Photos
Results
Saturday Sprint Finish Video
Handy, GA –
Coming off of a spring break rest from school, Mercer Cycling once again had a great showing in their second collegiate event of the season. Racing in a nearby rural suburb of Newnan, Georgia, a total of seven riders would compete for Mercer in the team trial, individual time trial, and road race portions of the event.
Saturday’s early morning session saw Mercer’s team time trial entry of Evan Ayoub, Jason Glow, Kevin Roberts, and Andrew Lockwood take first place in the ‘C’ category with a time of 28:16 around the 11 mile course for an average of 23.35 mph. The team reached speeds of 39 mph coming down a large descent that made up the first four miles of the course before strongly climbing the middle section of the course to finish 3:14 before second place finisher North Georgia (31:30).
In the individual time trial, Mercer’s Gabe Denes finished 7th (32:19) while freshman Alex Lockwood placed ninth with a 34:46 mark.
The afternoon road race shifted to a nearby 8 mile course on which the ‘C’ race would consist of four laps. As a climber-friendly course, Mercer riders worked up front for most of the race in the most epic event of the weekend. Gaining more than 2,100+ feet of elevation over the course of the race, the peloton of 30+ was split into a much smaller group of 12 riders by the end of the race with Andrew Lockwood and Kevin Roberts working with several teams up front.
Jason Glow experienced an excruciating wreck at the 10 mile mark when a rider in front of him slammed on his brakes, causing Glow and another rider to pile up behind him. Gabe Denes would also be forced to pull off of the course at the 24 mile mark with mechanical difficulties.
Kevin Robert’s attack at the base of a steep ladder climb halfway through the race helped set him up for a last minute sprint to the line at the top of a hill to finish 6th. College of Charleston’s (CoC) Brian Arne would manage to barely eek out the win over Georgia Southern’s Matt Gentry. Andrew Lockwood would finish 5 seconds behind the sprint group after suffering from cramps for the last half-mile to register a top-10 finish in 9th. Evan Ayoub would follow up the peloton in 15th, crossing the line just off the pace.
“I saw there was a steep climb coming into the race when we drove the course and I came into today wanting to use that climb to my advantage. Out of the two courses, I loved the Saturday course the most because of the uphill finish,” commented Roberts after the weekend of racing.
In the women’s ‘A’ race, an early breakaway from the Lees McRae team would prove costly as the Bobcats took positions 1 through 5. Mercer entry Elizabeth Lee would finish in the chase group in 8th.
After a night of recovery, Sunday’s race was an interesting sprint to the finish as well as almost the entire peloton finished at the same time. Attacks from CoC, Clemson, and Georgia Southern throughout the 33 mile race were unsustainable, setting up the group for a wild finish at the end. Wild finish it was as Georgia Southern’s Matt Gentry would race out to the lead with merely yards left before rounding the final turn. Gentry would cross the line first, but would later be disqualified for crossing the yellow line on a hill during the final sprint.
South Carolina’s Eric Cash would win the race, picking up his first of the season while CoC, Auburn, Clemson, and Alabama would record riders in the top 10. Andrew Lockwood, Kevin Roberts, and Gabe Denes would turn in a hard day’s effort up front for 6th, 8th, and 9th respectively while Jason Glow finished 14th.
Elizabeth Lee would also turn in a hard effort in the 44 mile women’s ‘A’ race to post 7th.
“Both road races were great experiences for our team,” said Andrew Lockwood. “We were able to really focus a lot on racing tactics, something that’s hard to simulate in training rides and in the big picture things went very well for us. Three Top-10s on Sunday will certainly help us in the points and I think we gained a lot of respect from the other schools in the conference today. Working up front with some of the top riders was fun and certainly taught us a lot,” he added.
Mercer Cycling now continues to train for the next collegiate competition of the season, hosted by Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina on March 27th and 28th.
