Posted by Stuart Lamp
September 13, 2008
Birmingham, Alabama

Wow, what a great start to racing with a new team! We started the
race with Mike, Wes, Daryl, Brian and I. At a pre-race meeting, we
had discussed our tactical plan for the night. Fortunately, the race
panned out like we had predicted, and here is a short report on the
action.

The race started off hard from the gun, and it never really let up.
Several attacks would go up the road, but early in the race, it
seemed pretty obvious that the field was going to stay together. The
Tria team was represented in most every attack, and this was thanks
to selfless teamwork from everyone. Mike and Wes rode extremely hard
covering move after already doing a race two hours before. Great job
guys!

At the halfway point in the race, I sensed that a lot of riders were
getting tired, and it would be imperative to stay near the front of
the group in case of a field split. Brian, Daryl and I had all been
in several ill fated moves, but the field was not bringing the moves
back as quickly at this point. The attacks just kept coming, and
with 5 laps to go, I decided to launch a solo attempt to get away
after catching a small break. After exiting the last corner, I had
the gap I needed to push all out to the finish. On the next lap,
Matt Winstead (Team Inferno) and Cleve Blackwell (Myogenesis) bridged
the gap to me, and I was just along for the ride. This was the
winning move, and unfortunately I just did not have the legs to beat
those two riders on this night.

The field sprint ensued, just seconds after we crossed the line, and
Daryl ended up winning the field sprint for fourth place. It was an
impressive effort from the team in every race it entered on Saturday,
and it shows that Tria will have a strong presence in the peloton in
2009.

Posted by Philip Thompson
September 13, 2008
Birmingham, Alabama

Before the race we discussed being aggressive and going on offense early and often. The race start pretty quick and I had to work up through the pack on the back side. On lap2 I saw an opening when the front riders slowed coming out of turn4. I cranked up and went. The pack caught me on the back side. Lennie rolled up and I tucked in behind him. I rested for a few seconds then attacked again into turn3. This was the spring board needed to go solo for 5-6 laps. The team must have been doing some good work, I looked back a few times and saw a big gap. I got a prime and was caught on the back side. I stayed in the front (for Brian) with a handful of other Tria jerseys. A lap or two later there was a $65 prime. A Mellow Mushroom (MM) rider attacked hard on the back, I took chase for the money. I realized I was not going to catch him so I sat up, I looked back and saw a decent gap so I kept going. It took two laps to get up the MM rider and we stayed away for another 2.  Back in the pack the pace was going up and down for the next few laps. I knew we had to be getting close to time, I roll up next to Justin in the back to check the time, he said 40min. The race was playing right into our plans. I attacked hard between turns 3-4 and had a few guys come with me. I was standing on the pedals swerving all over the road to shake them. The last thing I wanted was to be in a 2-3 man break this close to the end.   It worked and led to some confusion in the pack. I slipped away and the chasers came back. I didn’t think I was going to be able to hold it for 3 laps. I made it around once and was expecting to see the pack come up on the back. A quick glance back and I couldn’t see anybody. 1 to go and I still didn’t see anybody.   This is the great thing about the dark course on the back.   I came around the final corner and knew I had.  I could see the pack lighting up the sprint.  Tria Market/Ivan Leonard take 1-2-3.

Posted by Brian Toone
Pro/1 NRC 1.3
September 1, 2008
Atlanta, Georgia

Quick Summary: 41st out of well over 100 riders, 3rd place in a 3-place mid-race sprint, initiated the main break of the day, rode aggressively

The Details: Wow, what a racing experience – from start to finish. Let me run you through the day. 5:15AM wakeup call to eat some pancakes and let them digest before our early 7:15AM start in Atlanta, Georgia. This race is part of the US 10K Classic – a huge running race/walk with thousands of participants. Our staging time was 6:30AM so I left our hotel in the very dark early morning to ride the 3 or 4 miles from the hotel to the start line. When you crested the top of one of the many rolling hills on US 41, you could see across a small valley to the hill where the race would start. The roads were already blocked off and there were police cars with blue lights flashing at every intersection on both sides of the road and in the middle all the way up the hill. It was quite a sight in the dark!

The runners had already started to mass waiting for their start after ours so we had a send-off crowd numbering close to ten thousand as we started. The race starts out on a very wide road down a very steep hill. By the bottom of the hill, we had already hit 45mph in only the first 30 seconds of the race. I had a great start at the front of the group and was waiting for somebody to attack on the first roller. Sure enough, there was an attack and I was in good position to go with it. About 6 of us were in the move and we had a small gap of about 5 seconds on the field going into the tricky “flyover” onto South Cobb Drive. I was at the back when we reached the ramp and I knew we were supposed to go right but the five guys in front of me all want straight. I yelled that we were supposed to go right, but they missed the turn and so I ended up leading the way by myself onto the flyover. This was really, really funny and ironic because Kristine and I had pre-driven the course the night before and gotten confused at the intersection so she told me somewhat adamantly that I shouldn’t be the first person leading the way – and yet I was the only one who got it right!

The field caught up pretty quickly on the rollers and there were several very shortlived moves. I worked hard to fight for position and saw how easy it was to get passed and lose position on the wide roads. Then on one of the hills, a rider next to me lost control (hit something maybe?) and started to fall. It scared me a bit because it was right next to me, but I thought to myself wow he is about 4 feet away no problem I’m safe – well, he swerved a little bit in my direction and was close enough that when he fell his helmet glanced off my left calf kinda hard. That wasn’t enough to knock me over so that was the first crash of the day that I narrowly avoided. On the second lap I made it into a large move (mabye 20 riders) but we never had more than a 5 second gap and we got caught shortly after the feedzone.

For the next three laps I was tired and trying to recover and still fight for position. Several large groups of riders separated from the field including a group of 10 at the front and then maybe a group of 25-30 chasers. I was still back in the field and thinking “oh no”, but fortunately the groups in front of us never worked well together and the field stayed pretty strung out to bring them back. Near the end of the fifth lap, the field had just come back together, and I had just gotten pulled to the front by a rider trying to advance his position in the field so I decided to slingshot around him and gun it up the hill to see if I could get a move going. I looked back and only Trent Wilson (Jittery Joe’s) had responded in the field. Right as I looked back he came flying by and I drilled it to catch onto his wheel. We started working together right about the time that Yosvany Falcon (Toshiba-Santo) bridged up to us. Read the rest of this entry »