On Friday night Boyd Johnson of DLP Racing took the win in the Flow MINI Twilight Criterium. Racing kicked off late at 10:00pm in downtown Lexington, NC. The twilight crit is a new race in only its second year but the race drew a huge crowd and a large field. DLP Racing had four riders in the race with Alder, Shawn, Jon Hamblen, and Boyd. The guys were very active all night. Jon Hamblen and Alder were each in about a dozen moves as the whole team rode at the front of the race to make sure we were represented in any break away attempts. But as good as the move looked on paper nothing seemed to gain any ground. The entire night nothing got more than 8-10 seconds up the road. As the lap board passed inside 10 laps remaining Jon Hamblen found himself in a small group of 5 riders that seemed to be working really well. As they came through for the bell lap with one to go they still had a 7 second gap on the hard chasing field. It looked like they were going to hold onto the win for sure. But back at this same time Shawn, and Alder were on the front of the field setting up Boyd for the finishing sprint. Little did they know but they were riding so fast that they pulled back those 7 second and caught the break in the last corner. Alder kicked it into high gear up the hill with boyd on his wheel. Boyd came flying by in the last 100 meters to take a convincing win. Jon Hamblen who was in the break that got caught in the last corner was able to hold onto 5th place for the night.
You can check out a video here:
DLP Racing is at the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. Shawn, Tim, David, Scott, and Tiago are the lucky riders to contest this National Racing Calender event. We are fortunate enough to also have some great help from Dr. Andy Pruitt who came down from Boulder, CO to drove the team car all week. Gila is a very hard race for two reasons. 1) The race is at altitude with many of the climbs passing 7000 feet. 2) There is lots and lots of climbing… some days have over 9000 feet of climbing. The 2009 event was made even harder by the last minute inclusion of three riders from the Astana team. This roster just happened to include one Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, and Chris Horner. The guys woke up to some beautiful weather for Stage one which was a 96 mile road race from Silver City to Mogollon. The course featured 5600′ of climbing including a grueling 3 mile climb to the finish. The team rode really well with Tim Henry starting the decisive break for the day that got a lead of over 3 minutes at one point. The break was well represented and in turn left the team free to conserve energy for the final climb. The break got caught on the finishing slopes and Scott Tietzel put in an awesome ride. He finished 19th on the day and was placed with many of the GC favorites. Tomorrow holds the Inner loop road race at 77.9 miles with 5800′ of climbing. Stay tuned….
This was one of the most fun races I’ve done in a long time. The course was made for me as it was selective, yet didnt reallyhave any extended climbing. Oh yea - its also really looooong at over 125 miles. From the beginning, I knew I was finally back to normal after my crash at Redlands. No leg pain, no chronic fatigue, just the ability to make myself hurt and the motivation to enjoy it. The first of two 62 mile laps went very smoothly. I had no flats or mechanicals and positioned well for all of the hard parts. DLP rode well as a team; for the long/rolling gravel section there were 4 of us sitting comfortably in the top twenty, conserving energy. I felt very safe sitting right on BMC rider Tony Cruz’s wheel. Lap 2, and I still felt very strong. The hard parts hurt more, but I had no trouble getting over the climbs with the now smaller field. After the big climb on the course came a really tricky decent. It was a mile of fast pavement leading into two more miles of dirt full of pot holes. Already going fast and with Bissel and OUCH driving the pace on the front, I was not being very careful and hammered several big holes with my rear wheel. Seconds later I was on the side of the road getting a wheel change from the team car, but it was to late. The last big group blew by me at 40 mph and by the time I got back on the bike there was no one in sight but a few isolated stragglers. The team car was needed up the road so I had no way to motor pace back to the group and had to finish the last 20 miles in a small group for 54th place. The good part is that I feel back to normal and I am feeling more confident in my abilities. The bad part is that I really think I missed a great opportunity for a good result, but that’s just the way it goes. Boyd ended up having a great ride and finished with the front group which had less than 20 riders I would guess. Next up for me is Athens Twilight and the NRC race in Roswell, GA.
The Redlands Bicycle Classic is one of the long-running races on the NRC calendar. It is also a race I had never done so it was difficult to know what to expect. Everyone I talked to repeated the same word; HARD. The race was down to four days this year and provided a variety of challenges. Thursday was a 5k uphill time trial. Friday was a 100 mile WINDY road race. Saturday was a 90 minute downtown crit and Sunday was the infamous Sunset road race. The time trial was a nice wake up for the legs. Uphill TT’s always suck and this was no exception. I averaged a massive 400 watts, too bad that was good for only 83rd. Friday’s Beaumont road race was in a valley that had terrible cross winds. The 200 man field took off in a hurry and it was choas for the first of four laps. Between the wind and the gravel being thrown at riders from the road, everyone was nervous. The second lap had a strong crosswind section after the KOM where the field was put into the gutter at 30+ mph. That was the hardest part of the race for me. Position was key, and we were all way out of position. In the end we were lucky because it all came back together. On the third lap I made sure to be in the top twenty for the crosswind section after the climb but the pace was much easier as a break gained a small gap on the field. On the final lap, it was a race from the KOM climb to the finish. Here position was also key and I was out of position. I was getting fatigued and tried to move up through the pack safe from the wind. Too bad I was not nearly far up enough and I just barely missed out on the front group. In the end I finished in the second group, just under a minute down on the winner. Steven, Scott, and Boyd all finished in the next group back on the road. We were all a little shell shocked from the speed and insanity of riding in an NRC pack. As painful as it was, it felt good to be racing at this level again. This is real racing with constant full-speed attacks, field-shattering hills and crosswinds. Not to mention the constant fear of danger from parked cars or potholes. It all adds up to an adrenaline rush I can get nowhere else!
