talent: a few pros and teams with the power to control the field. We had a 55 mile race, Laura Bowles (Team Chapstick Advil) attacked on the first climb and no one thought she’d stay away. She had 2 women with her but it was so windy and we let them dangle for ages. I tried to bridge a few times but the wind was too much and I got back into the pack thinking surely with a field of 20 we will catch them and then I’ll counter attack. But, we never did catch them and I looked around and our field had popped into a small group of 8. We chased for rest of the race but with a BMW woman up the road and the rest of her team blocking in this chase field, not much got accomplished except dropping everyone else. I cramped and bonked with 10 miles to go and suffered to an 11th place finish. 

Posted by: Zach Bannow