Athens Twilight 2004

by Tim Henry (Jittery Joes)

Twilight has always been a special race for me. It was the first NRC race I ever witnessed and I fell in love with the atmosphere and energy of the whole event. I remember thinking, 'man, I'll never be as fast as those guys!'; but then here I am, as fast as those guys (or at least some of them). In case anyone is not aware, I am riding for two teams this year. I ride for Nalley/A.G. Edwards most of the time but I am also on the Jittery Joe's roster as a 'farm-team' rider. Whenever Jittery Joe's needs extra riders for an event, they call on me or three other of my teammates. Jed Schneider and John Muphy got called up for the Tour de Georgia while Brian Bibbens and myself were asked to do Twilight with the Bean Team. 

The day started out normal enough, until I got to registration in Athens and heard that Cesar had just won the day's stage of the Tour de Georgia. Wow! Wearing Jittery Joe's clothes at Twilight on the same day that the team got put on the national map! I was filled with a little more pride as I got dressed. Trying to find a place to warm up for Twilight is difficult so I just rode around town for an hour or so to get loosened up. There is no point in doing hard efforts to warm up because the pack sits on the line for at least half an hour before the start. While I was warming up I heard over the radio that Micah had gotten our whole team (Brian, Steve Broglio, Johnny Sundt, and myself) called to the line. That is an extreme advantage in a race like Twilight. So we line up, do call-ups, and get ready to start. I tried to mentally prepare myself for the intense pain to come. Then I heard "riders ready..." and we were off (any Pro 1, 2 rider knows the race starts on the word 'ready', not 'go'). The first three turns were great, I was sitting top ten and it was not too hard. Coming out of the fourth turn I realized the barricades on the outside came in a little farther than I remembered, as I hit the feet and heard the eternally scary 'clink, clink, clink' and knew that I was inches from disaster. But I made it through and remembered that is part of the excitement of Twilight. A few laps later I covered a move and found out I was feeling pretty good. Bridging the gap was relatively easy, at least when 27,000 people were screaming at me. We got caught and I settled in for a while. Johnny is a monster and covered many moves and started others for a long while. I came to the front a couple more times trying to get something going but was always mindful of getting a good result, not just to show that I could go off the front. Most of the race is a blur, but I remember hearing that Brice Jones and Emille Abraham were up the road. I tried one more move with about 10 to go and in hindsight that was a mistake. When I got caught, completely pegged, I drifted back to around 30th and had 9 laps until the finish. The race started to speed up and moving up was difficult. Once I caught my breath I passed a few people here and there. With 5 to go the pack bunched up on the back side of the course and I slid up many spots to around 15th. 4 to go, then 3, then 2, watching these insane bike racers duking it out for every spot, swerving every which way, and taking up every inch of road! I just crossed my fingers (in my head) and hoped that no one ate it right in front of me. I was still in about 15th when we came around for the bell lap. I began to think that I might make it through this race ok because the pack was stringing out and the pace was quickening. But then, a TIAA-CREF rider dove on my inside in the first turn. He started to lose control and for some inexplicable reason grabbed his rear brake hard and then dumped it right in front of me. So I hit my brakes hard to avoid him and I got passed by at least five riders. Then back up to speed on Marty Nothstein's wheel through the last three turns and the finish! I ended up 22nd. I would like to have had a top twenty but I guess sh*t happens. I had a good showing at a very important race and boosted the most important aspect of my racing, confidence. Some might say I already have too much but in this sport you can never have enough self-confidence. 

My top priority from here is NRC points to qualify for the Olympic trials. Hopefully the Heritage Crits and Roswell will go well for me and the team. 
Thanks for reading, 
Tim