Locos Cycling's Advent at Albany

2008-03-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

Locos Cycling burst out onto the racing scene with their first race of the '08 season in Albany, GA. With six riders returning from last season plus two new additions, the Locos was only able to field five riders to boot. Three of the team's strong riders including: Brian Bibens, Marc Anderson, and Rob Giannini were all missing from the weekend's exciting action, leaving the team slightly unsure of the fire power they would be able to put out. Despite the small amount of doubts from being a few riders short of a full roster and worries about early season fitness, the team's apprehension was quickly quelled in Saturday's early morning individual time trial.

Waking up the field in the Albany's early morning cool weather Locos Cycling's new edition, Whit Clifford, let everybody know that Locos was there and meant business. Combining his power and his excellent bike handling skills, Whit danced through the thirteen corner 3.3k ensemble called a time trial to a solid tenth place for the season opener. And although Whit stamped his authority in the primary race, the rest of Locos was not done leaving their marks for the day.

After a brief period to rest between the time trial and criterium, the men in moose outfits ate a hardy lunch at their spot of pride, Locos, and relaxed before it was back to the action in the afternoon. Once race number two was on it's way, the riders in celeste were back in high gear and attentively stalking the flurry of activity that was taking place. With several competitors fresh off the Tour of California, and many more ready to consume all of the top spots in the event, there was plenty to be attentive about. With a better than expected synergy, the five present Locos riders were everywhere they should have been and were smoothly working together with an unpracticed and unprecedented ease. With none of the many attempts at breakaways coming to fruition, the large field of riders came together as one for a bunch sprint with Locos riders right on the heels of the front. Kicking the pre-season dust off of their legs Chris Scott and Seth Hansley sat calmly and quietly in the epicenter of the eight corner chaotic criterium's stormy madness to pull off a respectable 4th and 6th place.

After a wholly satisfying dinner and good night's rest, the young warriors were back at it again for Sunday's 95 mile road race. With attacks flying from the word go, Matthew Hansley, Travis Hagner, and Whit Clifford found themselves in the ones that were the most promising. With only 20 miles in the legs Matthew Hansley found himself in what would be the most promising break of the day. As one of the original riders in what later turned out to be a thirteen man break, Matthew pulled Locos to a great result after spending the majority of the day (about 75 miles) working his rear off. After helping the break along to a whopping four minute gap over the peleton, Matthew plowed his way to a 6th place finish and unarguably the Team's best result of the weekend.

Coming together for the first time in 2008, Locos has already proved that they are going to be a force to reckon with this year. If the team can do this with only five of it's eight total riders, then this is a good harbinger of what is in store for the rest of the season.

Locos Cycling News, Albany

Locos Cycling's Advent at Albany