Tour de Syracuse Recap

This past weekend all of the ME/SBR team, with the exception of Rick, headed out to Syracuse for the annual Tour De Syracuse. The Tour De Syracuse is a two-day, three-event, omnium-format race featuring a criterium, time trial and road race.

Saturday was the criterium and Adam kicked things off with a very strong 5th place against a tough cat 3 field. Phil and I then took to the cat 4 race which saw 77 riders take the start. Things seemed pretty nervous and chaotic with such a large field and there were a couple crashes, one of which Phil was behind, at which point, he was forced to jump the curb to avoid the crash and took a little detour off-road, a la Lance Armstrong in the 03 Tour. Unfortunately, by the time he managed to get back to the pavement, the field was gone. I was also caught out by a crash with a lap and a half to go, but I think both of us left the race feeling positive that we kept the rubber on the road and avoided any serious incidents.

Phil during the crit (photo courtesy of www.varietystudios.com).

The Cat 5 group was split into 2 groups (under 35 and over 35). The younger group would feature a strong showing from ME/SBR riders - Chad, Jason and Stefan (who raced in the junior field in the morning, but got tangled up in a crash in that race). After a very aggressive race, a rider ended up solo-ing for the win. Chad hit the front with a half a lap to go to wind up the field sprint with Jason on his wheel, for what was left of the peloton - everything worked perfectly as Jason came around to take the field sprint for 2nd place. Chad and Stefan both ended up with top 10 finishes as well. When the points were calculated at the end of the race, Jason was in the points lead for the omnium overall and received ME/SBR's first leader's jersey!

Jason in the foreground taking the field sprint. Chad (center) trying to hang on after dessimating the field with his leadout (photo courtesy of www.varietystudios.com).

A nice prize for Jason - some great team tactics and a great kick by J at the end to take the jersey!

In the older cat 5 group, ME/SBR's Michel clipped back into racing for the first time since crashing out of a race back in March. If he was feeling rusty at all, it didn't show as he took 1st and 2nd in two intermediate sprints and took 5th in the final sprint to the line. It was great to see Michel back in action and showing off that great top-end speed that will undoubtedly win some races as the season progresses.

Michel coming out of the last turn on the course (photo courtesy of Robby B. from Twin Line Velo).

Sunday morning was an early wake-up call for all the racers with a 3 mile time trial around Crooked Lake. None of the ME/SBR riders were riding TT bikes or aero bars, but everyone gave it everything they had and put in some respectable times nonetheless. Personally, I had forgotten the type of lung-burner that a short 7 minute effort can create!

Following the short and intense TT, there was about an hour break before the Song Mountain Road Race rolled out. The Cat 5 fields were set to tackle one lap of the 27.5 mile course, while the cat 3 and 4 fields would complete two laps (55 miles total). The cat 3 field hit the base of the final climb with about 30 riders still in the front group, Adam followed some tough accelerations going up the final climb and held on for 13th at the line.

After some aggressive racing on the first lap, Phil and I both ended up in the middle of the big cat 4 field, with myself failing to come up with any type of uphill sprint to the line and ending up somewhere around 20th (correct results still haven't been posted). A little frustrating, but sometimes you have to give credit where it's due, and there were some very strong riders in the group who had more left in the finishing hill than I did.

Jason and Chad were once again all over the front of their race and ended up 2nd and 4th respectively. Michel capped a great return to racing with a mid-pack finish as well.

Chad patrolling the front with Jason (center) looking sharp in the green leader's jersey (photo courtesy of www.varietystudios.com).

For the overall omnium, ME/SBR ended up with four top 10 finishes - Jason and Chad were 3rd and 4th respectively in their 5's group, Adam was 8th in the cat 3 group and Michel was 9th in his field. Great weekend of racing and excellent for everyone to get some racing miles over the course of a weekend as we prepare for several multi-day events to come later this summer. Up next will be the GVCC Team Time Trial followed by the three race Full Moon Vista Grand Prix all in the next week, so there should be some exciting racing to come.

- MM