Last weekend the team competed in the Tour of Newport News, a three-day race with five unique stages. The weekend brought lots of ups and downs, and we came away with several important lessons learned and experiences gained. Despite some crashes that led to injuries and broken bikes, we still came away with three top 10 omnium finishes and three individual stage podiums.
In the women's field,
Ruby Telepak finished in ninth overall with the highlight of the weekend coming in the Hillclimb Time Trial where she finished third against strong competition. This performance in her inaugural race in the professional women's field bodes well for her future.
Ragan Weigel and
Lauren Weigel fought hard day after day to support their teammates and test the legs for the upcoming Collegiate National Criterium Championships.
In the men's category 3/4 race,
Alastair Amos started off the event with a strong finish in the Points Race, crossing the line in sixth place on day one. This kept him in the top 10 of the omnium after the race was complete. Teammates
Gus Lynott,
Aidan Snow, and
Aidan Goldberg rode strong in support of their teammate. Sam Lang crashed early in the first stage and opted to just focus on the individual events where he finished with an impressive second place in the Hillclimb TT.
We had high hopes for the Pro 1/2 men after winning the event last year, but unfortunately there just proved to be too much adversity to overcome throughout the weekend. It started with a crash that pushed team leader,
Jensen Cervati off the road and out of contention for the final sprint.
William Dodds was the next man up and managed to finish sixth in the final sprint in the Points Race, a super-impressive result for a new pro 1/2 rider mixing it up with the pros for the first time. Cervati battled back that night in the Hillclimb TT to redeem himself and leave his stamp on the competition with a third place finish. But more bad luck would come in the Twilight Crit when a crash took Cervati and then Dodds out of the race and neither one of them was able to finish.
Michael Gallik and
Nathaniel Gervez both suffered from illness and did everything to stay in the race and help their teammates any way they could.
Bike racing is a game of luck so much of the time and everything has to come together perfectly for the team to win. We know that day will come and we will keep working hard towards our goal. Every obstacle to our success makes us stronger as we overcome it. We are resilient and continue to build confidence and trust in each other and our abilities with every race, no matter what adversity gets thrown at us.
