USA Cycling Masters National Championships
Louisville, Ky
August 6th. 35-39 age group
112km Road Race
The Litespeed-BMW Cycling Team, consisting of elite racers Chad Madan, Colby Millen and Chris Brown, rolled into the USA Cycling Masters National Championships last weekend, confident but a bit nervous as this was the team’s and these riders first attempt at Masters Nationals. In addition, the 35-39 age group is arugably the most competitive of all groups. However, the boys had perfect preparation leading up to nationals, having pulled down top results in the Rocket Town Omnium, the Tour of Gwinnett and the Dalton criterium in the previous weeks. Plus, the team had Chris Brown’s personal body guard and brother in law Bill Gay along to support the guys throughout the weekend so the stage was set for Nationals!
The field was stacked with 67 riders from all across the country, thinking that they had a shot at the stars and strips jersey on a very fast, hilly and twisty/technical road race course that they would complete 14 times (laps). Most notable of the field was 11 time National Champion Michael Olheiser, and the guys knew Michael was a huge threat going into this race. The team’s plan was to sacrifice Colby in the early moves (thanks Colby) and to keep Michael Olheiser in check and so that Chad and Chris could save their legs for the middle to later parts of the race so that one or both of them could be in every break.
8am sharp, and the race shoots out of the first turn and is already rolling fast…very fast. Colby was great! Staying right near the front and going with or shutting down moves all over the place while Chad and Chris sat about 10-15 riders back. Well, Olheiser didn’t think the pace was fast enough so nearing the end of the first 5 mile lap he attacks on a short puncher hill and gets away with two other riders. Colby was just not quite in the right position and though Chris and Chad saw what was happening they were not in good enough position to make a go with Mike. Plus, there was still some 65 miles to go…a bit early. So, off went Olheiser with Benjamin Blaugrund of Team Hotel San Jose and Kevin Kremke of Team Bike Barn. Chad, Chris and Colby were not happy as it was only the first lap and they just watched the stars and strips jersey go up the road, but they at the same time couldn’t imagine the move happening that soon in the race.
Reassessing things, Chad & Chris realized that not all the riders could hold Olheiser’s pace the entire race and would likely get dropped and come back to the group as there was a long way to race and the course had several stinger hills throughout every 5 mile lap. After a couple of laps of panic and chaos in the group, with lots of chasing and attacking, and a few small groups forming where at one point all the medals were up the road…Chris and Chad were thinking “how the heck did we let this happen, all the medals are up the road!” Chad and Chris screwed there heads back on straight and aggressively raced their bikes At this point, Colby had selflessly completely used himself up helping the team and was in a different group but did hang on to finish the race. Thanks for your help Colby, everybody said that you road your brains out in support of the team.
At about the halfway point there were three riders up the road and the field had shrunk down to maybe 40 guys, so Chris started attacking and going with other moves knowing that if he or Chad could get away that they could put time on the group as the field were taking the corners very slowly and the leaders had to be putting 5 seconds a corner into the group. Both Chad and Chris got into several moves with a couple of the moves gaining some time on the field, only to be brought back. As the race neared the end Chad and Chris could tell that the riders were tired and at this point what was left of the field kept splitting on the hills. The lead group of three was down to Olheiser off alone and one rider 50 seconds behind, so Chad and Chris were now racing for a bronze metal! Last lap and Brown is feeling good and drilling it through the start/finish to soften some legs while Chad also felt fine and was there to go with anything that tried to sneak away…the field was down to about 25. Brown kept the pace high throughout the last lap but being smart not to smoke his legs too much for the end…a couple little moves did sneak away but this was of no concern to Chad & Chris knowing that they could easily bridge or that the group would probably swallow them up before the finish.
So the last hill, about one mile from the finish, and bam, Brown launches off the front without anyone responding. A risky move, but knowing there were two fast turns he could tear up and a gradual burner hill to the finish Chris figured it was worth the risk and this also allowed Chad to sit in the group. So if Chris got caught then Chad would be fresh for the sprint…well played boys! Brown just kept rolling, stretching his lead over the field and in the process blowing past a Safeway and a Colavita rider, and chasing Chris Harkey (a well known beast of a racer) of Subaru Gary Fisher and Kevin Kremke of Team Bike Barn who had about 10 seconds on him. 500meters to go and just as Brown is about to make contact with Harkey and Kremke, and Harkey attacks! Brown goes as hard as he can, goes right around Kremke but Harkey had about 2-3 seconds on Brown and being that Brown had just bridged he just had not had enough time to recover so it was a drag race to the finish line. Harkey just edged Brown for Bronze.
4th place for Chris Brown, and then Chad was duking it out with the sprinters and was able to snag a 10th place on a tough and narrow finishing stretch. After evaluating the race the boys were extremely pleased with the outcome, as realistically Michael Olheiser would have burned off whoever had gone with him on lap one.
First year for Chris, Chad and Colby at Nationals and two of the three finished in the top ten! Amazing! No other team had two riders in the top ten and the chatter after the race was how alive the Litespeed-BMW team was during the race…the boys really earned the respect of the best teams and cyclists in the country, an added bonus!
Thanks to all our sponsors who made this trip possible and thanks to Bill for doing such a great job in the stressful feed zone.
Next up Grand Park GA state Criterium, River George Omniun and US 100k! The guys are obviously ready to bring home some state jerseys and wins!