Eventually it was brought back after some others, including Kirk Albers and Ryan Cross, bridged up.  From there, it was the standard attack, chase, repeat game until Paul got away with two riders for a number of laps. After this was brought back, I went with one of the counters that turned into the winning breakaway, with Adam York, MCG, and Sven Baumann.

With two laps to go, I attacked into a slight uphill section, loosing Sven. I then did the same thing with one lap to go to break free from Adam and solo in for the win. Ryan Aitcheson took the field sprint for 4th after a blistering leadout from Kirk and Paul. Ryan C. unfortunately crashed on the last lap (he’s OK), otherwise it sounds like he would have been a lock for a top placing as well.

Many thanks to Scott Kroske for the photos.

-Greg Christian

Sunday’s race was a 93 mile road race starting and finishing in the small town of Cedar, taking in some of the hills in the area, including a climb up the road to the Sugarloaf Mountain ski area.  Numerous breaks formed and were chased down for the first half of the race, often on the tailwind sections of the course. Over the top of one of the hills I found myself in a five man group to which Greg bridged up within a few miles.  We had two riders in seven with the strongest sprinters back in the field and only one rider from Bissell, putting them in a position to chase.  Our group rolled out to a solid gap by the start of the last 15 mile lap, where Greg and I attacked to split up the break, hoping to get one of us clear.  Over the top of Sugarloaf the break shrunk to three and then only Chris Fisher (Priority Health) and I.  The group swelled to four on the tailwind run in to the finish with Greg just short of making contact before the sprint.  I jumped hard out of the last turn but left it about 25 meters too short as Fisher came around me at the line.  Greg rolled in for 5th, Mac Brennan for 8th after a long bridge attempt and Ryan 16th.

Two more podium finishes for the team and a good weekend in Michigan.  Thanks much to Pat and Iris Brennan for hosting us at their place in Traverse City and to Mac’s parents for top notch work in the feed zone.

-Paul Martin

A mostly off weekend for the Ohio crew, I was flying solo for the race which had a small but decent turnout for a first year race. Ohio Crit champ Jeremy Grimm was the main threat, so I spent most of the day watching their moves and attacking early.

With 5 to go I followed an attack by Jeremy and we worked together to bridge up to the 2 guys up the road to make a group of 5. We had a large gap on the field, and the two Carbon racing riders started attacking the group once we all got together. Jeremy and I both covered them knowing we wanted it to come down to a sprint. Jeremy took the reins going into the second to last corner, I started my sprint on the uphill before the last corner coming around the outside and got a good gap going through the last corner, enough to take the win.

Afterwards I drove up and stayed with my parents the day before the Milford State Championship Criterium the next day. Panther had most of the Michigan crew present with Mac and Greg, which was good since the field had a full platter of Michigan racers vying for the title. I’d never raced here before but the town and course were great.

The start/finish was on Main Street, then the course wound tightly through some neighborhoods. The final turn before the finish was a tight hairpin turn that was followed by a gradual uphill 400 meters to the finish.  I knew the uphill finish suited me pretty well if it came down to a sprint.

A combination of heat, wind, and difficult course made it apparent that it would be a breakaway day for sure. We all took turns covering groups going up the road, about midway through Mac got into a pretty large group that started rolling pretty well. The pack was becoming lethargic so I attacked to bridge up, bringing a Carbon Racing and Bissell rider with me. The Carbon Racing guy and I rotated through pretty well and caught the break in a couple of laps. Once there, the group was a little too big to rotate smoothly but we were going fast enough to get out of sight of the main field.

As the laps started counting down some attacks started going. Mac followed a move for a prime with 5 to go, which was immediately followed by another even bigger prime. Naturally he had to go for both. It worked out well since his group of 3 prime hunters was up the road, I was able to sit in and let others close the gap.

