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Worthington Crit, 40 miles. Awesome crit in a residential neighborhood with much cheering from the folks along the route. The course is more of a circuit/crit as many of the turns are rather wide (wide enough to pedal through) and the course itself is 1.2 miles. A rather tame race in the first several laps. Things heated up on the first intermediary sprint when Jittery Joe's and us (Globalbike) went hard for the points. David got second. Not long after, I attacked and got a nice gap. Three guys came up to me and we worked hard to get a gap. The time-split grew and grew with a group of six bridging along the way. Ten strong, we lapped the field with Jittery Joe's doing much of the work trying to get yellow back. Sean and I were the only Globalbike racers in the break so we let them work and just sat for about 15 miles. With about four to go we lapped the field and Craig and Josh immediately got to the front and pushed the pace. We sprinted hard up the last stair-step climb (this came every 1.2 mile lap) and Sean and I finished in the top six or seven. Overall, I moved into 3rd putting as our break was 2 minutes up on the field today and Craig retained the polka-dot jersey. More tomorrow!Coach Jim
Nelsonville stage. This was about 70 miles and hilly again. Got away with Tommy and 4-5 others for about 25 miles including the KOM! Tommy 3rd over it and me 4th. Felt good! We got caught and then worked it to the end. Did plenty of work to the end. Couple tough climbs but nothing too bad. Glad KOM was with only 6 of us... 4 ultimately got away and David was one of them. Finished in downtown Nelsonville with 5 loops of a .5 mile course. Bad bricks on the one side. I managed to get in at second wheel behind a Jittery Joe's guy. Sprinted best I could at end and got 12th. David got second and Tyler and Noah just ahead of me. Great day! We have the green, polka-dot, and collegiate jersey!Coach Jim
Wilkesville to Wilkesville, 65 miles. Tough racing Wednesday with a 1.5 mile climb in the last 12 miles. The team managed to put a guy in every move without exception! Sean got in an early move that stayed out for about 1/2 of the race. He was with only one other guy... Plenty of moves and most came back but for one about half way through the race which Craig and Noah infiltrated. The break grew to six racers and was up one minute or so much of the race. Jittery Joe's put a train of four on the front of the pack about 3 miles before the 1.5 mile climb to stave off any attacks. Yours truly managed to sneak into their train at third wheel. The climb started fast & furious with the wispy climbers drillin' it rather hard... Globalbike managed to put team mate Tyler in a group of four that open about a 100 meter gap at the front of the climb... Unfortunately Tyler detached just before the climb ended. Sean pushed it hard to the top bringing it all together but for the three off and Tyler still ahead chasing the three he was with. I managed to roll of the front right after the KOM banner and got a solid 150 meter gap. Sean Adams, Team Lake Effect, joined me and we reeled Tyler in but did not catch the break. We, like the lead group, stayed away and Globalbike finished with four guys in the top ten, the climbers jersey and the sprinters jersey. We unfortunately lost yellow but will fight to get it back! Today's finish had Craig 4th, Noah 6th, Tyler 9th and me 10th. More soon!
Coach Jim
Wow, this went really well! 57 miles of rolling hills in Gallipolis, Ohio near the Ohio River. There was a flurry of attacks after about 3 miles. We have nine guys in the race and were in ALL of the moves. Very nice feeling to 'race with a net' as I call it. About 10 miles in, team mate Craig McKinney got up the road with a Jittery Joe's guy and they proceeded to stay away to within 10 miles to go! There lead got to about a minute at most and yo-yo'd between 20 and 40 seconds quite a bit. During this time, the team and I (8 of us) simply covered attacks and sat on wheels. How nice to have a guy up the road! Once the the entire field was together again, several of us Globalbike guys moved to the front and lined up to give David Forkner a fast lead-out. After a 1K climb, I went to the front first with about 3.5K to go and drilled it full-gas over some rolling terrain to the second last turn. Sean Weddell took over there and did the same to the final turn and then it was Josh Whitmore providing the final kick delivering D-Fork to the line for the WIN!!! Sitting pretty in Y-E-L-L-O-W after Stage 1!Coach Jim
Joe Martin Stage Race ended with some bright and not-so-bright notes for Team Globalbike. On the good side, Ben Miller finished 12th on GC, Alan Tripp 32nd and Josh Miller in the 60th spot. Saturday 5/9/09, 92 mile Road Race -- Andre Vandenberg rode the race efficiently, moved to the front and sprinted for 14th. All finished with the main field but for myself coming out at 40 miles in... Simply didn't have the legs for it. I know what I did wrong and how to improve upon it (and will!).Sunday 5/10/09, 60 minute Crit -- Three of the five starters from our team finished. Ben Miller unfortunately crashed in the last lap clipping a pedal breaking his seat-stay in half and injuring his right shoulder rather badly... His finishing time was that of the group he was in as it was the last lap preserving his 12th GC spot. A trip to the hospital afterwards wasn't so much fun yet he is okay with no broken bones just soft tissue damage that will heal on its own. Alan Tripp finished the crit in 26th place earning 32nd on GC.Coach Jim
Joe Martin has turned out to be a great experience thus far for Team Globalbike. VERY well run race regarding staging areas, sign-in, course marshaling and results posting. May 7, 2009 Stage 1, Prologue: 2.5 mile uphill TT. Team mate Ben Miller brought his A game and finished in the top 20 of 101 riders at 9 min, 14 sec. The other five of us were mid-pack between 10 and 10.5 minutes. Not an epic day for the team yet all of us made the time cut.May 8, 2009 Stage 2, Road Race: 110 mile rolling road race with one 9-mile climb. We worked hard early as a team to stay at the front and go with any moves that went up the road. Unfortunately one got away and had up to a 1.5 minute lead. We all worked hard to pull it back and ultimately the race came down to a field sprint in which Ben Miller got 13th (still in the GC hunt!). Alan Tripp finished about 10 riders behind Ben. The rest of us, although not with the main pack (we all came off on the 9-mile climb after having done too much work) did finish comfortably under the time-cut. At days end 25% of the starting 101 riders left the race via DNS, DNF or by missing the time-cut.May 9, 2009 Stage 3, Road Race: 92 miles and three circuits... This is today! We race at 3 p.m. (4 p.m. Greenville, SC time). We'll keep working hard for Ben and do our best to improve his GC position. More soon!Coach Jim
We're off! It's 12:07 a.m. Wednesday morning (although feels like Tuesday night and to me is still...) and Team Globalbike in three vehicles are en-route to Fayetteville, Arkansas for the Joe Martin Stage Race. Shawn Scott is driving right now... he's 'working' for us this weekend as a soigneir of sorts... Plenty of time for me to look at power files on my computer and read the Joe Martin Race Bible.... More soon!
Coach Jim
