Team Get A Grip Cycles Plays the Hillsboro Roubaix Cross Wind Lottery and Brings Home Three Podium Placings on Three Different Cannondale Bikes.

After revamping its core squad of category 3 riders, expanding its women’s line-up, and establishing its first presence in the category 2 ranks, Team Get A Grip Cycles entered the 2008 season with a new look and a wider presence. The Hillsboro-Roubaix Road Race on March 29th would determine if we could keep it together or would just devolve into a tribe of wild chimps. With three podium placings and an 82% finish rate, our fears of being shipped off to live with Cozi at Chimp Eden disappeared like most of the day's competition.

Podium #1: “I really, really wanted to win that one”

(Lindsay Koren Places Second on her 2008 Cannondale 6-13)

The fellas in Vegas are taking bets on the following: Lindsay Koren will podium in 66% of each race until she upgrades to the big leagues before the June transition. Koren made all of Saturday’s early splits, established the late-race break, and then dropped the remaining riders on the final climb. “I really didn't want to go through that patchy crap at the bottom of the hill in a bunch. I looked back a few times and just saw one girl in sight coming up. She caught me when I slowed too much going into the last turn and then I almost re caught her near the line.”

Podium #2: “Eh, I got Third:”

(Devon Haskell Places Third on her 2007 Cannondale System Six)

With four wins already this year for the University of Chicago collegiate team, it was time for Devon Haskell to display her club colors against tougher competition. As usual, the team’s #1 rider performed like the all-star she is and brought home a third-place finish, bested by just two of the Midwest’s toughest female racers.

Podium #3: “I Keep Getting Gapped By Slow Guys”

(Jim Vandeven Places Second on his Cannondale CAAD 9)

The final podium placing was built on the race strategy that “It is going to be a weeny ride until the third lap.” Unfortunately for most of the field that proclamation differed significantly from their own race experience as they were crushed by two sections of fierce cross winds and their own weakness. The crucial first two laps featured several long breaks and organized chases by Mesa Cycles, Barbasol, Get A Grip’s Charles Biro, and some fella on a Giant. Biro and Gorry maintained perfect position from the start of the race and their smart play guaranteed a place in the crucial final selection at the end of lap two, while Vandeven and Tenney ensured that they too would have a role to play in the final lap by repeatedly leaping across the gaps created by the weak and the dying. For Tenney (“I Keep Getting Gapped By Slow Guys”), the race ended when all the cross wind leap frogging blew out his L5-S1 disc and relegated him to pedaling with just one leg to the finish in 30^th place. From that point on, the team’s hopes rested on newly upgraded category 3 rider Aspen Gorry, hard man Charles Biro, and the deadly Vandeven. During the final miles Vandeven took the race in his own hands and attacked a late-race break in pursuit of a Mesa rider who was 4 minutes ahead of him. He towed a second Mesa rider to the final hill, rode him off his wheel, and finished in second place, having closed the gap to a single minute by the time he crossed the line. Gorry and Biro dug in and finished with the shattered front group in the 12^th and 23^rd places.

Jimmy says: "Better luck next time boys! Try drinking a Coke."