Trek/VW/Freeflite Show Goes To Shelby County
by Greg App

Dates: May 17-18, 2003
Place: Montevallo, AL

Last weeks anticipation of racing with a team with full on form have come to fruition. With $4000 going 30 deep in the Pro/I/II field at Montevallo, Alabama, Greg App, Michael Wolf, Eddie Fagan, Creed Sewell, and Mark Kebbekus showed up motivated to "do it up." The event was a stage race, with results based on accumulated time, as opposed to omnium format, where one gains points for finishes in each event. The first event, on Saturday morning, was a prologue time trial of 2.1 miles at the University of Montevallo, followed by a road race on Saturday afternoon, and then a crit on Sunday afternoon.

Prologue TT:

The time trial was a short, tough event, with half of the parcours being run across varying degrees of horribly cobbled roads on the university campus. These roads gave the event on "old-world feel," amplified by the clacking of teeth, as we negotiated different questionalbly marked turns before the downhill run to the finish. Trek/VW/Freeflite put in an impressive performance, with four riders in the top 20. Keb came out best placed, in 8th, about 15 seconds out of 1st, with Micheal at 9th, Creed at 12th, and Greg at 20th. These results set the tone for the rest of the weekend, as Keb, feeling good about his form, would be the man we'd move into 1st on GC.

Road Race:

The road race was a 15 mile loop, with KOM points available at two points on the loop. Our plan was to send Micheal and Eddie out after KOM points, while making sure that nothing went up the road without Kebbekus in it. We executed flawlessly. Mike ended up collecting enough points on the day for third in the KOM competition. We also covered every attempt to go up the road, until in the last lap, Kebbekus got in a move with Tony Scott (Genesis Scuba), and a Backyard Burgers rider. Trek/VW/Freeflite and Backyard Burgers shut the field down, as the riders up the road sorted out time 
bonuses and time gaps at the finish. Keb and Tony Scott shelled the Backyard Burger rider on the run in, with Tony collecting the win, and the greatest of the three time bonuses available. Creed, Greg, Mike, and Eddie filled out the rest of the top 20 well, taking 8th, 10th, 12th, and 16th. After the gaps and bonuses were sorted out, Keb was going into the crit in second place, literally a fraction of a second behind Backyard Burger's Dale Suttle.

Criterium:

The obvious goal going into the crit was to see Keb collecting first place at the end of the day. Overnight thunderstorms has us wondering about our fate for the day, but the skies seemed to be holding, as we spent the morning at the local college coffee joint, lusting over the mocha cappucino ice cream shake we'd be having after the crit. Our start time was 3:40 pm, 
and as the official clock clicked from 3:39 on the start line, the skies opened up. With two sketchy turns, one right before the start/finish, and one right after, we'd need more than just horsepower to see our dreams of victory realized. The race heated up quickly, as there were 6 primes available for a total of $400. We knew that, given the conditions, a break would probably go on a prime lap. The small group contesting the prime would ride through the tight turn after the start/finish unencumbered by eighty other sliding and braking tires. An organized chase of such a group would be difficult because of the same. Thankfully, this chase wouldn't be necessary, as Keb attentively monitored what was happening on the road. The 
first prime was taken in a solo move by Creed. The next prime was that which launched Keb into a group with John Murphy(Krystal) and both Backyard Burger gc contenders. Now why these two Backyard Burgers riders would 
choose to tow the two fastest sprinters (Keb and John Murphy) in the race away with them is a mystery to me. Maybe they liked their chances in front of the craziness of the soaked peloton, as opposed to in it. They chose their fate, though, and both of them were dropped in the last lap by Keb and John. Keb was content with second place, as the time bonus, as well as the 
gap gained over the dropped riders put him into first place. Back in the field, Trek/VWFreeflite stayed busy on patrol, content to leave the rest of the gc placings where they stood, in interest of keeping things safe. In spite of this, though, Creed did manage to take a spill, supercross-style. As two riders tangled up in front of him, he literally bunnyhopped the 
first(he was two feet off of the ground, as I looked over), then, instead of potentially giving Josh Seldman the "big-chainring treatment," he did a superman dismount manuever over the front end of his bicycle. Thankfully, everyone took their free lap and rejoined the race. Before the finish, we managed to take 4 of the 6 primes.

GC:

With Keb staying as designated money collector and GC winner, the rest of us moseyed over to the coffee shop to collect our ice cream shakes. We returned to find Keb with a multitude of envelopes:

Keb: 1st
Michael: 9th
Creed: 12th
Greg: 16th
Eddie: 24th

Micheal: 3rd KOM

Primes:
Keb(2)
Creed(1)
Micheal(1)


Here's looking forward to the state chamionships this weekend,

Greg App
Trek/VW/Freeflite cycling team