Two vs Fourteen at Kelly's Cup Bike Jam

Used for war of 1812, but built in 1870?

After a fun night of racing the previous day, I was super excited to be out racing again the next day. at the Kelly’s Cup Criterium or “Bikejam” close to downtown Baltimore. Unlike the USA criterium races or the NCC events I have been in, Kelly’s Cup was a small regional race. I would be racing in the P/1/2/3 race along with Brandon. The two of us would be in a field of about 40ish riders.

With the fact that this was not a pro event, meant that teams can bring as many riders as they want into the race. This meant that Kelly Benefits (the team of the event) had 14 riders in the race. Kelly Benefits is also a sponsor of Optum cycling as well as CCB racing. This would make about half of the peloton a sponsored team of the event.

Brandon and I knew we would have our work cut out for us. We were the smallest team there, and other then Optum, we were the only other pro team there. It was going to be hard to get away, but we needed to try.

As the race started off of the line I was able to quickly get towards the front of the pack and follow attacks. Optum was racing very aggressive launching several attacks from all their riders. I was following a few moves as well as launching a few attacks of my own. Although small groups were forming off the front, the combination of a very fast non technical course, as well as Kelly chasing down almost everything made it difficult to stay away. Luckily Kelly was chasing their own guys down, Brandon and I both used this to our advantage and even found humor in it. As the race continued going Brandon and I made sure to be in every split possible. We were keying off of each other and helping one another as much as possible. After a hard 40 minutes of racing Brandon found me and told me we needed to both calm down, we were using too much energy and the course was too fast to let a split go. I agreed with him and sat in the group. Although we were both attentive at the front, we ended up missing a split caused by 3 kelly riders sitting up about 10 guys from the front during the hardest part of the course. In the blink of an eye there was a split of 10 riders was going up the road. Brandon and I launched attacks to get across to the leaders. As one of us would get caught, the other would launch a counter, and then even a second counter. We were sure we were going to catch the leaders. I was able to get the pack within 10 seconds of the leaders before I started to loose steam. As I flicked my elbow to try to get someone to finish off the job, I was greeted by 3 more Kelly racers on my wheel who were now blocking for their men in the break. The gap would start to extend, and eventually get out of reach.

For the rest of the race Brandon and I would race together making sure no splits would form in-between the pack and the leaders.

As we made it to the last 3 laps of the race the remaining Kelly Riders started to move their guys to the front. Brandon and I were also present at the front of the race. When we started coming into the sprint Brandon was able to get second in the pack sprint getting him a 13^th place.

Although we were disappointed by not getting a guy in the break, we know that we need to race with just the two of us. Come u23 nationals Brandon and I will be the only guys from the team racing. It is this experience that will come in handy when there’s going to be a national championship jersey on the line. Brandon and I will be racing both Saturday and Sunday at Somerville together before the rest of the team comes in to race on Monday.