Home Race?!

The 2019 edition of Tour of the Southern Highlands was filled with beautiful courses, fantastic racing, and plenty of great results from the team.

The boys all arrived in on Wednesday evening. I made my way up to Canton with Seth, driving just fast enough that we got there before the other boys and were able to snag a room. As it turns out a real bed is slightly nicer than an air mattress in the living room (VOS). Eventually the other boys showed up and unloaded. The gang was BACK. Well, not the full gang as Quinn, Matthew and Jared sat this one out but still- 7/10 gang. We were also accompanied by 2 Velosport guys who were with us for the weekend. Brody and Ian were super cool guys and great to have around. We settled down, the guys built their bikes and shortly after made our way to dinner. Can you guess?

CHIPOTLE.

THURSDAY

Thursday was for recon. It was wet though- real wet. The forecast called for rain all day but knowing the unpredictability of Georgia weather we kept an open mind. We slept in, did our best at keeping the kitchen clean while 9 boys cooked breakfast, and drank plenty of coffees. Seth was a god and brought his espresso machine. We put that thing to WORK.

Eventually the rain cleared; we loaded up the trailer and headed north to Ball Ground. TT course took priority so that was first. Each of us hit some personally prescribed openers, mine being an aerobic effort of 7ish minutes followed by some shorter efforts to get the body going. The bike felt fast and the body felt good. We then hooked back in to the RR course and rode that loop. 1.5 hours ride time and just avoided the rain. A great pre-race day. Following recon we headed for food. Guess?

chipotle.

FRIDAY

TT DAY

Twas a relatively early morning as we headed off to the Time Trial. All start times for us were between 9:30 and 10 so house departure was 7:30. Breakfast was the usual- eggs, oats, copious amounts of coffee. We loaded up and headed north once again. Once in Ball Ground the compound of tents, trainers, and bike racks was set up and each of us got to work at our personal pre-race routines. I ran though my warm up on the bike, blasted some EDM to get the mindset right and headed to the start.

I couldn’t have asked for a better race. Started slow, let the effort come to me, smashed the upper section of the course then finished it off with everything I had. The effort was good; weird though. The course had plenty of descending so the actual time pushing on the pedals wasn’t a ton. It was an effort that I still felt fresh after. A few guys had waited at the finish so we recollected ourselves and headed back. Stopped to pick up a thrown foggy visor then made our way to the van. I was super stoked to take the win, as well as the fastest time of the day. We cooled down, packed up and headed home for lunch. Sandwiches and more granola were on the menu.

We wound down, let our minds and legs rest before heading back out for the twilight crit.

Downtown Woodstock was rad. The crit course was a tight, 4 turn course with a slight chicane on the back side. The crowds were good and the racing was fast. Started at the back, made my way up through the field and then launched. I felt good and figured attacking early could force other teams to chase and set up some of our other guys for a stage win. That wasn’t quite how things worked out.

My teammate Luke bridged up and we rolled. Taking lap pulls and sending hard through the corners. With 3 laps to go we caught and went right past the field. A lap up, we crossed the line together, hand in hand. That was a special moment.

SATURDAY

Saturday was the circuit race. I was in yellow so we wanted to make sure things stayed in control. We represented ourselves at the front and were looking for a stage win from Gianni, Kyle or Logan. On lap two 3 of our guys launched and no one went with them. They stayed away for half a lap then I saw an opportunity, carrying my momentum to launch across. I got free from the group solo and was able to bridge up. Luke also launched on the circuit and made his way across. This meant 5 lux guys off the front. We rotated hard for a few laps before easing off a bit, doing our best to save the legs for the road race the following day. Logan rolled across first for the win. The guys did podiums and then we rode home.

Was a nice 25km roll home with the guys. Slow and steady to keep the legs rolling for the Sunday road race.

SUNDAY

5:45 wake up call.

Typical breakfast, plenty of caffeine- legs felt real good.

75 miles, 7500ish feet of climbing on tap and the boys were thirsty. We let things play themselves on the first 1.5 laps before taking some control. Kyle wanted the KOM jersey so we put the gas on over the second climb- Kyle then rolled through, taking the points. On lap 3 and 4 we started to dig deep- all 7 of us rotated, with a few attacks thrown in. Kyle took the KOM points again on lap 4 and we continued to rotate hard. We had gotten away from everyone. We cooled it on the last lap- still rotating but not full gas. We had successfully kept all our guys up there and now it was just a team time trial. There was one savage 15-16 -Brooks Wienke who stuck with us, and since we technically weren’t racing him, we let him cross the line first. We rolled in behind, our full squad with hands in the air. That was a special moment. The boys have been training hard- and it showed.

What a weekend it was. Lux swept every stage, took 1-7 on GC and walked home with every jersey. I won the overall, Kyle took the KOM, and Luke took the points. These guys smashed it. Can’t thank the team, management, and sponsors enough.