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Tampa Cigar Criterium and Pinellas Park Circuit Race
ASTELLAS ONCOLOGY CYCLING TEAM
This past weekend marked the first weekend of racing for the Astellas Oncology Cycling Team. After spending the week leading up to the race in Greenville, South Carolina for training, the team loaded up the van and headed to Florida. The Tampa Cigar City Criterium was the second stop on the National Criterium Calendar (NCC) for the 2013 season. The field brought many of the nation’s top Professional and Elite teams. Around 100 riders were on the start line for the 80 lap race on the 1km course.
The race was fast from the start and it wasn't long before the first of many crashes took place. The Astellas guys quickly gathered near the front and never found themselves outside the top 30. But as quickly as they got to the front they found themselves held up by crashes. The team was unfortunate to lose two key members to crashes in the race, Andy Buntz and Anthony Walsh (who went down twice).
The decisive move went after a crash and unfortunately no member of the Astellas Oncology Cycling Team made the move. Matt Green tried his best to either bridge up to the break or help the chase to bring it back. However with most of the pro teams represented in the break, he wasn't getting much freedom or help from the others in the race. With such a short lap, they were able to quickly lap the entire field. The team then placed themselves at front of the field in the last 10 laps to get a top 10 result, but yet another crash inside 3 laps to go took out two more of our riders, Ryan Aitcheson and Cortlan Brown. That left only Matt Green and Jake Rytlewski in the race. Despite the tall odds, both were able to finish in the money, coming in 24th and 28th respectively.
The following day was the Pinellas Park Circuit Race, and after the events of the previous night the team was down to only 3 riders, Matt, Ryan and Jake, at the start line. It would be tough with many of the teams from last night showing up with bigger numbers.
Despite meaning severely out numbered, the 3 guys rode aggressively to make sure they did not miss any breakaways. They did an outstanding job attacking and covering multiple moves and being in every major move, including the winning the break of the day. Jake got himself into what turned out be the decisive move and found himself with 11 other riders breaking away halfway into the 100km race.
The group built up a big advantage that started shrinking quickly as the laps closed down. Jake kept working hard and helped to get rid of the dead weight, whittling the group to 8 with the remnants of the field closing in fast. The break barely held on, finishing seconds with only a handful of seconds to spare. Jake’s hard worked was rewarded with a solid 5th place finish.
Next up for the team is another training camp in Clermont, Florida followed by another NCC event in Delray Beach, Florida.
Thanks for the support
Astellas Oncology Cycling Team
