by Brady Rogers, Team Myogenesis

Taking the same route down Interstate 16 that Willie T Sherman took on his trip to Savannah in 1864, the Myogenesis Nutrition pb Landmark Dodge elite team loaded up for another weekend of racing in defense of their coveted overall lead in the Georgia Cup series. The Savannah Cyclism was set be a hard weekend of racing, with four races in 3 days. Saturday, in the hottest part of the afternoon, 98F with 100% humidity in the shade, the boys would toe the line to do a criterium that was to be 40 laps around historic Forsyth Park. The loop was 1.7k flat, rectangle course consisting of 600 meter straights that were lined with Live Oaks laced with Spanish moss, that I’m sure were there to actually see Sherman march in.

We knew the crit would be fast from the gun, so we were sure to have our troops lined up near the front. We we’re right. From the gun Aerospace Engineering, in town with their “A” squad, started the attacks. We were able to cover every move, but nothing was sticking. Then about 20 laps into the affair, AEG’s Bruno Langois, fresh off of his Tri-Peaks stage win, laid down a vicious attack with a teammate in tow. Not only two AEG guys, but Kent Bostick as well. For those of you who don’t know Kent, he has some rainbow stripe on his jersey for some reason or another. You get the picture? The field chased for a while to no avail. Just as we started to move our sprinters to the front, the sky opened with a little afternoon rain shower. This really changed the race dynamics. With the surface being wet, crashes ensued left and right. We managed to stay out of all of them, and ended up with Casey Magner in 6th and Jon Atkins in 8th. Obviously not what we wanted, but not bad.

Sunday would be a new day, with two races. The first of which being a Team Time Trial. Arriving at the venue, we unloaded our Blue Competition Cycles T-12’s and began our warm up. Having not ever really done one of these with the current team structure, we knew we had our work cut out for us. We started, and everything rolled smoothly for the 30k with a 3rd being brought home. The second race of the day was a circuit race to be held a road race speedway, complete with chicanes and banked corners and on the banks of the Savannah River to boot. This looked like a perfect course for our horsepower. The race was very quick, and once again Aerospace would be the aggressor. A series of attacks late in the race finally caused a break. Chad Madan moved to front to ensure that our sprinters would be in place, by keeping things under control while Cleve moved Casey and Jon up for the sprint. When all was said and done Jon got a two spot in the field sprint, making that another top 10 on the weekend. Monday, we packed up and headed back a hour north towards Atlanta for the road race. This would a 135k affair in the sizzling temperatures again. After a neutral roll out, the attacks began immediately. Myogenesis would be represented in a break that lasted 80% of the race. Up front would be Cleve Blackwell and Travis Sherman. Cleve would collect enough points while off the front, to put him back into the KOM jersey, taking four.

After all was said and done, the boys had a good weekend, collecting a couple top tens, the KOM jersey and increasing their points gap in the overall leaders jersey as well. Next stop Dahlonega. Until next time CIAO……….

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