Commentator's Corner » Article

2007-06-09 06:06:15

Raleigh, Atlanta, and Somerville

June 7 2007Southeast NRC racing to ole' faithful

Wow comes to mind alot of times and cool and neat and...ya get the drift. Raleigh Twilight has now officially stepped up and knocked a belt high fast ball to deep left center. Kim Kobes and the entire Raleigh crew smoked it. The venue was perfect with the capital in the background. Police estimates put the crowd at 15,000. There is a decisive point in every races "future"...whether it can harness the city,cvb, volunteers and sponsors to succuessfully keep a race rollin'. Raleigh has found that right mix.

The racing was fun and energetic from the git go. Mostly top amatuer and a few pro's mixed it up...with Twilight winner amateur Mark Hekman ofiicially a national figure patrolling near the front. When night fell so did the hammer and Frank Travieso came with the goods. LVG won her gazzillionth womens race for her Cheerwine team in a great lead out by Kelly Benjamin.

Sandy Springs in Atlanta is such a great event. I flew down on Saturday nite and did the event Sunday. Laid back and well supported. Amy Smith from events-360 along with Bob Heath and the whole Cycleworks team put on an event that was video'd by Turner Sports. (I hear that but won't watch it...trust me, I get sick of my own voice ALOT!) The race was very well supported and they couldn't have treated me ANY better. Those guys have the goods!

Getting on the Plane on Sunday nite....some of you know my previous life while building my business....and I hear the  GS word in EWR, from the Captain to the First Officer. I was like..frig. Ground Stop in the New York area means....a LONGGGGG wait! So, Im thinking 3am arrival and Somerville starts at 11. Ugh. 5 minutes later we get released and I was like, hmm...good sign. Get there, get some good sleep and head down to the event. Wow, how unbelievably nostalgic Somverville is. It was memorial day and they had a parade, floats ya get it. Amazing that a town that literally is 35 minutes from one of the biggest cities in the world can be..so....Americana. I was working with the legend Joe Saling who has been doing the event for YEARS. My style was a bit unique for the town, and the action was a bit "forced" because the course is VERY wide open. To run and hide at Somerville you have to be slippery, fast and unknown. Navigators was having none of it and set there train up with 3 to go and carried Hilton Clarke to victory over my pick Barrajo. Just thougtht Navigators pulled the train out of the station a bit early, but when you have talent like they had.....it was easy to see how they got 1st and 3rd.

It appears I am off to Austin, Tejas next weekend for the AT & T. Adios muchachos.

Go Back