Andy's Greenville Rampage Draws Attention!

So after a month of pretty hard training and no racing since Carolina cup I suited up to do my favorite race, the Greenville cycling classic in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. This race is amazing. It is conjunction with the biggest street festival of the year, fall for Greenville, which always insures there will be a course packed with cycling and non-cycling fans alike cheering on each and every racer. As if that wasn’t enough, the race also draws all my friends and family from the surrounding area to cheer me on.

My first race on Saturday was the junior men’s criterium. This crit is probably the richest junior crit you can find with the sponsors, Hincapie Sports, putting up 2,000 cash for the first 20 riders. Anyway besides being motivated for the money, and the fact it was my hometown race, this race also happened to be the conclusion of my junior career. It was really hard to believe as I rode up to the line that after six years of racing, my time as a junior would be over in less than 30 minutes.

The field was very good, comprising some of the best junior racers in the southeast and a few national championship medalists. My strategy was to get away early and fast as I did not want to leave anything to chance. This tactic worked perfectly as I attacked the field once and rode everyone off of my wheel except for my former teammate and current hot tubes development rider Alder Martz. We quickly opened up a gap, eventually lapping the field three times! With one lap to go we were both feeling the strain of our effort and with the gap securely established we rolled across the line with me in first place! Our strain was warranted as I was told later we had gone faster than any field that day except for the pro men!

After some rapid recharge and some food I then proceeded to the cyclesafe kid’s bike rodeo. There I helped Saunders and my good friend Jennifer Helms set up the courses the kids were to go through and I worked some of the stations. It is always worth the effort to help with these rodeos as nothing is more rewarding than seeing a kids face light up while riding a bike. After completing my obligations with the rodeo I was ready to suit up and race my second race of the day in the men’s pro ½ field.

This race always draws the biggest crowd of the day, a crowd that once included me. Now I was suddenly in this race that I had watched only last year! It was totally surreal. To make it even more surreal I was given a call up due to my hometown status and my results in that morning’s junior race. It was awesome hearing the cheers of the crowd as I rolled up to the starting line. The racing started out quick with a six man breakaway getting off of the front in the first couple of laps. I started to get anxious as the gap climbed up to 15 seconds but Chris rode up next to me and told me to settle down. After a while the break did indeed come back as Chris said and the peloton started to go crazy. Chris just calmed me down and told me to sit on his wheel during the melee. I did just that as Chris shut down moves by Scottie Weiss, Craig Lewis, and others. Eventually with around 13 laps to go everyone was starting to break. I knew that the time to make my move was near. With twelve to go Dave La Duke launched a furious attack, he soloed for a lap before being brought back. However this small attack weakened the field considerably. It was then that Chris brought me up into the top ten and I knew it was time to attack. The attack was textbook perfect as to how Saunders and Pat have been trying to teach me all year. We’ll I finally go it right! I clicked into my biggest gear and sprinted up the hill into the wind as hard as I could. I got an instant gap of ten seconds over the field. Nobody was with me and I knew that with my junior gear restrictions it was time to do or die. I just killed it as Chris was back in the pack mucking up the chasers. Eventually with five laps to go I started to hit the wall, but I had something on my side…. The whole city of Greenville! It seemed like every time I came through the start finish it was like a wall of noise propelling me on to the win. My gap however started to come down rapidly with three laps to go as Craig Lewis was upping the pace in the pack. I came through on the last lap with a tenuous 8 second lead hoping for the win. This was not to be though as the pack blew by me with half a lap left to go. I tried to get back in for the sprint but I had left everything to my breakaway effort and it seemed like every muscle in my body cramped at once. As I came across the line… in last place… it I got more cheers than the winner. Even George Hincapie was impressed and he called me over to congratulate me after the race! I was totally stoked after the race even though I didn’t win and went home to get some sleep for the next day’s race.

Greenville Cycling Classic Day Two

Still hurting from the race the night before I rolled out to do my last race of the season on the same course in the pro ½ men’s field. This race started off slower than the previous nights had and it was evident from the start people had gone through a long night the night before. Anyway Chris and I stayed safe up in the front of the pack. About halfway through the race with no real breakaways forming I tried my luck. Attacking from the same spot I did the previous night I got an instant gap only this time I had five other riders to keep me company for the second half of the race. The group included, me, Dave la Duke, Gary Mewitt, Bobby Sweeting(the previous nights winner), a rider from the lees macre team, and a rider who finished third in the previous nights race. Our group worked together building up a gap of little over a minute. I was feeling the effort from the Saturday races so I just rotated through biding my time until the last few laps. With five laps to go I started launching attacks. These were neutralized by Sweeting every time. Eventually with two laps to go I tried for one last desperate attempt to get away as I knew my junior gearing would restrict my sprinting abilities on the slightly downhill finish. I went for all I was worth but was once again brought back. As I sat up Dave La Duke rolled off the front and was never to be see again as he rolled the last two laps to a well deserved victory. Meanwhile behind I sat on waiting for the sprint because I had nothing left. Out of the last turn I was in bad position and had to settle for fifth place.