Saturday July 18 the team headed to Troy, OH, just north of Dayton for the Ohio State Crit Championship, a $3500 purse for the Pro 1/2 race.  The course was a technical 8 corner course with the last straightaway curving around the roundabout that is the center of downtown Troy.  The weather was like a sauna, mid 90s and high humidity, any hard efforts could make you blow to pieces very quickly.  We traded attacks and counterattacks with the Kenda/Geargrinder, Cleveland Clinic, NUVO and Texas Roadhouse teams.  A group of three with Jake Rytlewski of Kenda got a 20 second gap and I attacked to bridge up, got within 5 seconds but kept getting hotter and hotter, had to back off, couldn’t close the gap, ending up 4th.  Kirk finished well in the field sprint, grabbing 8th, Ryan 12th and Brent 20th.

The next day was a $2500 crit with a tough section of bricks in Miamisburg, a suburb of Dayton.  Somehow the heat index was even higher today than in Troy, I was running my Capo jersey fully unzipped and dousing myself with water.  Andy Clarke animated the race with a long two man break with Jeremy Grimm that looked like it would stay away, getting 30 seconds at one point, only to be chased back with 3 to go.  I countered but drew out two sprinters who I didn’t want to take to the line.  With one to go it came back together and I went to the front and led out Kirk to the last corner, he was nipped on the line by a Kenda rider but secured a podium spot with 3rd, Ryan was 8th and Brent 9th.

Superweek and Michigan Races

Greg Christian won the Maillot Jaune Road Race in Fenton, MI on Sat July 24, besting several Bissell riders, with Kirk Albers finishing 4th.  Kirk finished 2nd at the Le Champion Pave Crit in Flint, Mi the next day, with Greg Christian 6th.  Full reports to follow.

Chris Uberti and Ryan Knapp raced several races and turned in some excellent results at the Superweek series in Wisconsin.  Chris finished 5th at the Kenosha Crit on Friday July 23, making a tough break with Fly V Australia and Kelly Benefits riders, 10th the next day at the Downer Avenue Crit and 11th at the South Milwaukee Crit on July 20th.  Full reports to follow.

Next for the team is the Tour of Elk Grove, two big money crits outside of Chicago this weekend and the Presbyterian Hospital Crit in Charlotte on Aug 7.

-Paul Martin