GA Games Cat. 4 Road Race

by John Fillyaw (Reality bikes)
July 12, 2003

Approximately 30 riders took the start for the Georgia Games Cat. 4 RR on a hot, mid-July afternoon in Brooks. We used the same course as the March race, but the race seemed much less “nervous,” no doubt due to this being mid season versus the first race of the year.

The first of the two 26 mile laps passed at a moderately quick pace averaging a little over 23 mph. A few folks, including all of my RealityBikes teammates, gave it a shot to get something going. The first lap ended with the Andy Scarano of Bicycles Unlimited sprinting off the front to take the Juniors 15 to 18 title. The rest of us were left to suffer through the heat for another one hour plus of racing. Thank you for being in the young men’s race Andy, the way you took off, you would have made things difficult for the old guys 26 miles later.

Immediately after we started the first lap, the field turned chatty and slowed down accordingly. After a few miles, a couple of riders who were taking it a little less easy had eased up the road. The field apparently decided that the gap was getting a little too dangerous so we reeled them back in.

At 14 miles to go, two or three other riders had opened up 30 to 40 meters; I decided to test my legs and jumped up to them. We tried to get a bigger gap, but the rest of the field was having none of it and quickly brought us back. At 10 to go, Jeff Traicoff of Nalley/Roswell Velo and a CycleWorks rider were off the front, and I gave it another shot. We quickly joined up and starting working together hoping we could hold off the field, but 10 miles is a long, long way to go for a three-man break.

Shortly, we were joined by a rider from C4 (Cobb Cherokee Cycling Club), and he fell right into the pace line with us. Three more riders bridged up a few minutes later including one of my RealityBikes teammates, Tyler Tatum. Now we had 7 riders in the break representing 6 different clubs, but the way we had the pace line going and rotating, it seemed like we had been teammates for years. More importantly, my RealityBikes teammates and the CycleWorks guys were back in the group blocking like seasoned pros.

The pace line rotated steadily until 1K to go. In accordance with the Newtonian laws of cat. 4 racing, I had been expecting the rest of the field to come roaring up on us at any second, but it never happened. I tried to give it a go in the sprint (did anyone else notice like the 200 M to go sign looked like it said “ZOOM”), but ended up 7th. Still, that’s my best cat. 4 finish so no complaints here. Big congrats to Tyler who, with his 4th place finish, earned upgrade points for his cat. 3 license in his first ever cat. 4 race. Well done!!

Special thanks to everyone in the break, especially Mr. Traicoff who continually shouted encouragement in the pace line and reminded us not “to do anything stupid in the sprint lest we end up in a 7 rider pile-up 10 meters short of the finish.” Huge thank you to my teammates Brad Bowman, Jason Collum, and Chip Davis and the CycleWorks boys for sacrificing their races to block. Without you guys, we would surely have been quickly caught and spit out the back. Apologies to anyone in the break whose name or club I can’t remember, I was suffering just a bit too much to take all of that in.