TX State Crit Stories

BY JOSEPH TOKARSKI
In racing there is nothing I absolutely enjoy more than when a race is held in riding distance from your house, especially if it is the Age Based State Championship at The Driveway in Austin!

I rolled out of bed at 11:30 AM, ate some breakfast/lunch, and got dressed to ride out to The Driveway for my 1:30 PM race. On the ride over all I could think about was that this was going to be a “race of nutrition”, since the temperature was well over 100 degrees.

After the nice hot ride over I pinned up my jersey and rolled up to staging a few minutes before the start of the race. At that point the sun was beaming down and all I could feel was the radiation coming off me like when you look at a car in the heat of a hot summer day.

After the singing of the National Anthem which was sung by one of the podium girls it was time to get started.

Since it was an age based race, with 4 combined age groups of varying ability levels; I knew it would be of upmost importance to stay right at the front of the pack.

From the gun Kevin Kremke (Bike Barn) was motoring it and I was hanging on his wheel pushing max heart rate and you could hear guys in the pack suffering just to hold on. After about 10 minutes Peter Carey (Bahati Foundation), who was also racing in the U23 category with me, decided to make a move and he took Scott Veggeberg (Austin Bikes) up the road with him. After a few minutes Kevin Kremke decided that was the move he needed to be in and chased up to them. At that point I was hanging on for dear life in the field and there was no way I could bridge up to that gap at that moment, so I decided to play it safe and hang out in the field, recover, and keep hydrated, which turned out to be my best bet.

After sitting in the field and recovering a little I kept anticipating bridging up the road solo, which could have been effective, but my mind kept telling me to stay back because bridging wouldn’t be worth it.

While watching that group of 3 manage to gain 35 seconds on the field I just waited in a sipped my bottles.

After about 20 minutes of them off the front turning over like a freight train, Peter Carey dropped off the break away.

At that moment I realized that the U23 State Champ was sitting in the field, and I am glad I sat in, played it smart, and waited it off for the sprint finish.

This race definitely went into the books as the hottest race I have ever done, but the Jersey was well worth it.

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BY WILL ROSS
The driveway is unlike most races. Perfectly smooth, flat, curvy, predictable and 85% percent of the time finishes in a bunch sprint.
80 or so lined up for the 40-49 Masters Criterium Texas state championship race on Saturday, June 5th hosted by Violet Crown cycling team. I was looking to re-up my win from last year, except this time I didn’t have Barry Lee there to control the race, lead me out and then hit his breaks to let me win.

I would have to go it alone. Wallace Groda ,Ron Hujssman, (Bike Barn), Chris Carlson(RBM), Chris Powers (labor power), John Korioth (Team Six), Andy Beres, Doug Looney (THSJ), Gilbert Ramirez (TIDGAF), Robbie Robinette (THSJ), Richard Lamb (Southern Elite), Paul Duva (Austin Nationals) were all very active.

Mid-way-Korioth, a Labor power and a Brain and Spine got away building a max lead of 30 sec. Well supported by teammates in the pack this break survived for many laps. Unfortunately for Korioth he was the only real power source in the move and they were brought back mainly by Wally Groda with his high cadence, and long steady pulls with 8 laps to go. With 2 to go there was a nasty pile up in the turn before the finish that took out the likes of Richard Lamb, Robbie Robinette and many other would be contenders. A lap later Ramirez took a flyer in chase of a labor power rider. Chris Carlson blasted the duo and took charge with 400 meters to go and I latched on to him getting a little draft in the last 200 meters I came around him for the win.
A special thanks to teammate Josh Carter in teaching an old dog an old trick earlier this spring. Simply race to my strengths and I will find that I have a good chance at doing really well. Be patient let the race unfold and see if it is there for the taking. Thanks also to THSJ management for their tireless efforts in keeping the best pro-am team in the country not just surviving but thriving.