The Frostbite TT, a 20Km Time Trail on the frontage road north of Wellington, CO started off the season with all four of Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo’s riders finishing in the top eight! Patrick McGlynn was 4th, Dan Workman 5th, Jarred Berger 6th, Brad Cole 8th. Our performance showed great depth. Robby Ketchell, our Anti-doping and Sports Science trainer, couldn’t have been more pleased to have such good rides for collecting baseline performance data. “This is only where we are starting” Robby said after the race as he looks forward to helping our guys become the best Time Trial riders.
Did we mention we’re a new team? I guess we had to have one of those days. After coming off the high of the Frostbite TT, the team just couldn’t keep it together the following day at the Criterium at City Park in Denver. Let’s just say we’re a developing team. The race maintained a hard and fast pace from start to finish. With over 65 starters and 17 finishers, it was rough on just about everyone, including all our team. None of the team finished and we hope to look back at the end of the season and say, “Did we actually ride in that race?” Needless to say, it was a character builder. We’ll need a few days like that in order to grow.
Two weeks later at Promontory Park Criterium in Greeley, the boys showed they have already grown. The team threw down and showed the kind of force they can be this year. The wind blew, the thermometer didn’t get past 50, and the competition was high. It wasn’t a good day for a fun ride, but it was a great day for RACING. Dan Workman had a difficult time hiding the hard work he did this winter and attacked in a crosswind on the first lap! Joined by teammate Brad Cole and three more riders, this race was going to end one of two ways. Either the boys were going to blow up early on or they were going to finish strong. Two laps into it, Hank Vogel and local pro Dirk Friel bridged up and the group was gone for the day! The rest of the team rode great behind and covered the counter-attacks. Phil Mann made his way into a chase group of four that picked up riders getting dropped out of Dan and Brad’s group.
As the race roared on, the front group whittled down to five guys coming into the final laps. Dan and Brad showed courage as they attacked Hank and the rest of the group. For a climber and a time trialer, they sure gave it hell, riding in together, for fourth and fifth place. Phil wasn’t far behind as he crossed the line for 7th, with Jarred Berger, Patrick McGlynn and Paul Esposti leading out Will Hickey to win the field sprint for 12th. Overall, it was an awesome team performance! And to top it off, each rider found personal success at this windswept business park in Northern Colorado. (I think we might already be forgetting about… Where was that race again?)
Stay tuned! We will have race updates and more team news each week. We want to share with you, our fans, the moments of courage, hard work, tactics, challenges and successes we experience throughout the year. And as we leave you after this week’s installment, understand how much it means to our young riders to know that you are behind them, that you are a crucial piece to Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo’s development and future.
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