Photo credits: TrueSport.com

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

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

Coming in the finish, Andrew attacked and I countered hoping to drop
the other two in the process. Nate was able to stay on my wheel, and
we slowed way down after that with neither wanting to lead out the
sprint. Eventually I ended up jumping on a small rise before the fast
downhill sprint and was able to get enough of a gap to hold Nate off
until the finish. Kirk also escaped from the field late in the final
lap to take 4th, putting both of us in a position to win the
super-secret ninja omnium which was in place for the two races (there
was buzz about there being an omnium, but no one knew how much it paid
or how deep).

Sunday’s crit in downtown Flint (it’s nicer than you might think, by
the way) featured a long straightaway on bricks, which is always the
sort of thing I enjoy racing on. Great production for a first year
race, and I really hope that it takes off and becomes a big event.
Again the racing started out with lots of short lived attacks. I tried
covering as many of them as possible, while meanwhile KIrk waited for
the right moment to pounce.  When he did go about halfway through the
race, it was lights out for the field. The break of five that formed
was out of sight in no time.  Kirk attacked the break with two laps to
go and was narrowly beaten out by Derek Graham of Bissel.  Meanwhile,
I attacked the field with half a lap to go and managed to stay away
for 6th place.  Our finishes both days put us 1-2 in the super secret
ninja omnium (which turned out to have a pretty good payout, 3 deep),
with Kirk taking the top spot.

-Greg Christian

Whitnall Park Road Race

The first race took place in a botanical garden in Milwaukee. It was raining and more of a field split went early. I stayed up front and made the right side of the split. I was feeling really really strong. Maybe strong enough to do some stupid things like attack a group that contained mostly Pro’s including UHC’s Karl Menzies. I was pretty spent by the end and attacked midway through the last lap, poor idea, and got caught just before the finishing climb. Ended up 11^th

Bucyrus Road Race

Another twisty 3 mile course with a few hills that wound through a lake-front park on the south side of Milwaukee. I made the 12 person breakaway again. However I was definitely feeling my efforts from the day before. I got gapped out on the last lap, but caught back on and knew I had nothing in the sprint. Ended up 11^th.

Milwaukee Lakefront Road Race

This was another Road Race along the lake, however this time the course ran in front of the Milwaukee beach, so there was plenty of nice ‘scenery’ to look at if you were getting dropped. I was totally fried from the previous two days and just wasn’t mentally into the race. By the time there were about 25 guys up the road I decided to drop out.

Racine Crit

Decided to take Thursday off, which was a good financial decision since the crit was canceled for tornados.

Kenosha Crit

Friday’s crit was another example of feeling really good and therefore racing like a moron. I heard a prime called out for $50 of …something something. I thought I’d go for it, $50 was some good cash. I attacked on the backside pretty hard and got a good gap, and the prime! However the prime turned out to be a gift card. I was a little mad at myself and saw that I had a 15 second gap and decided to drill it so I spent about 10 minutes off the front of a Superweek crit by myself. It was my 15 minutes of fame, which lasted 10 minutes. My gap over the field even reached over 30 seconds and people started telling me my time to the back of the field. My ridiculous hopes of lapping a Superweek crit solo were pretty quickly ended when about 7 guys bridged up to me. I rode well in the break, but when it came to the last lap I came out of the last corner a little too far back in 6^th and only ended up 5^th.

Downers Ave. Crit

Downers is always a great crit with huge crowds. I sat in most of the race, knowing that since this was a pretty prestigious race and the past 5 races ended in breakaways, this would probably be a field sprint. I was right, however I got swarmed a little on the back side of the course and only managed to pull out a 10^th place.

Whitefish Bay Criterium

This is the first time I’ve ever done this race since it’s usually conflicted with the Chicago Criterium. A large 10 man breakaway rolled away midway through the race. I noticed a little late and made an effort to bridge up that blew me up to the point that I almost got dropped when I was caught. I spent the next 50 km recovering from my one effort; I also think I was slightly tired from racing for a week. The break lapped the field and I struggled to muster up some legs for the sprint, but managed to finish 20^th.

