Rogues have been making a strong showing so far at the Mud, Sweat, and Gears CX series in TN. Here are some highlights:

Dave Lehn powering around despite the squishy, heavy mountain bike. MSG #2, Men’s CX 4.

Tim Ciarkowski on his way to a sixth place finish. MSG #2, Men’s CX 4.

John McKenna on his way to second in the master’s 35+ field at the MSG #2.

Thanks to Bart Nave for the pics.

One score and 12 days less ago 5 Rogues, a girlfriend, and a trusty canine ventured south to the cancer producing haven that is Winston-Salem, NC. Featuring an open, undulating circuit and temperatures reaching into the mid 90’s, the Hanes Park Classic guaranteed an epic battle.

Dan Rapella and I rolled off the start line with a pack of 60 tense Cat 4’s around 9 am. The race was a rather timid affair with a few short-lived break aways. I was unconcerned with these futile attempts because I knew Dan and the other teams would bring them back in short order to setup the inevitable field sprint. The open, flowing nature of the course made moving up (and back) in the peleton relatively easy. I was feeling just this side of terrific as the laps started ticking down. I held third wheel coming out of the last turn when the pace fell off and I found myself at the front. I was faced with a decision; go long from 350m out and risk dying within view of the line or wait to get on another wheel and risk being boxed in near the line. I decided to hit the jets early and held it to the line for my first win on a road bike. Dan and I celebrated with a magnum of champagne and numerous kisses from the podium girls. We even got some digits! Phil Ligget was so impressed with my sprint that he tracked me down after the race and proceeded to tell me I would be the next Robbie Mac!

Kevin Crosby and Matt Phillips took to the streets late in the afternoon for what was to be a combative 2/3 race. Numerous strong attacks forced the groupetto to work very hard to haul back breaks the majority of the race. With only a handful of laps remaining, Matt P looked to be in a good spot to unleash his massive sprint. However, it was not to be. A crash with 2 laps to go left our Rogues gapped from the winning group, but thankfully no worse for wear.

The soothing tunes of Wilco took us home…

Disclaimer: The accounts used in this description may have been exaggerated for dramatic effect.

I had a healthy dose of vitamin W at the Blue Ridge Properties Kingsport crit in Kingsport, TN on July 15. Here’s how it happened:

John Webb and myself drove two and a half hours to Kingsport on Sunday afternoon. We surveyed the course and found a 1.2 mile rectangle with a roundabout in on the back straight. We slipped into our fine looking Rogues kits and got warmed. We roled up the line of the 3/4 race and found that the field wasn’t huge: maybe 20ish guys. That made for reasonable odds for us, but on the other hand, the hosting team, TCRC, had about a third of the field. We quickly decided that if one of the TCRC guys got off the front in a break, one of us had better be with them.

The race got started and had the usual attacks in the first few minutes. Nothing too serious until a couple of riders got a gap of about 100 meters on the field. I watched it for a bit and noticed that it had a TCRC guy in it. I jumped across to them before the gap opened up too much and started rotating through. It seemed like the two guys were willing to work, so I was willing to work. We quickly got about 20 seconds on the field with our smooth, even pulls. We held the 20 second gap for about 20 minutes and then, all of a sudden we hear that the gap us up to 40 seconds. The field had obviously stopped chasing and we made up 20 seconds in one lap! At that point, I realized that I might have a good shot of winning the race and that I should start thinking about the end race strategy. The announcer started counting down the laps and I paid close attention to my breakaway companions to make sure they weren’t going to skip pulls or attack our small group. They behaved themselves, and so after the stronger guy in the group (the TCRC guy) took his pull, I attacked with everything I had (with about one kilometer to go) and was able to hold it. I crossed the line with about 100 meters to spare.

John Webb was back in the main pack at this point and was ready for the bunch sprint. Approaching the line, John took off early, at about the 400 meter mark, and easily won the bunch sprint. In addition to the bunch sprint win, John took a prime earlier in the race.

First and fourth is pretty good in my book. Fun race.

They didn’t get pictures of the 3/4 race, so the sculpture in the middle of the roundabout will have to suffice.