Chuck Crouch makes sure there isn't a field sprint
On Sunday May 30th the Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team successfully pulled off our first race. After the May 2nd date for the race was flooded out in Nashville’s 1000 year flood, the team rallied together and worked quickly to reschedule for this later date.
If you’ve ever promoted a race, you already know how much goes into making one run smoothly. We had great help from several veteran race promoters from Tristar Cycling, namely Nick Lytle and Jason Tatum who helped with setup and assisted us with running the race from start to finish. Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team President Jay Spiegel had this to say about the race:
People were very nice to say that it was well organized…I wish they felt the reality of if for a little bit. It was controlled chaos.
It might have been, but from the perspective of the racers and participants it couldn’t have run smoother. This says a lot about Jay’s leadership of the event, and the teamwork that everyone displayed. After a brief delay in the morning which caused the first race (Category 5 men’s race) to start ten minutes late the day was run on schedule. The race course was the star of the show; providing a safe, fast course that challenged competitors to give their best.
Many of our teammates who volunteered during the event also raced in it as well. The Cat 5 race had 8 team members scramble to the starting line moments after closing the race course to traffic. During the race, Harpeth was the team to watch as we had the numbers and the tactics to make the other teams pay attention. An early breakaway attempt by Nathan Taylor kept the pace high and the field in chase mode while the rest of the team stayed composed within the pack. Chuck Crouch attacked late in the last lap and put several bike lengths on second place by the time he crossed the finish line with a decisive victory. Harpeth took 4 of the top 10 positions, finishing 1st (Chuck Crouch), 3rd (Jonathan Woody), 4th (Shawn Ewing), and 8th (Chuck Byrge). Everyone raced strong and then jumped right back into volunteer tasks as soon as they finished. Congratulations Chuck and great work team!
Here’s a great video of the Cat 5 race taken by Chuck Byrge’s family.
Our Cat 4 squad had 5 racers start, and just like the Cat 5s they were in control of the race. Very few of the laps were completed without a Harpeth Bicycles jersey on or off the front of the pack. An early break by Mark Horne was brought back in by a prime sprint after staying away for a couple of laps (oh the conflict of being a teammate and race promoter!). Additional breakaway attempts by Brad Wormer and Greg Colby contributed to the high pace of the race and kept everyone strung out until the finish. The Cat 4 squad showed great teamwork throughout and placed tightly together in the final results.
A huge thanks to the TBRA crew as well. Bill Parsons did his magic with the race results (available here) and our officials officiated professionally.
The team’s first race was a success. We are looking forward to the next one (after a break, of course) and we are looking forward to racing as an amazing team in the upcoming races this season. Thanks to everyone who participated, who raced, or who just came out to watch. We would love to hear from you. Leave a comment with thoughts on the race or how we can make the next one even better.
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There are too many names to list and be fair to everyone in making our first effort at promotion, so I will keep it general…Thanks to all the members of Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team who participated by volunteering and racing, TriStar Cycling, the Harpeth Bicycle Club, Team Belladium, and friends and family of all of the above. I would especially like to thank the Team Board: Brad Wormer for great play by play and gadget getting, Nathan Taylor for fantastic web and communications, and flyer generation (there were a lot of drafts), James Martinez for writing out all those payout checks, keeping us straight financially, and doing a lot of preliminary work, and shop owners Jonathan and Gabrielle Woody for the unbelievable support throughout. I would especially like to thank Whitney Wormer for being the t-shirt goddess, and Connie Weisner who kept me sane managing the payout process while we made sure we got the course completely safe in the early part of the day.