Greg, Vince, Kirk and I made the trip east to Binghamton, NY for the last NRC criterium of the year.  The course is a 2 km lap around a city park with a good hill and two tight downhill turns.  The race was dominated by tactics between United Healthcare, Fly V Australia and Jamis Sutter Home, all who had full 8 rider teams. We tried to put a rider in the promising breakaways, especially in the second half of the race.  Kirk was in an 11 rider break that got brought back inside of two laps to go.  I fought for the wheels in the sprint and ended up 13th, happy to make it through a chaotic last lap rubber side down.

-Paul Martin

Brent, Erik and I raced the Rubber City Criterium in Akron, Ohio last Saturday.  The course was a challenging up and down 1.2 mile loop, with a 40 mph descent and a long slog uphill to the finish.  Fifteen minutes in to the hour long race I experienced a first in a race; the police stopped the race because a spectator sitting on a 100 ft. high bridge that went over the race course was threatening to jump.  Thankfully they got there in time, no one jumped and we are able to resume racing.  On restart, the race quickly split up, I ended up in a 4 man break with ex teammate Jeremy Grimm, Matt Weeks and Shawn Adams from Carbon Racing.  I was able to come off of Matt’s wheel and hold off Jeremy in the sprint for the win (barely).
-Paul Martin

We spent some time in Columbus at the Garrett Wonders Roadrace. Here is a photo tour courtesy of Picasa user Consider Biking. Enjoy. You can also find more at Veloarts.com.

A few of use went down to the New Belgium Mass Avenue Criterium last weekend, here is how it turned out. Christ Uberti 2nd, Eric Young 1st, and Kirk Albers 3rd.

Photo credits: TrueSport.com

Not much more to it, but a nice shot of Chris Uberti from Superweek.

Tour of Elk Grove

Five riders from Team Panther raced two criteriums in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, IL, last weekend.  Both races were held on a flat 2km course with a 180 turn and a long drag race of a sprint.  With $7,500 and $8,500 prize money on offer the team was aggressive, constantly sending riders off the front to create breakaways and ring the prime bell.  Saturday’s race ended in a messy field sprint, won by Andy Crater (Aerocat) with Ryan Knapp 9th, Chris Uberti 12th and Paul 18th.  In spite of late breakaways by Andy Clarke and Greg Christian that forced the Aerocat and Kenda teams to chase full gas, Sunday also came down to a field sprint with Panther putting three riders in the top ten - 6th, 7th and 8th places by Chris, Ryan and Paul.

Garrett Wonders Criteriums

Kirk Albers and Brent Martin raced the Garrett Wonders criteriums in Westerville and Columbus, OH the same weekend, coming up with two big wins.  Brent Martin followed Kirk’s leadout for the win Saturday in Westerville, with Kirk in third and Kirk went two places better to win the Columbus race on Sunday.  Full report to follow.

Next up for the team is the Presbyterian Hospital Criterium in Charlotte, NC this Saturday; a tough NRC and USA Crits event.

-Paul Martin