Eli Hengst of Battley Harley-Davidson / Hudson Trail Outfitters passed along an update to me of the team's adventures in the Tour of VA so far. It's got it all - action, sweeping panoramic vistas, triumph over adversity, high drama, a bizarre love triangle* - and there are still 3 stages remaining. Have a read:
Just back from two days driving the team vehicle in the caravan at the Tour of Virginia. I was joined in the car by local coach and rider Susan Hefler, while Tom Buzas, team co-sponsor, jumped from feed zone to feed zone.
We started Stage Three, the first mountain stage, with the number "1" affixed to the front of rider Evan Fader's weathered Subaru-wagon-turned-team-car, as the order is sorted by team standing. As we pulled to the front of a caravan stocked with Mercedes, Saabs, and Cadillac (yes, Cadillac) team cars, we couldn't help but laugh a bit. I think some of the big-budget team directors, however, didn't find it as entertaining as we did.
As we soon discovered, the caravan is a race-within-a race - it's like a crit, with each team director trying to squeeze in, hand off bottles with "stiff arms," draft riders, and box you out of your slot. And yes, lots of cussing at each other. A pretty harrowing experience for a caravan newbie - especially one in first position!
The field tore through the first 50 miles, with the Harley team, in the now-trademark black-kits, riding up front and trying to protect the leader's jersey for another day. But in a field of that caliber, there's only so much you can do, and by the time we reached the final Cat1 climb of the day, the race was blown apart, and our riders trickled in, with Ken Johnson the highest placed, despite suffering a crash on the nasty descent.
Stage Four - the queen stage - offered up two Cat3 climbs and two Cat1 climbs, including Mt. Vesuvius and Wintergreen. Our guys were a little bummed about Wednesday's showing, and Russ Langley quickly took his frustrations out on the field. Attacking after the first Cat3 climb of the day, Russ built a 3 minute lead over the field accompanied by a Priority Health rider. Though we were now car "14" in the caravan (out of 25), we had the right to ride up to Russ in the break, and watch the two riders bury themselves trying to reach the first Cat 1 climb of the day. I always wondered what it might feel like to be sitting in a team car behind a leader up the road, with only the Mavic car, two riders, and moto, and the mountains looming....truly a inspiring experience to see Russ and his break companion racing with no fear, no second thoughts.
It was a quite a show of strength, as Russ took the race's steepest KOM by 30 seconds over a storming group of Colombian and Argentine (CAICO and Rite Aid) riders. [Not known as a climber, Russ finished 5th in the overall KOM standings at the end of the day.] I won't even try to describe the technical 13 mile descent, save that the cars could barely keep up with the riders.
Stage Four ended with the ascent of the Cat 1 Wintergreen climb. Russ, still feeling good, decided this would be a good time to attack Rite Aid and Caico, and got a 30 second gap before being reeled back in. At this point, Ken Johnson took over, making a selection that would all finish within 3-4 minutes of the stage leader after the 20KM desecent to the finish.
Ken finished highest on the day, pulling his group of 12 the last 10K practically solo, as other pro riders and local teams sat on his wheel, apparently thinking sprinting for 30th was more important than moving up the GC by lowering the time gap. Frustrating, but so it goes....
Russ rolled in not too much later, as did all other Harley riders - Evan Fader, Brian Butts, Sean Barrie, and Ian Birlem. The other local amateur team - LSV Kelly - also proved strong and up to the competition.
And so we headed into Stage 5, team intact, Harley hanging with the pros and freakily skinny South American riders. We slipped a little on the team classification, so the car will be in 16th place today, but with a couple of rolling to flat stages coming up, we're moving into some terrain familiar to MABRA riders and hope to move back up a bit.
*Just kidding about the bizarre love triangle thing. Racer loves bike; bike loves mechanic. What's so bizarre about that?
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