-Chris Uberti

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

The Tour of the Valley is a 2nd year stage race held in the Mahoning Valley of eastern Ohio, home to the steel towns of Warren and Youngstown, just upriver from Pittsburgh and on the edge of the Appalachian foothills.  Carbon Racing did a great job with the event, bringing a $10,000 prize list and teams from Mountain Khakis, Team Type 1, Kenda and Panther/Competitive Cyclist to the pro/am race.  The time trial was a relatively flat 9.5 miles out and back, made interesting by late afternoon rain.  Andy and I got a good pre ride of the course to check out the wind direction and turnaround. I told Andy that it would take a 19:00 to win, a 30 mph average, so that was my goal. I started to 2nd to last, 30 seconds in front of last year’s overall winner, Joey Rosskopf from Mtn. Khakis.  I made good progress on the way out, catching 3 riders by the turnaround.  The wind went out of my sails when Rosskopf caught me from behind in the last two miles.  I finished with a 19:17, 3rd place, 37 seconds behind Rosskopf and 8 seconds behind Matt Cooke (Mtn Khakis).  Andy Clarke had a strong ride for 8th, and Kirk was 20th. Hats off to Rosskopf, who averaged 30.53 mph.

Stage 3 – Youngstown Criterium

Coming off Kirk’s strong win in the road race our goals were to retake 3rd place on GC and go for the stage win, as I had dropped to 4th by one second to Oscar Clarke (Mtn Khakis).  The six corner course was dead flat, but rough and bumpy, going past reputed old mafia hangouts that color the history of Youngstown.  Time bonus sprints were on offer at 20, 50 and 75 minutes in as well as the finish at 90 minutes.  Kirk exploded out of the field for the first bonus sprint with me on his wheel, the only rider from the field who could follow us was Rosskopf, who took the sprint but I took the 2 second bonus for 2nd.  The second bonus sprint was similar, except my leadout came from Brent and Andy, and I took that sprint with a bike throw in front of Clarke.  Kirk took the 3rd bonus sprint and I was 2nd, plenty of time to retake 3rd on GC.  Panther again took control of the race for the finish, with Brent and Andy controlling the front, Kirk did another monster leadout, single handedly holding off trains from all the other teams.  Rosskopf jumped our train with two corners to go and with another rider gapping me off his wheel coming into the last turn I ended up 3rd.  A great team effort, we placed a rider on the podium for the stage and the GC, with Andy Clarke 9th on GC and Kirk 14th.

-Paul Martin

With Team Mountain Khakis occupying the first two spots in the overall and Team Panther’s Paul Martin slotted in third just one second in front of another Mountain Khaki rider, the bonus time available on each passing of the KOM was a goal of the top riders and with the time gaps relatively tight over the top ten riders, breakaways were kept to a minimum leading into the climb on the first lap.  Paul climbed well on the first and was able to score a single second bonus while Andy Clarke suffered an untimely puncture just a few miles from the base of the climb.  Over the top, most of the group reunited, while Kelly Benefits rider Cheyne Hoag put in the huge solo effort and quickly built up a 50 second advantage.

Andy Clarke was able to chase back to the field while Mountain Khakis kept the gap manageable and the rest of the field was content to wait for the second ascent of the climb.  Hoag was able to just hold off the lead riders for the second offering of bonus seconds, while Paul was slotted in with a select group of chasers a few moments later and myself not too far behind in a group of ten.  Within a mile, the lead group was up to 15 riders, but the heat and terrain began to take it’s toll on the race animators, allowing a lead group of 30 riders to form.  Unfortunately for Andy Clarke, another mechanical and a detour off course would take him out of the running on the stage.

Paul and myself, along with the Mountain Khakis riders provided much of the race animation on the relatively flat and fast run in back to Columbiana as we began to focus on the time line at the entrance to the finish circuit and the bonus time available on the first and fifth passing of the finish line.  I was able to latch on to a small group 1.5 miles out from the time line, but the field was more or less back together as we began the false flat to the line, I made my move 200 yards before the last corner, maintaining a small advantage to score the first bonus.

The attacks were fast and furious over the next few laps, the quite long false flat taking a toll on the greatly diminished field, I followed a hard acceleration by second place on overall Matt Cooke, setting me up well to score the second bonus sprint much like the first.  With 10, 6, and 4 second bonuses on the finish and Paul so close to reclaiming third on overall, I moderated my efforts in the lead group of five, but was then forced to solely respond to all the eventual attacks.  With one lap to go, race leader Rosskopf from Mountain Khakis was close to making the junction to our group, just as he came charging through, his teammate Cooke made a blistering attack 500+ yards from the finish.  Cramping and twitching all over the place, I gave it all I had left, overtaking both riders 100 yards before the last corner, holding off the teammate duo before finding the nearest bit of shade to lie down for a good stretch.  Paul finished quite strongly just behind the remainder of the break in 8th, with the rest of field literally finishing in groups of ones and twos.

- Kirk Albers