Cooper Clinic Race Report

We loaded the Venza for the first race Jed, Joseph and I were to all compete together outside of Austin since Houston Grand. The Cooper Clinic in McKinney, TX was a Toyota sponsored event where we were treated with ice cold water (heaven with temps near 110), shady tents, and a massage therapist all courtesy of Pat Lobb of Lobb Toyota. 

The .9 mi, ten turn course will one day be the neighborhood streets Dallas suburbanites will raise families and teach their offspring with training wheels. But on this scorching day, before any brick was laid or foundation poured, we ordained these streets worthy of a crit course. Better yet, Bret Crosby of TXTough made a bid to have a street named after him by winning the 75 min race with a tactful solo move that saw him lap the field. 

Attacks were aplenty and Toyota / Cycling Team p/b GCCA displayed early dominance by taking the first two primes. Brian Fawley of Park Place Lexus and Matrix RBM also were always at the head of every reshuffling. At about minute 25, a very active field lulled temporarily, having made many combinations of a break that kept coming back together. As if on cue, "Surfer" Nick Kiernan of TXTough set the stage for what would be a one-man act. Kiernan strung out the field for an entire lap and when the dust was settled his teammate, Crosby, snuck away while most were like men lost in the desert, promised water if they do as they are told. At about the time it was obvious Crosby was not coming back Leo Frayre and Steen Rose made away as quick as virgin newlyweds. Surfer Nick was next, catching the two escapees about the time Crosby lapped the field. Brother Joseph was the last to escape the charred remains of the peleton to put in his solo bid for 5th place. I led out Jed for the field sprint in 6th position. I held on after the lead out for 8th, being passed by Fawley. 

All in all, not a bad day with the entire team finishing in the top ten. Many thanks to Lobb Toyota and its friendly staff and for having the cool shaded station where we all hashed out our post race excitement. Also, many thanks to Josh with Rol Wheels for the neutral support!

Tour of Lawrence

Jed Wins. Photo courtesy of Tom Soeteart

The team set off this past week in Hanna’s trusty ole' Toyota 4-Runner to the Tour of Lawrence in Kansas. The ToL was a first year event and it was well run to say the least. The events consisted of a Friday night Street Sprint (200-meter standing start up hill race), Saturday evening Criterium and a Sunday Circuit race on a 4.4-mile providing 7,000 ft of climbing in 53 miles.

Jed absolutely destroyed the Street Sprints on Friday evening including the Pro riders and sprinter extraordinaire Josh Carter. The Final was between Josh and Jed and Josh definitely got the jump on Jed but by the half way point Jed's leg turn-over was too much and he finally overtook the savvy sprinter in the last 5-meters or so. All told, Jed had to go through about 8 sprints during the night, winner moves on style. Josh is one hell of a competitor, hats off to him for giving Jed a run for his money.

If you’ve ever wondered what is takes to beat a Pro in a one up sprint check out the power file from Jed’s winning sprint.

After a great nights rest at the Hotel Eldridge where the race promoter placed us, we were game for our race of choice in the Saturday evening criterium. The field was stacked and included reasonably large team in TradeWind Energy/Trek, Mercy, Team Hotel San Jose with “pros” Sean Sullivan and Health Blackgrove. Team Champion Porsche was in attendance with crit specialists Frank Travieso, Yosvany Falcon, and Seth Hansely.

Joseph and Bryan cruising. Photo Courtesy of Tom Soeteart

Considering we had a small three man squad with the addition of composite rider Bryan Fawley, we decided to employ late race tactics and not worry about the super aggressive teams at the beginning of the race. With about 25-20min left to race Bryan and I were riding up front when we realized that Jed was riding in the back of the pack (I asked him to get some rest and surf some wheels for a while), so as not to waist our sprinters legs the duty goes to me to fall back and bring him up to the front of the bike race. It was a relatively easy effort and it was back to patrolling the front.

Jed on Front pushing the pace. Photo courtesy of Craig Sparks

Two riders were off the front, so with about 5 laps to go I gave good hard pull to excite the pack into working to bring them back.

Joseph on Front putting in a dig with 5 laps to go. Photo courtesy of Tom Soeteart

The effort was to no avail and the larger teams (to our utter amazement and disbelief) did not go to the front to bring the dangling break of two back, only 10-seconds up the road. Ubber-pro Health Blackgrove took the victory.

Jed and Bryan had solid finishes coming in 7^th and 8^th overall respectively.

Bryan finishing 8th. Photo courtesy of Tom Soeteart

It was then on to the local pub to celebrate and give back to the local community. Lawrence Kansas is a rocking little town when the sun sets.

Sunday presented a brutal course to the riders as we lined up for the final race of the weekend. Jed and Bryan got call ups as did all top ten finishers of the previous nights crit. Bryan raced extremely well and was part of the initiating group to cause the front break away. The course proved too difficult for our crit loving legs and we did not place in the race. That said, considering Toyota / Cycling Team p/b GCCA scored an overall victory in the Street Sprints and two Top Tens in a fast, technical crit we walked away with fond memories of Tour of Lawrence and looking forward to next year.