When they came back Mac was pretty fried so I took up to keeping the group together so he could recover.Coming into the last lap we set up a lead out that kept everyone at bay through the last corner. I opened up my sprint probably way too early in the head/cross wind but managed to hold everyone off for another win. Mac even won the U23 state championship too, so we had all our bases covered – not a bad weekend.

Mac, Greg and Kirk lined up for the early start at the Maillot Jaune Road Race in Fenton, MI, a race which Greg had won the previous year.  The 100km test the featured a number of small hills and “challenging” pavement, eventually a breakaway of three went clear just before the half way point of the event.

With the field content to watch the action ride away, Greg and Mac went to work steadily reducing the gap until the field was all together on the last lap.  Kirk followed the next few dangerous moves, then with just a few miles to go Greg was able to make a solo move that provoked a reaction from three others on the last hill before the finish.  Kirk followed the chasers and with just one mile to go, a group of six came together.

Greg wound up the speed on the downhill finish, Kirk jumped hard at 300 meters to go and was able to hold off the others to win, Greg was fifth and Mac was second in the bunch for eighth in the race.  Read more and see photos in the Flint Journal.

Sunday’s event, Le Champion Pave (named after Flint icon spark plug make Champion), again featured some challenging pavement, this time in the form of a 600 meter stretch of bricks.

Mac and Greg were quite aggressive, with Mac making it into the breakaway after the halfway point.  The attacks came fast and furious from within that group inside the last ten laps, but it was all Brennan when it counted, finally going clear for his first win in the Pro/1/2 ranks – congrats!

Kirk, Ryan, and Greg sprinted in the field, with Kirk taking the overall omnium for the weekend – many thanks to Scott Kroske for the photos in this post.

Pictures by Cycleture .

The following day was the downtown criterium on the main strip in Mount Pleasant. The community really embraces this event and it shows with the amount of locals that come out to cheer. The course was extremely fast and very few breakaways were able to gain more than a few hundred meters worth of lead.

The team rode very well to cover anything that went up the road and with the presence of RGF, Louis Garneau and Bissell, it was evident that it would have taken the perfect combination of riders to roll away. With about 5 laps to go the team began forming at the front to prepare for what would be a very fast finish. Greg hit it hard with 3 to go and Mac and Kirk powered behind him to set up Ryan A, who had an awesome sprint in his legs today and pulled off an amazing win.

Sunday’s 130 mile road race was a test of endurance, tactics and of course, nutrition. The early break rolled away when the field decided to take a little nature stop on the side of the road.  We didn’t have a rider in the move but a few other teams missed the move as well so we weren’t terribly concerned in the beginning.

Kirk went to the front and rode at a steady tempo for about 90 minutes to keep the break in check. After about 2 hours the break had gained 8 minutes on the field – it was time for us to begin a concerted chase effort. Four of us went to the front and exchanged pulls for nearly 2 hours. With help from Alan Antonuk and Jeff Pendlebury of RGF we began reeling the break in steadily and it was together at roughly the 90 mile mark.  Counter attacks began flying left and right and we contained them very well despite our tired legs. After Greg and I put in a counter of our own which was reeled back, the big move went up the road. Brian Sheedy, David Williams and 3 others got a gap and began rolling away steadily.

The winning move was riding away so again, we assembled at the front and were forced to chase. The next 30 miles were tough. We exchanged pulls without saying a word for an hour while we slowly decreased our time to the leaders. We rode at 30+ miles per hour during the chase and caused a few splits in the field behind us. We finally caught the final remnants of the break in the last mile of the race. Unbelievably, the race came down to a  field sprint with what was left of the group. We did our best to mix it up in the sprint but the chase efforts had caught up with us and the fresh legs of those who sat on prevailed. We walked away a little tattered and disappointed that all of our hard work on the day didn’t’ pay off like we would have liked.

A huge thanks goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Brennan who did our feeds on the day (like pros) and the Fink family for graciously hosting 5 sweaty Panthers for the weekend.

