Baltimore, MD
Saturday May 24th
Jake and I went to Baltimore, Maryland on Memorial Day weekend for the Bike Jam/ Kelly Cup criterium. It was a pretty wide open course, with one sweeping right into a tight chichane. Two of our other team mates were at the race, Gavi Epstein(from NYC) and Ryan Bauman(from Madison, WI).Luckily, Jake got a call up to the frontline at the start of the race, along with some off the biggest names in US cycling. Including, Dominique Rollin, Klye Wamsley, Jonathon Page, and Sebastian Haedo, not bad company to be in. The race rolled off very fast with everyone wanting to string the race out from the beginning. It wasn't long before Jake, Gavi, Ryan, and I were near eachother. I started by following some early moves, but I was forced to abandon due to mechanical problems with my bike. A breakaway of four riders held off the field leaving Kelly Benefits rider David Veilleux taking the win. Jake finished a solid 6th Place in the bunch, taking tenth place overall.
Bound Brook Criterium
Bound Brook, NJ
Sunday May 25th
For Sunday, Jake and I met up with the rest of the family, where Jesse and Luke raced the Junior event at the Bound Brook Crit, a precursor race to Monday's Tour of Somerville. Jesse and Luuke were riding very strong, with Luke and Jesse folling numerous moves early on. With two laps to go Jesse was in a move that looked promising, along with one rider from the Metro-Wendy's team. However, as the race came around the last corner with one lap to go, the field was fast approaching. After the breakaway got caught, Jesse attacked into the last corner on the final lap, with Luke two wheels behind. Luke opened up his sprint from 300 meters out, and he won bike five bike lengths in the sprint!
Tour of Somerville
Somerville, NJ
Monday May 25th
Following his strong result on Sunday, Luke's plan for the biggest junior criterium in the US was to wait for the sprint (the Tour of Somerville almost always ends in a large bunch sprint). Jesse and Luke did a good job paying attention to the dangerous moves early on in the race. However, one rider slipped away with about five laps left to go in the race. Coming into the finish the solo ride still had about five seconds on the field. Luke took the sprint by a solid margin, but he still couldn't catch the one rider, and he finished up 2nd.
The pro race was quite a mess. Although there was a very quality field including full squads from Colavita, Kelly Benefits, Team Type One, Team Inferno, Battley-Harley Davidson, a combination of the low speed and very rough pavement caused many crashes. Unfortunately a crash involving Ryan Bauman, Gavi Epstein, and myself left our team very disabled. Luckily Ryan was able to return to the race, but a trip to the hospital and a broken hip took Gavi out for some time. As the bunch sprinted for the finish Colivata's leadout train put their rider's first and second. Jake came through with a solid 7th place finish.
Ricola Twilight Grand Prix
Basking Ridge, NJ
Wednesday May 28th
Seven ninety degree corners snake through sceneic downtown Basking Ridge New Jersey in a one kilometer long circuit. No, this isn't a joke, it's the Ricola Twilight Grand Prix, where every year the country's top professional cyclists throw themselves down the narrow streets of this quaint New Jersey suburb. After only five of the race's forty laps were through the field was chopped down from 120 riders to about 50, and those remaining were snaked around the course in a single file line. A late breakaway of Jeremy Powers(Jelly Belly) and Dabe Fuentes(Battley- Harley Davidson) almost robbed the sprinters, but they were caught with one lap to go. Jake came through in fifth place, there were only inches between the top five.
All in all not a bad weekend for the Keough family.
-Nick
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