Saturday’s crit seemed like a rest day compared to the RR the day before. The 150 man field took a long time to negotiate the 9 turn course. DLP Racing stayed quiet through this race, just trying to conserve for the Sunset RR. During the race Steven crashed hard but managed to get back in and finish the stage. Towards the end I began moving up but could not get far enough up to get a result. But with all the crashes, I was glad to finish with the skin I started with. Steven had some nice road rash but somehow managed to avoid tearing clothing or damaging his bike beyond bar tape and one pedal. The pedal damage was pretty impressive though. It looked as though he had taken a band saw and cut off about 1/4 of the pedal. He must have slid for a long way on that pedal to make it look that bad.
Sunday’s Sunset road race is really an epic circuit race. We were to complete 12 laps of a 6 mile loop basically up then down a hill through an affluent neighborhood. The name of the game was to get to the front for the first two laps. The plan was to use up Steven early on to get myself and Scott to the front. That worked for the first couple of miles until we got separated. The first lap I was in decent position up the climb but had to talk myself through every pedal stroke because we were going fast. Down the hill I tried to move up but was too tired to make much progress. The second lap I was too far back and got separated from the front group early on. I was demoralized because I thought there was 60-80 riders up the road. At the feed zone I was told that there was only about 25 riders ahead of us and I felt better about my effort. Scott and I settled into our group, the second group on the road and rode out the rest of the race at a moderate tempo. I ended up moving up quite a bit that day all the way to 41st overall. Too bad they paid the top 40 overall!
Charlie Pendry took an impressive win at the 1st ever NC Blueberry Fesitval Criterium. The race took place in downtown Burgaw, NC on Friday Night. The race drew a strong regional field of racers including some local NC standout riders. DLP had three riders in the race Chris Judy, Matthew Howe, and Charlie Pendry The racers were greeted with pouring rain that somehow cleared out right as the riders took to the starting line. From the gun a series of attacks were launched that were all immediately covered, yet somehow on only the third lap, Charlie Pendry covered a move from Jeremy Conn and the two riders immediately had a gap. Riders in the field just looked at each other as the pair rode off. Within a matter of moments the two had a 15 second gap on the field and quickly began working together. Many riders tried to bridge across from the field but Matt and Chris covered every single move. As the race went through the half way point the duo of Pendry and Conn had a 40 second lead on the field. The two worked well along the wet 7/10 of a mile circuit. As the lap board started counting down a few of the stronger riders including Inferno’s Rich Harper and Mercy Cycling’s David Leduc upped the pace to try to bring the pair of riders back. In the end the two stayed away and Charlie found himself taking the final corner in the perfect spot at second wheel. Charlie was able to maintain his speed through the final corner and came around Jeremy Conn for the win.
Tommy Nankervis capped off an exciting weekend of racing at the BMW River Gorge Omnium in Chattanooga, TN with a well earned win. DLP Racing sent a strong squad to the race including Thad Dulin, Joey Coddington, Andrew Olson, Chris Judy, Boyd Johnson, and Tommy Nankervis. Racing started out fast with a strong field of riders. DLP rode agressive from the start with the team being represented in all the major moves. Shortly after the half way point in the race Tommy Nankervis covers a dangerous move and soon found himself in a move of three with Matt Windtead from Team Inferno. The trio worked well together and DLP was happy with the move knowing that Tommy was probably the fastest finisher in the group of three. In the closing laps Matt Winstead put in a great attack and found himself with a small gap. Tommy dug deep and found himself chasing Matt with less than half a lap left in the race. Tommy caught Matt in the last 300 meters of the race just as he opned his sprint for the line. Matt was unable to respond and Tommy came across the line 1st for the win.
Spencer Beamer seized one of the biggest wins of his career last night when he won the 10th race of the Superweek series with an unbelievable “hail marry” maneuver. With only 3 laps left in the race the bell rang for a $1000.00 prime lap. Many of the larger teams hesitated following the prime lap as they looked at each other waiting for the next move. Spencer Beamer decided he wasn’t going to wait, and attacked out of the large break away group. The other team’s hesitations turned into a small gap over the rest of the chasing field. Spencer put his head down and and hammed out the last two laps to come in 100 feet ahead of the hard charging field. After the race Spencer told Cycling News: “Everyone was going for that $1,000 prime so with two laps to go I said to myself - I might as well try it. I’m a good time trialer and they sat up on the back side so I drilled it as hard as I could. I was surprised when I heard one to go because I thought it was still two to go, so that gave me extra motivation. I didn’t want to slow up because you see all those sprints were the guy gets caught at 50 meters, so I didn’t look around until then.” Alex Candelario from Kelly Benefits led the rest of the break across the line for 2nd place.
The DLP Racing team raced the Cookeville Criterium on Sunday in Tennessee. The team went into the race highly motivated because the winner of the Cookesville race also earns the right to be crowned 2008 Tennessee Criterium Champion. The racing started out with a series of attacks. Soon a small group of 6 riders separated themselves from the field. The group contained Spencer Beamer, Thad Dulin, and Boyd Johnson from DLP racing. Also in the group were Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Eric Murphy, and Dirk Pohlmann. With three riders in the move, DLP Racing quickly took the initiative to drive the pace and build the gap. In the closing laps Thad Dulin took control of the race and kept the pace high to discourage any attacks. Shortly before the finish Brent Bookwalter attacked but Spencer was right on his wheel and easily came around for the win. Since Spencer is a Tennessee native he earned the title of Tenesseee Criterium Champion. This is the second state championship for DLP Racing as Boyd Johnson also won the South Carolina criterium championship in April.
