Perry Roubaix
Date: March 25-26, 2006
Place: Perry, GA

by Brady Rogers
Team Myogenesis

Hell of the crossroads

Let me preface this write up with a short weather rant. On January 1 of this year, Big Jon and I did 6 gap. Climbing Hog Pen in no arm or leg/knee warmers. Fast forward to the end of March, Perry, Georgia. According to Chad, this area of the state is always 70 and sunny, I think Chad must be getting greasy palms from the Chamber there, because waking up on Saturday morning was anything but. More like 29! So I guess we are going to have winter now, as opposed to January, like most years past?

Now to the real reason I opened up Word on my computer this morning.

Saturday morning started with a 12 mile TT over rolling terrain. Simple enough. Right? Let me say the wind was blowing at a nice clip, right around 25 or so. This was great for the first 6 miles because it made for one heck of a tailwind. Unfortunately, we had to make a turn and head straight back into it, night and day. The head wind was horrific at best. Turning a 54/11 on the downhill was quite a task. (So this is Mother Natures card this week). Things went OK for the Myogenesis Nutrition pb Landmark Dodge team but not as well as the weeks past. The highest we placed in the TT was near the bottom of the top 10. Looks like we had our work cut out for us.

Later that afternoon, the circuit race was kicking off. The pro 1, 2 fields would be doing right around 50 or so miles on the 2.5-mile course. The wind was still whipping, we knew something would go early and probably stay away because of that. We decided that from the start we would go hard and try to get something established. That in fact happened, with Cleve Blackwell and Chad Madan representing the boys in blue. The break that was established contained not only our two guys, but also several other names like Craig Lewis (TIAA-Cref) and Chris Deluise (AEG-Toshiba), as well as Pacesetter Steel Services. We liked what we had, so we rode to contain the field. The break went, got well established, and then the flurry of attacks from the peloton began. One after another, then the field splintered. Break of 11 up the road, a chase group of 5 with Travis Sherman representing Myogenesis Nutrition, then the main field. With about 3 laps to go Craig Lewis attacked and went clear, and he was not coming back. He would hold on for the win. With a single lap left, Cleve jumped and took a flyer, and as was able to hold on for second, coming across the line about 500 meters in front of the sprint. The circuit race was nice to us, with Cleve’s second, Chad getting 4th, Travis winning the sprint out his chase group for 12th, and Casey Magner winning the sprint out of the field. This should help our GC standings.

Showing up Sunday morning for the road race, we were all anxious to see were we had ended up in the overall after a hard Saturday. 3rd, 6th, and 12th. Craig Lewis in 1st, Kevin McDaniel in 2nd, Cleve in 3rd. Today our tactics would be a little different, as the race was a bit longer, a couple a climbs, the dirt “pave’ ”, as advertised and little wind as well. (Let me tell you, the dirt was rough and bumpy from what I hear. Riding on the Blue Competition Cycles RC-4 outfitted with Cane Creek Carbon wheels, and Maxxis Columbiere tires, you would never know it though….SMOOTH!)  The race started extremely slow, but was sure to pick up. After a little cat and mouse, a group finally got up the road, this would eventually lead to a 7 man break, in which we had 3. 2 of them being in the GC. Craig Lewis and Kevin McDaniel both missing the move, which was good news for us. This break would eventually be brought back about half way through. A flurry of attacks, and another group rolled away. This group had a Health-Net representative, as well as Russ Greibel, and Travis Hagner (both of Pacesetter Steel Service), and Travis Sherman. Chad put in a heck of an effort and was able to bridge solo. Then several miles later, Cleve was able to bridge as well. This group stayed away, and would eventually fill out the top ten of the race. The Health-Net guy was long gone, like 3 minutes over the break, which was 6 minutes up the road. Out of the remaining break, Travis would take the sprint, giving him second, and with Chad finishing 6th and Cleve 8th, the Myogenesis boys cleaned up the break. With these finishes, we thought we might be looking good in the overall. The results were in, and we we’re right. The team had pulled another excellent weekend, and this time without their big gun, Jon Atkins, present. Taking 2nd, 4th, and 5th in the GC put us on the podium for the third race in a row. Three for Three. I like it! I believe this weekend showed that we have a team with depth, and we can attack from several angles.

Until next week from Rock Hill