Tuesday, September 2, 2008

I Just Got Back From US Pro n Look What I Found.....

Two New Jerseys.... One for TT Man Dave Z!! proving a broken back has no effect on going fast!
In the race against the clock, Zabriskie covered the 20.7-mile course at the Clemson University - International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) in 40 minutes, 39 seconds (40:39:04). Tom Zirbel (Team BISSELL) of Boulder, CO, finished just five seconds behind Zabriskie for second place (40:44:33). Third place was secured by Boulder resident Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle), 10 seconds behind his teammate


Good Job DZ!


And in a stunning turn of events, Tyler Hamilton stars as the new RR Champion! Being Rock Racing Highest profile finish to date!
We shot it for Versus and the web and those who watched it live saw Moto-1 (me n driver Dave) hit the deck in one of the tight corners during the first lap....
From Cycling News:
"13:06 EDT 2.5miles/107.5miles to go The riders are underway officially. Apparently, the riders didn't really have a neutral start after all - it was a bit confusing in the beginning as they had a different start than past years and no one knew quite what was going on. A few different turns even confused the cameramen and lead moto driver. The moto driver appeared to almost almost go the wrong way and went down".
Well that's not really how it happened.. There was a Kelly Benefits guy off the ft. (for whatever reason) and we were forced to go with him. This corner is a left and has a rise in it and then rolls away, so the moto has a big platform around the back as well as the bike we were using to shoot this race was one setup to shoot marathons and is a bit funky - certainly not one to shoot bike racing where we often go 60mph! So we hit the corner, the suspension loads up and as we come over the top of the rise it unloads at the same time Dave is forced to tighten up our turn and we get into the metal under the bike and spin 180 and hit the curb backwards which shoots me into the air backwards for the cameraman whiplash impact! I caught the cam with my shins and it kept rolling during the whole event. Now, the moto is in the road, and here they come 100+ racers and 50 motos and cars and cops and ambulances - the whole caravan and we can't get the 700lb behemoth backwards up the curb till a spectator jumps in to help. Racers stack up, but no one goes down.... remount n shoot for the next 5hrs.


Now - check out the call on how Tyler won. He is the man and he had all of Garman hitting him forever - JV must not be too pleased to loose this race having been so over gunned.
17:29 EDT One lap to go for the leaders as they pass under the finish. Caldwell leads through the line with Hamilton behind him looking over his shoulder.
17:29 EDT Louder and Euser are at 10 seconds. Pate is at 15 seconds.
17:31 EDT The racers have been out there now for 4.5 hours. The rest of what's left of the peloton comes through. Many have been pulled out of concern for them getting lapped by the leaders.
17:31 EDT There is an attack out of the chase group.
17:31 EDT Blake Caldwell (Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30) and Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) are still leading. The Hincapie group is at 3.00.
17:32 EDT Caldwell is pushing the pace as they race through Cleveland Park with about a half lap to go.
17:32 EDT Now Hamilton takes over at the front.
17:33 EDT Louder launches an attack in an attempt to bridge up to the two leaders. No luck.
17:34 EDT Four kilometers to go. Caldwell and Hamilton are holding their 10 second lead.
17:34 EDT Hamilton looks over his shoulder, still leading. He's led most of this last half lap. Caldwell has no interest in leading because he has team-mates behind.
17:34 EDT The three chasers have Caldwell and Hamilton in sight.
17:35 EDT 2km to go. Caldwell and Hamilton are still off. Hamilton stops pedalling and looks over at Caldwell and then he starts pedalling again. They are playing cat and mouse, but still have 10 seconds of advantage.
17:36 EDT Caldwell and Hamilton have 15 seconds now. Hamilton is driving the pace, very steadily. He is occasionally looking back. Caldwell is sitting on while the other three yo-yo 15 seconds behind them.
17:36 EDT Louder is being forced to lead the chase group. No reason for the Garmin racers to do any work to chase Caldwell.
17:36 EDT Hamilton leads with 1km to go. Caldwell is on him.
17:37 EDT The two leaders have 13 seconds. Louder is chasing them hard, with two Garmin riders on his wheel.
17:37 EDT Hamilton looks over. They are in the second to last turn and he still leads.
17:37 EDT 500m to go for our lead duo.
17:37 EDT Now Hamilton looks over on the uphill and slows down. Caldwell stays behind him.
17:38 EDT They're using the whole road. Hamilton goes to the far right barrier.
17:38 EDT Caldwell is still sitting on. 250m.
17:38 EDT The sprint starts.
17:38 EDT Caldwell leads with 50m to go.
17:38 EDT Hamilton tries to come around.
17:39 EDT It's a photo finish for the top two.
17:40 EDT Officials are calling Hamilton as the unofficial winner.
17:40 EDT Caldwell in second.
17:40 EDT Pate wins the sprint for third ahead of Euser in fourth and Louder in fifth.
That was a real win! 35+ Nat Champ!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Incredible. I was in the Mavic Car with Cyclingnews and that was intense. We heard neutral start and then within seconds it was shouting, horns, acceleration, whipping around corners, barking tires, holy shit, hold the fuck on: boom moto goes down crackles over the radio. Cool to read your post on it and we got a good interview with you.

Anonymous said...

I think there's a cool picture of you guys on the Rock gallery congratulating Tyler after his win.

It's in their gallery:
http://rockracing.com/races/redemption/index.php