Weekend Racing Report - May 28, 2005

Saturday’s criterium race in Perrysburg, OH, the Shell Saturn Cycling Classic, was a fantastic event. In the Men’s Category 3 race there were 12 Sunrise Sports Cycling Team members racing. This was the largest field of the whole day for this event with 65+ racers! From the gun the race was FAST. The team was relentless in their aggressiveness and were constantly on the attack. The other largest team represented was the home team, Saturn of Toledo, and they were not about to be upstaged in front of their home crowd. With Saturn of Toledo countering every attack the two teams were beating themselves silly to put a group up the road. Midway through the race a lone rider from Advantage Benefits/Endeavor broke away. Playing off the rivalry between Sunrise Sports and Saturn of Toledo, the AB/E rider hung out there and soloed to the finish. Despite constant attacking and even a great last lap leadout train, the best placed Sunrise Sports team member was Alex Keomany in 12th.

Joe Lekovish leads the Sunrise train with 1 lap to go!

In the ProI/II race the team was represented by Ian Lockley, Ric Lung and Vince Roberge. Vince was racing in his last event in the US before heading to Belgium for 3 months of racing on the amateur ABC-Aitos team (www.cyclingcenter.com) in Hertsberge, Belgium. Again the pace was BLISTERING!

With 1/3 of the race remaining, a group of 5 escaped, forming the winning breakaway. Ian Lockley put in a HUGE effort to bridge across to the leaders and held out solo for nearly 5 laps, but came up short and was re-absorbed by the pack with 2 laps to go.

Ian Lockley is WASTED after trying to bridge across to the leaders

In a show of exceptional team work and tactics, the Ford/Giant/AAVC team, a partner team of the Sunrise Sports team within the Ann Arbor Velo Club, worked over the field and placed 1st, 5th and 7th, with Brian Adams, the team captain of the Ford/Giant team, taking the victory in a fantastic sprint.

Full results are available here: www.mbra.org

Here's one specators report of the action in the ProI/II race:

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Wow! Wow, wow, wow!

Brian Adams of Ford/Giant/AAVC must have thought he was back racing with the Cycling Center (www.cyclingcenter.com) team back in Belgium today. With winds gusting between 20-30mph, sprinkles of rain here and there, dark, cloudy skies, farm fields stretching in the distance and a pack of rabid bike racers chasing, it was a scene out of a Flandrian Kermesse! If you've NEVER seen a bike race, today was one to watch. In the cernterpiece ProI/II category race of today's Shell / Saturn Cycling Classic, Brian Adams, Chris Gottwald, Tom Archer and the rest of the Ford/Giant/AAVC racing team put on a heck of a show. With 5 minutes and 6 laps to go in the 70 minutes + 6 lap race there was a break of 6 off the front with Jeff Braumberger and Mike House of Texas Roadhouse, Brian Adams and Chris Gottwald of Ford/Giant/AAVC, Jason Swiatlowski of West MI Coast Riders and another rider (?). With winds whipping up to 30mph on the 4 corner criterium course, the chasing pack was in a frenzy to bring things back together. Racing along totally strung out in single file with groups of 3-4 getting away, then re-integrating, then getting away, it was a nail biter.

Just as the time expired in the race along with the window for catching a free lap, Jeff Braumberger of Texas Roadhouse touched wheels with another rider in the breakaway going through turn 2 and hit the deck. This shifted the dynamics in the break in favor of the Ford/Giant/AAVC duo of Adams/Gottwald. The luckless Braumberger pulled up to the wheel pits only to be told by the officials that there were no more free laps. Then, Tom Archer of Ford/Giant/AAVC broke away from the bunch. Braumberger caught his wheel and Jon Card of Cane Creek bridged up from the main pack, forming a chase group of 3 following the lead break of 5. As patches of rain started to fall and the temperatures dropping by 10 degrees to 57F, the race heated up. Roaring out of the pack came Ian Lockley of Sunrise Sports Cycling Team on a solo flyer with 4 laps to go. The luckless Lockley quickly put 10 seconds on the main pack, but was still 15-20 seconds down on the second chase group of 3. As the commentators put it, Lockley was in "No mans land. He owned the keys to the City of No-mans-landville and so on..".

With Gottwald pulling the lead break, Adams sitting in and Tom Archer sitting on Jeff Braumberger's wheel in the second group of 3, Ford/Giant/AAVC was in the drivers seat. Gottwald/Adams had the numbers in the lead group and Braumberger was burying himself in the chasing 3 to catch the leaders. If they caught on, that would give Texas Roadhouse 2 riders in the lead (albeit a tired Braumberger) and Ford/Giant/AAVC 3 riders.

With one lap to go it became obvious the 5 leaders would stay away. The chasing three started to set up for the sprint and back in No-mans-landville, Ian Lockley was caught by the pack right on the line at the bell lap. In the lead break with Gottwald leading out for the sprint, Brian Adams of Ford/Giant/AAVC shot from the back of the group of 5 through the final corner and sprinted to the win by 2 bike lengths over Mike House of Texas Roadhouse. In the chasing group of 3 it was too close to call in the sprint between Jeff Braumberger and Tom Archer for 6th place. The pack sprint for 9th and 10th place was stretched fully across the road and I couldn't tell placings. Ford/Giant/AAVC took 1st, 5th, and 6th or 7th.