Saturday was the infamous Hillsboro Roubaix for the
Panther/Competitive cyclist squad. This was the first big weekend of
racing of the year with (almost) the full team, so It was going to be
interesting to see how we all raced together.

After everything I had heard of this race I was really preparing for a
three hour suffer fest of people attacking left and right out of the
125 person field. However that was not the case, the first two laps
went excruciatingly slow, the first lap putting down a blistering
average of just over 20 mph. So for the most part the massive field
was completely stacked on itself, making it virtually impossible to
move anywhere in the group. Even though I tried, I know that I didn’t
see the front of the field once the first lap of the race.

The second lap was more of the same. Running through the finish I made
sure to scope out the finishing circuit.

The second lap was largely like the first, everyone getting twitchy
but no one really wanting to open hostilities themselves.

Finally going into the third lap the race suddenly turned on, and went
from a big easy group ride to some really tough racing. As the course
twisted back out into the wind Panther was represented in nearly all
the moves. However, most of the groups, usually initiated by Texas
Roadhouse, would always lack riders from the Kenda Pro squad. So each
group would in turn get chased down by one their riders.

This was largely the theme for the last lap, people attacking, getting
chased down, and then counter attacking again. A good half of the
chasing was done by our own Greg Christian, who was riding like five
men; if he wasn’t chasing down an attack he was pulling the field
along at a brisk pace.

To give you an idea how fast we were going, going into the last lap
the breakaway, which was no fluff group (Kyle Jacobson, Ryan Freund,
and Ben Damhoff) had four minutes on the field, but within twenty
miles from the start of the final lap they had all been brought back.

Once we turned onto the tailwind road that ran back into town, we were
really flying, and the field split; the front group ending up with
roughly 30 riders.

Going into the finish it was looking more and more like a field sprint
so I stayed in the top five going up the climb. By the top Greg and
Kirk had moved up to the front ahead of me and our lead-out was set.
We made the sharp downhill left-hander and hit the cobbles for the
last time with Greg at the front at 45 mph. We made it through the
descent without getting swarmed, Greg swung off just before the last
corner, and Kirk took over the lead-out. Since it was a strong
headwind I tried to wait on the sprint. By the time we hit the 200
meters I still hadn’t seen anyone so decided to initiate my sprint.
After a few pedal strokes I still hadn’t seen any wheels, so I looked
back: I saw Kirk, then a bunch of space. Going through the corner and
coming out Kirk had gapped pretty much the entire field, and I had
some space for the win.

It was a Panther pack across the line though; Noah and Ryan had only
been a few wheels back going into the finish and moved up to third and
fourth respectively.

So 1st, 3rd, and 4th, plus a perfectly executed lead-out: not a bad
day of racing for the Panther team.

-Chris Uberti