Anniston Crit

Team-

Just wanted to give you a race report from my point of view from the Sunny King Crit in Anniston this past weekend:

We left Bham around 9:00 and had to drive in the rain most of the way up there. After getting registered, we could see that the clouds were starting to break and it quit raining about an hour before our race (they delayed our race by 30 mins to let the course dry out some). The race started out at a quick pace, but nothing that I felt uncomfortable with. Our strategy going in was to let Jim and Doug go off the front and try to make other people hurt. That strategy did not work as there were some pretty strong riders in the pack. Our field was only 30+ or so racers as the rain kept a lot of people at home.

Within the first few laps a breakaway started forming with about 4 riders in it. Talty was leading the chase group, but I could see he was getting tired. I was sitting a few riders behind him and felt pretty strong so I decided to go around and try to bridge up to the leaders. As I was passing Talty, I told him to jump on that we were going to catch them. He was able to grab my wheel and I started ramping up the speed to catch the leaders (my heart rate was sitting in the mid 190s at this point). After I bridged up to them, one of the leaders (who had been sucking wheel) took off. The other riders from the lead group were happy to sit up and join our group. I stayed on the front for a little longer and then asked Talty to pull through. After he and I traded pulls for a little while, I started wondering why we were doing all of the work and started yelling at people to pull through. Matt Tynan (one of the Steel City Cycling guys) took several hard pulls and was able to spit some of the racers off of our group. After a few laps, another rider (Chad something) jumped off the front and bridged up to the leader on the downhill section of the course. We were patient though and were able to slowly pull them back in. With 3 laps to go, there was some "jockeying" going on and no one wanted to work. We had about a 1/2 lap lead on the rest of the field. Talty and I were sitting about 4th and 5th wheel out of 9 riders in the lead group. I rode up next to him and asked how his legs were feeling and told him to stay on my wheel and I would work for him. With 2 laps to go, Matt Tynan tryed to jump off the front but we all reacted and caught up to him very quickly. After we were all together again, the pace stayed pretty high. Coming out of turn 4 on the last lap, Talty and I were still sitting about 4th and 5th wheel...I punched it out of the corner and was trying to give it everything I had to set Talty up for the sprint. As soon as I started slowing down, he gassed it and was able to get around me and take home 2nd. The guy who won (Jamie from Boo Koo) did not do any work during the race and out sprinted us at the end...I guess he played it smart.

Overall, I feel like RMW had a very good showing. Talty and I were in the lead group the entire time and were able to actually effect the race. I did not feel like I was just trying to hold on...I feel like I actually made a difference in the race. Just an FYI - We were all talking after the race and turns 3 and 4 were very slick during our race and our rear tires were sliding around...made it a little interesting. It was a very well organized event and I look forward to it again next year


Joseph Greenway
Red Mountain Wheelmen