Luke Rozanski (left) placed 1st, Preston (middle) beside him placed
3rd, Danny (far right) placed 4th.
[Image Courtesy of Doug Owen]
Full Story:
March 11, the Lees-McRae cycling team headed to Atlanta to compete in
the Georgia Tech collegiate race. Traveling was Stuart Lamp, Luke
Winger, Wes Shirey, Ed Burress, Robert Jameson, Chris Saxton, Andy
Evans, Danny Marquardt, Chris Perham, Preston Anderson, Carson Worts,
Luke Rozanski and Gonzalo Escobar. The races consisted of an
individual
time trial, and two road races. Gonzalo was the only rider to compete
in
the individual time trial. In the collegiate B race, Gonzalo finished
in 5th
place. In Saturday’s race, Lees-McRae started seven racers in the
collegiate A race. Stuart, Luke, Wes, Ed, Robert, Chris and Andy
started
out very strong. The 56 mile course was full of rolling hills with
wind gust of 25
miles an hour. Despite an early break that lasted most of the race
the
Lees-McRae riders worked with the University Florida riders to pull
the
break back. Despite a late break from Dan Larsen from Florida, the
Lees-McRae racers rode strong all the way to the end. Luke finished
in
6th place, Stuart in 10th place, Ed in 11th place and Robert in 16th
place.
For Ed and Robert racing in their first collegiate A race, it was a
very
successful day. In the 36 mile Collegiate B race was Luke R., Danny,
Preston,
Chris P., Carson and Gonzalo. In the B race no breaks took hold until
28
miles into the race. Danny and Luke worked a break that stayed away
until 1/2 mile from the finish. The pelaton caught them, but Luke was
able
to out sprint the pack for the win. Preston came on hard for third
place,
Danny stayed in it to finish 4th place and Gonzalo finished in 6th
place.
For the Saturday race Lees-McRae came away with 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th
place in the B race and 6th, 10, 11th and 16th place in the A race.
Sunday the race began at 9:30 in the morning with temperatures in the
low 50’s. The winds had died down, fortunately as the same racers
made
their respective starts. Sunday the races were a bit longer than
Saturday.
The A group had to race 66 miles and the B group had to race 55
miles. In
the A race an early break took off on the first lap. Five riders took
off hard
including Wes from Lees-McRae. The break stayed away until 45 miles
into the race. The chase pelaton was controlled by the University of
Florida
and the Lees-McRae riders. The break worked up a lead of seven
minutes
30 miles into the race. At the 45 mile mark the pelaton had pulled
them
back to within 2 minutes. At this time Robert went out on a single
break
from the chase group to try and track down the break away. The lead
group finally broke apart at the 55 mile mark. Wes was able to hang
on
for a while, but was eventually caught by the lead chase group. Luke
came
on hard and finished with a very impressive 5th place finish. Robert
came
in at 9th, Ed at 10th and Wes at 11th to place Lees-McRae with 4 of
the
top 11 spots. In the B group race, the pelaton stayed together for
the first
28 miles. On a stiff uphill section the Lees-McRae riders went off on
a
break. In the push behind them, a horrible crash occurred taking down
close to 20 riders. The lead group was left with 11 riders, 6 of
which were
Less-McRae riders. This group stayed together all the way to the
finish
with Luke sweeping the weekend with his second sprint finish. The
final
order had Luke 1st, Gonzalo 4th, Preston 5th, Danny 8th, Carson 9th
and
Chris 11th. That meant Lees-McRae finished with 6 riders in the top 11
spots.
The weekend was a big success for the Lees-McRae riders with an
overall
first place team points finish in the Div. II teams in their
conference.
Lees-McRae now has a large lead in their conference among Div. II
teams
and only trails University of Florida among the Div. I teams. The
next
race will be at Vanderbilt in Nashville where there will finally be
some
serious climbing in the races. You have two chance to come out and
cheer
on your local team as the weekend of April 2 and 3 the Lees-McRae team
will race in Boone at the Appalachian State Race and then April 16 and
17
come out to Banner Elk to cheer on the Lees-McRae team at their home
race.
