Aaron’s/L5Flyers Takes Team Time Trial and Overall GC in Rome
Maxxis Georgia Cup - Siege of Rome:
The Aaron’s/L5Flyers team went into the recent Maxxis Georgia Cup Siege of Rome stage race knowing if they put in a strong Team Time Trial they could end up with the overall victory. After placing second in the last team time trial event, the team worked hard on pacing and positioning prior to the event. The hard work paid off. In the “Race of Truth” the team of Brandon Tai, Chad Strickland, Dave Bell, Erik Eidsvik, Kevin Hertzberg, Rick Lyons, and Ty Tagami put in a blazing time separating themselves from the second place team, RBM, by 34 seconds and the third place team by one minute. The lead was now Aaron’s to defend and this set things up perfectly for their GC contender, Ty.
Going into the 2nd stage criterium, the plan was to not let any GC threats get substantial time on Ty. The pace was high and eventually a break got away with an RBM rider who was not a GC threat. He was able to pick up enough bonus time to end up with a one second lead on General Classification headed into the dreaded Out of Pocket Road Race.
The Sunday morning road race which consisted of two trips up the brutal Horn Mt. climb (20% grade), started with Ty and Dave in second and third (one second down) and Chad in fourth (two seconds down). The plan was for one of the three to go with every early move and then heading into the climb, Erik and Rick would keep the pace high discouraging any further attacks. From there Ty would be on his own. The plan worked to perfection and the group arrived to the base of the climb together. Ty made it over the climb in the front group, dropping many GC contenders along the way, including the race leader. The second lap was brisk and Ty had to follow several attacks, but again, the small front group arrived at the base together. From there Ty paced his way up with the climbers and dropped all of the GC threats.
“This is a great victory for us because it really was a complete team effort.” said Ty after the race. “We did great in the TTT, which was the result of a lot of practice, and then the guys really kept it together in the crit and the road race. It’s always inspiring to know you have got a bunch of guys working for you.”
