by Tim Henry, Professional Cyclist with West Virginia
Anderson and Walterboro (4-29 & 4-30, 2003):
Wow! You think after just winning the Tour de Georgia that Chris Horner and the Saturn team would be tired. They only seem to get stronger the more they race because they ripped my legs off at the first race of the South Carolina Heritage Series. I have had some knee problems that kept me off my bike for three weeks leading up to this week so my form was somewhat questionable. Twilight was my first race back and it was not pretty. The good news was that my knee did not hurt and my form will come back quickly with races like these. My teammates Pat O'Donnel, Jim Bladesare (2002 elite national crit champion), and Robbie Yost were in town to do these races so I was not alone. This is the largest number of teammates I have raced with all year so I am excited about that. Tuesday's race was in Anderson. The course was supposed to be a 3k circuit but that got changed to 1k. The race distance was 50 miles so we had a whopping 80 laps on the board at the start. After getting everyone in the pack who is faster than me called up to the line we were off. The first few laps were mercifully less than super fast...until a break got away and Navigators decided to chase. This break contained Chris Horner and Viktor Ripinski of Saturn, Danny Pate from Prime Alliance, and Roberto Gaggioli riding for somebody. Navigators went to the front to chase and eventually shelled about half the pack including myself. The race exploded by the end and there was three separate groups on the road. The original break lapped the field and most of them took off again so I don't think I missed too much excitement. Kudos to my teammate Pat O'Donnel for finishing such a hard race. Tonight's race was in Walterboro. The course was about a mile around and extremely tight through the last two turns and on the front straight. I had an even worse start this time but moved up to about halfway through the pack. I stayed there most of the race and just counted down the laps. Apparently there was a break and two guys lapped the field but that is just what I heard. Today it was my teammate Jim's turn to light it up and he was active in several moves throughout the race. The last ten laps started to get really fast when Saturn went to the front to bring back a five man break. With two to go we caught them and Saturn just kept on going. I was very tired but determined to at least finish this race so I just prayed for the bell lap. We were going about 40 miles an hour down the back straight on the last lap and all I could do was hang on, but at least it was over quickly. It has been a tough two days and there are still four more to go but the recent time off my bike has reminded me of one thing; that no matter how much it hurts, I love bike racing.
Greenwood, SC, 5-1-2003
It looked like it would be a wet day in Greensboro as it was pouring rain when we got to the race. The rain lightened up and stopped just before the
start so we only had to deal with wet ground though. This course was on city streets but much more wide open than the last two days. It was a four
corner 1.1k course. The only thing I did not like about this course was the two manhole covers in the middle of the racing line through turn four. Prime Alliance was there in force after taking the day before off and John
Lieswyn of 7-up also showed up so the pace was sure to be fast. I had a decent start and the race strung out right away. The first turn was a lot
safer than I thought it would be and I lost several positions figuring out
that you did not have to break hard going into it. Turn two was easy, the backside was just plain fast, turn three was a really fast wide open
sweeping turn and I lost more positions on turn four because I refused to go over the manhole covers while the ground was wet. After my recent time
off I was missing that little bit extra top end that made the difference on
this course. After about ten laps a couple of people passed me and I could not accelerate
to get on their wheels so more people passed me until I was at the back. This was a point where I should have been more aggressive
because sitting at the back was even harder than the middle. From there, it was just a matter of time until the elastic broke. There was quite a
few fast people that dropped out of this race as well. About five laps after I dropped out a group of fourteen got away and that was the race.
The pack slowed down then and if I had stuck it out maybe I would have finished? Oh well, there is always tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday to work
out the what-ifs. With several laps to go Eric Saunders of Ofoto soloed
away from the breakaway for a powerful win. Until tomorrow.
Aiken, SC, and Shelby, NC 5-2 & 5-3, 2003
Friday's race in downtown Aiken, SC was going to be a fun night. We have been
staying with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Sue in Aiken all week and they came to this
one to cheer us on. Both my parents were also there so the pressure was on to do
well. The course was fast, fairly wide, and exciting. Unfortunately a recent
knee injury flared up again and I decided to drop out after only two laps. This
was difficult to do because the race was not too hard just then. But this is the
kind of injury that only gets worse if you ride through it. I'm sure racing on
it for four days straight right after getting back on my bike was a big
contributing factor to the current pain. My main goal for the week is a good
ride at Roswell on Sunday. The race was exciting and in the end Chris Horner
(surprise) and Henk Vogels got away with Vogels taking the win. The next day we
were off to Shelby, NC. Shelby is a race that I only hear good things about.
Everyone loves the course and the community is supposed to love the race.
Everything I heard was true. This is a great event and the town really gets into
it with a festival all day long. I got a great view of the race because I sat
this one out to avoid injuring my knee further. As I said my goal is Roswell and
I will definitely be on the line there. A break got away that consisted of a
Who's Who of domestic cycling and eventually that split in half with the front
group containing John Lieswyn of 7-Up, Danny Pate of Prime Alliance, Vassilli
Davidenko of Navigators and Eric Wolberg of Saturn. Leiswyn took a close sprint
victory after Pate's repeated attacks got nowhere. Now it is off to bed to
prepare for the Roswell crit where hopefully my knee will hold up and I can at
least finish in front of my home town.