A REAL Southern Girl Wins Again!!

Nicki Sutherland is the ultimate southern lady. Not only does she live in Columbus, Georgia in the heart of the south, She is originally from South Africa. (That is really south!) Nicki has dominated the Sport women's class this year and may move to expert next year.


BUMP & GRIND
Paul's Single Speed take on the race.....I think I got 17th out of 25 single speeders. Man there was a bunch of
them, our category had all ages and classes combined. I ran a 32X17, I think I could have pushed a 32X16 to help from spinning out on the flat sections but really would have paid on the climb up the mtn. I had to
dismount right before the bridge and walked for about 15 or so feet. I just couldn't turn the cranks.....

I think most guys were riding 29er's but feel the way to go was 26er, those 29er's didn't seem to handle well in the tight stuff due to their longish wheelbase. I had a good time and the cramps didn't show up until mile 11....I forgot to take my pills.

Nicki's write up....I had a good race. I was very excited. At the start, there was a girl that dashed off faster than jack flash, and I tried to keep up with her for a bit, and then was like "no point in blowing myself up, it's a long race!" I was able to catch up with her at that first section of the woods after we got off the road, and then once I passed her I didn't see her again...thankfully. My goal for this race is always to get to the bottom of the climb up the mountain as fast as I can so that I have distance and time between me and the other rides in case I just can't keep cranking. I felt like I had a good climb up the mountain.. It was painful, but it seemed to go by a lot faster than I was expecting. Maybe it's because I was expecting another feed zone at the top and after the feed zone before the bridge, I kept looking for more people, and they never came. Then all of a
sudden, I was at the top and I was like "THANK YOU!"...

After that, I just wanted to stay focused, not make mistakes and enjoy the ride. I find that pushing the 2 miles down that fire road after the climb can be painful too from time to time. once you dip into the downhill section toward blood rock, that's really when the fun starts. I cleared blood rock and that gave me a boost to roll through the rest of that fast section with more confidence.

I finished first, just behind 1 of the girls that started in the age group ahead of us. When I came up on her, I tried to catch her, but she was pretty fast through the woods and I wasn't able to close the distance. 1:24...I only started to feel a few twinges of cramping toward the last mile and 1/2, and only on those last few climbs, so I feel like that was a good thing.




GSC#3 - Fort Yargo, GA 04/29/2007
Today we had perfect racing conditions. Finally some warm weather (which we may not be so thankful for come mid summer) and a perfectly dry trail. I was feeling a little shaky before the start of the race. Not the nervous shaky, but the low-blood sugar shaky. I don't know if it was because I didn't eat enough pre-race, or maybe the sudden heat was draining me more than I realize. Either way, after GO, I tried to get myself motivated to get out of the starting blocks and first into the woods. I was being closely tailed by Emily (the girl in 2nd) which was a huge motivator to keep me pushing and not back off. After about 3 miles, I couldn't hold the pace and had to back off and allow Emily to pass. I recovered and continued to push myself to at least keep her in sight. This paid off as 2 miles from the end of the first lap, I was able to pass her again on a climb. Again, she remained right behind me. We chase into the start of the second lap, and I slow down to feed, at which point, she takes the opportunity to pass. I got back into rhythm, and tried to not let her get away from me too much. About 5 miles into the second lap, I came up on her again, managed to pass, and somehow managed to push past and never saw her again. It was a good race with the two of us challenging each other the whole way.

more results:
Jose came in 8th
Gabriel came in 2nd
Samuel came in 2nd
Gabe D junior came in 2nd.

good day for all! =)

Road boys take to the Hills!..... by Steve Murray

Matt Ragan (pictured on left)

March 24th & 25th held in store a visit to "Chicken City", Gainesville, Georgia. This was Georgia Cup #2. Two riders did the entire stage race and 5 others did one or more. Matt Ragan was the sole rider from CBR to take on the massive competitive class (cat 4/5 combined). In only his second road race weekend, Matt scored a top 10 overall. Matt was 10th for the weekend in a field of over 85. Matt's performance raised him to 12th in the on-going race series. He had top 20's in both the Time trail and the RR. The road course was built around it's climbs. The course had three climbs, two of which were KOM (King of the Mountain) climbs. They were scored each lap. Matt earned KOM points on both climbs in 3 out of his 6 laps. Too much time at the front took its toll and Matt fell back near the last lap. He was still able to stay with the lead pack, but lacked his normal explosive power on the finish. Matt ended the race in 17th. All in all, a great weekend for our eager cat 5 racer. I also did the entire weekend and had a good Time trial with a 9th place finish. My time was decent, but not quite what I had hoped for. The Road race for the Master's was raced by "Big" Dan Duval, Darren Sorrells and Steve Murray. We all finished, but slightly behind the main group. We were all pleased to complete the 8 trips up the 1.5K climb. At 9% grade, it really hurt more each successive lap.

The crit was on a standard four corner course. It had two long sections and was really fast. The master's crit was raced by Scott Matty, Steve Dozier, Glenn Kalnins, Darren Sorrells, and Steve Murray. The race announcer was a sadist. He called prime after prime which caused the field's speed to stay very high -with almost no time to recover. The constant barrage of accelerations took their toll on our old crew. With about 10 minutes to go, there was just Scott Matty and myself left from the CBR team. The field had also reduced by at least half of its' original number by the end. Scott was a monster on the bike as always. With about three laps to go, Scott pulled the field up to an 8 man break that surely would have stayed away without his effort. I faded a little in the last couple of laps(maybe from trying to stay in when Scott chased the break-away group). I managed to stay on the pack, but lost a good finishing position. The crit ended with Scott scoring 13th and me in 20th. The average speed for the crit was around 26.3 mph.

Matt's crit was also fast, but throw in 90 "hot dogs" all trying to win the race every lap. The field was large and sketchy at times. If you've never raced a crit - fast and sketchy is a tough combination to race in. When all was said and done, Matt finished mid pack and gained more experience racing in close quarters.

All in all - it was a fine weekend of racing. No one got hurt, everyone picked up some good training time and the sun was shining!