Cat 3 report:

Parrish back on Podium –

Congratulations to Scott Parrish for a well deserved 2nd place in the Cat 3 event. The venue bodes well for the folically gifted one as he won the Cat 4 event in 2005. After a mid season crash at the District Crit last season, Scott has been working to find his form and it certainly showed up Saturday. Well done!

Cat 1/2/3 report:

A good sized field of 40 or so (I’m not good with numbers) to start, with Tortuga, Dogfish, a small contingent of Roadhouse, and a sea of red with Bacardi-Nuvo mixed with a multitude of collegiate/independent riders. Daly starts the event and we’re off with Nuvo quickly moving up to the front and Al Senft attacking solo. Al’s dangling out front it seems for the longest time when the group finally reels him in. A few faux moves and finally Jason Sonneborn rolls off the front near the start-finish. I jump from the same side and catch him at the turn, along in tow come a Dogfish guy and 3 other independents. A lap or so later Bennet V. from Nuvo joins and I’m thinking “ah oh….” So it’s two B-Nuvos and the rest of us. We’re working pretty well and with injured Patrick Delisle and Bob Brooks on the sidelines, I’m getting word that John Kelly is coming up. Good news thinks I…I then try slowing the break, and it does come down oh so close, but then bam – back up again. With not long to go and enough time on the field that we won’t be caught, I’m thinking what needs to be done to finish well. With 3 to go and pulling through the group I mention to the strongest independent, a collegiate rider from Colorado, that Bennet will attack with 1.5 to go (thinking Ceraland all over…). He nods in understanding. All set for the finish as I look for support, but guess what? It doesn’t happen. On the last lap our pace comes to a crawl just before the turn leading to the base of the “climb”. At 17 mph Sonneborn launches with Bennet in tow and the Colorado collegian behind him. My sorry butt sits in 6th from this as I’m on the wrong side from where Sonney goes…Up the hill and on it as hard as I can…The Col Collegian takes Bennet at the line and I roll up in 4th. Yes, Horus, I’m a work in progress on the sprint…But I did pick the right stranger as the strong one…

Fireworks afterward –

For those witness to our parking lot “celebration” of a top 5 finish in this event, everything is in fine order with our squad. The in-love turtles post event e-mail solidified that we’re clicking along just fine. No worries regarding our gelling as a team. I know some competitors may have been concerned as to our well being. Thanks for your support.

Manning up and getting in the way –

– Chris

Not much to say about the Anderson Mayor’s Cup Street Sprints (then why are there 4 beefy paragraphs here?) that kicked off the weekend of racing. Between a poor turnout to the event and some confusion on how to properly seed an odd number of riders, the racing was less than exciting. We only had 5 riders register for the 1-2 field; and certainly no more than that in the other categories. Since there were so few people, we ran the sprints “mano a mano” (yes that’s the correct spelling, check it) in a straight, 300-meter line down Meridian St. in old downtown Anderson.

I was “lucky” enough to get the bye in the first round. My luck ran out, however, in many respects when I was told that I would be going up against the loser of the first of the two heats. So in effect, I was automatically in the “repêchage” round – and then I lost that to Tom Hanley of Bacardi Nuvo – who had just lost to Frank “Dude” Cox of Texas Roadhouse. He’s a good kid. Pretty fast (you get that way when you race the velodrome while at Marian.) Blam! I was out in one round, while Tom had the luxury of being able to lose once and then have the opportunity to race himself back into the finals – not to mention the other loser of the first round who didn’t get a chance to win his way back in.

After some discussion, the consensus was to allow the losers of the first round race each other, the winner of which would race “Dude” and myself in the a 3-up final. I picked a better gear to start with this time and jumped out to the early lead. My shifting faltered a bit and before I knew it, both Tom and “Dude” were making there way around me. “Dude” dropped his chain [again] about 100 meters from the finish and I wound up in 2nd. I didn’t feel like I deserved 2nd, since I lost one race prior to get to the final, whereas the other two guys had won 2 and 3 races to get there, and therefore didn’t stick around to see if there was a “prize” waiting for me.

This was a race that only cost $5 to enter anyhow, so I probably shouldn’t have even written more than a few sentences about it. My legs had no snap and I generally felt pretty sluggish. I unfairly took 2nd place. And all in all, I only rode about 600 meters total. C’est la vie. I’m hoping tomorrow’s race will be a better affair.