- Atlanta, GA -
Moving up to Category 4 with fellow teammates Kevin Roberts and Andrew Lockwood, sophomore engineering major Gabe Denes continued to show signs of improvement on his bike after a hard summer's worth of work. Racing on the hilly Grant Park criterium course, Denes cruised to a 15th place finish out of the field of 75.
"Being my first Cat4 race, I was only hoping to finish," Denes said afterward. "It was definitely an experience watching the field move from 75 riders down to nearly 30 as I plugged along. The 5 laps sign came earlier than I had expected, and sure enough, the pace increased a heck of a lot more once the signs went up."
According to his Garmin, Denes' average heart-rate averaged out at 186 bpm for the race, an extremely high level of performance for the up-and-coming athlete.
"I had never done that before and was shocked to see the numbers afterwords," Denes added. "I made sure to spin up the hills and stay aero in the descent to stay as efficient as possible, trying to conserve energy for my goal of just finishing the race. Now that I know I can sustain these numbers, I'll push myself harder in the next race and try for a podium. I'm happy with the result of the race, and am excited for my next crit, knowing my parameters and that I can push myself just that much more."
To check out Gabe's numbers visit his Garmin Account here.