-Greg Christian

Riding in the wind on the dirt was imperative, not only to avoid the mud spray off the back wheel of the guy in front of you but to steer around the huge potholes that constantly ejected water bottles and punctured tires.  Andy Clarke went early with a Bissell rider, building a 1 minute lead until the Bissell rider flatted, forcing their team to chase Andy back.  Halfway through, what was left of the field was back together and we put in some attacks to split the group, ending up with a 6 man group with Kirk, Mac and myself from Panther.

Brennan commented post race:

“I was able to jump back in the break (after a late race attack – ed.), but my legs were pretty fried and I fell of the group in the second dirt section. I ended up coming in 6th, but Paul was able to take the win with Kirk getting 5th. Ryan A. also finished 8th and Ryan Cross was able to get 10th. For my second race I was pretty pleased with how the legs felt and really happy with how the team did on the day.”

On the last two sections of dirt first Mac and then Kirk put in big efforts to split up the break, I countered Kirk’s move with 5 miles to go and got away alone for the win.  Kirk and Mac finished 5th and 6th, Ryan Aitcheson 8th and Ryan Cross 10th.  Our Canyon bikes and SRAM wheels were awesome, no broken carbon fiber parts for us.  Special thanks to Mac’s father who became the impromptu team feeder to replace our lost water bottles.

Tons of Cone Azalia Photos, click through to see the conditions!

The day before Cone Azalia, Ryan Aitcheson, Andy, Erik Lesco from our regional team and I raced the Race at the Lake circuit race in Munroe Falls, OH near Akron.  Since Ryan is prepping for the Joe Martin stage race with longer road races, we rode the 45 km each way to and from the race, with a 60 km race in the middle, for a 150+ km day (he’s Canadian, eh, they use kms not miles).

Aitcheson added

“The race started off with a few good attacks but nothing got more than 10 seconds. The 4 of us kept the pace high launching and covering many attacks. Nothing was getting away without one of us in the break. With about 18 laps to go Cleveland Clinic and a Carbon Racing rider attacked and started opening up a gap on the field. Seeing this threat I jumped and bridged across.

A few laps later we were joined by 2 riders one a Cleveland Clinic Racer and the five of us all worked together opening up a gap of up to one minute on the field. With 2 laps to go the break was down to 3 riders, each representing one of the bigger teams in the race.

Pendlebury from Cleveland Clinic attacked first with 1 mile to go leaving Quinlan from Carbon Racing and I to chase. Quinlan sat on my wheel and wouldn’t pull through so I pulled hard leaving a little left in the tank to sprint. With 50 meters to go I got within 2 bike-lengths of Pendlebury and just couldn’t push any harder on the pedals. Pendlebury took the win and Quinlan came around me in the last few meters to take second. The win was in our grasps but I just couldn’t get any more power out of the legs. However it was another podium finish for the team.”

I followed Andy’s lead out and ended up 2nd in the group sprint for 6th on the day.  Andy made us do intervals on the way home because we didn’t win.

Next for the team is the Joe Martin stage race in Fayetteville, AR and the Tour de Grove in St. Louis, both NRC events.

- Paul Martin

I went into the races with low expectations and just looking for some training, a little bit of speed and an opportunity to test my knee. I rode for a few hours beforehand so that I could get more than an hour of training on the day. Once the race started I decided to just float around the front of the field and try to sit on my hands if a break were going, because the training isn’t quite there yet. It was hard to not race on my instincts and follow every attack that seemed dangerous, but it was also just fun to be back out there racing my bike.

Eventually a fairly large break of seven got away and lapped the field, so I tried to stay out of trouble and upright. I was able to win a Prime in the middle of the race, so that was a small “victory” of sorts. As the laps wound down, I tried to stay at the front, but at the same time, not get in the way of the guys in the break that were racing for the win. I was able to sit on the back of the lapping group and cruise in for second in the field sprint.  All together, I wasn’t too disappointed with my fitness level; my knee held up well to the first intensity of the year and was just glad to be back racing my bike.

-Ryan Knapp