Superweek Stage 1: A Day to Quickly Put Behind Us

Big crowds in Beverly.

The Superweek opener in Beverly is notorious for being a hard man’s race where big groups roll of the front and take a lap on the field. The team knew that going into it, but unfortunately we weren’t able to do anything about it. Roughly 45 riders lined up for the start and the smaller field only made the race that much harder. With a larger field there are more riders and teams to go after the early moves and there’s also a big group to float backwards through if you’ve been on (or off) the front putting in a big effort. With a small field your time to recover is literally cut in half if not even more. Our lone finisher on the day was Waylon in 27th, who really toughed it out in final 20 laps to continually close gaps and remain in the hunt for a prize money place.

Riders opened the hostilities immediately and by the fourth lap the winning move had been established: two Kenda/Geargrinder riders, two Australia Fly V riders and a rider from the Columbian National team. John Meyers recognized the threat and buried himself to go after it but without much assistance from the field behind it wasn’t enough. Danny was right there as well but a moment’s hesitation cost him the chance to make the move. The lead five stayed on the gas hard over the next few laps to establish their move, confident that their teammates behind were covering any attempts at bridging across. Even after the leaders were clearly away their pace hardly seemed to drop in anticipation of the two plus hours of racing ahead of them. Eventually another Fly V rider and member of the Columbian National team rider escaped the field and were the lone two chasers for much of the race.

The field received a boatload of consolation prizes in the form of $100, $200 and even $300 primes throughout the night. A total of $3400 primes were handed out over the course of the race, including several two and three place primes.

Just as the leaders were about to catch the field a large group split off the front of the field but the Kenda riders in the field brought it all back together as the leaders caught the field with around 20 laps remaining. Eventually the Fly V and Colombian rider also made the lap which meant seven riders total had gone a lap up. In the closing laps Bernie S. (Fly V) and Chad B. (Kenda/GG), both of whom had already lapped, escaped the field again and with one to go it was apparent the winner would be one of them. Bernie attacked Chad on the last lap and came through the final turn with a three second gap that gave him plenty of time to celebrate his second win on the Beverly course.

The crowd was absolutely enormous and definitely got into the race. The Beverly area has really embraced the event with a huge festival and front-yard parties around the entire course.

Next up is Geneva, practically a hometown race for us with Prairie Path Cycles’ locations right in Winfield and Batavia. Ryan Freund will be joining Waylon, John, Danny and Hogan in the hunt for our young team’s first Superweek win.

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