Greenville Spring Classic

While Saturday found Athens in a snow storm and freezing thirty mile per hour winds, Sunday found three Toshiba riders in good form with the wind and weather on their side.

The Greenville Spring series concluded with a 56 mile circuit race and beautiful spring weather. Tommy Nankervis, Dan Vallencourt and Alex Hagman showed up to a race with fierce competition coming from several strong regional squads. The plan was to set up Nankervis for a sprint, or get him into a break knowing that he had the strongest finish. The first half of the race was very negative with guys chasing any hint of a move down and then looking at each other not knowing what to do next. Only once Dan and some other big name guys started making moves did the race begin to get exciting. With four laps to go attacks started with Tommy getting into what looked like the move of the day. He was gone for sure, only to be in a group of guys afraid to work hard and go for the win. Then Dan got in to another break with three to go, but again the combination of riders was not quite right. With two to go there was a flurry of attacks and counter attacks however nobody wanted to miss the break and nobody wanted to go hard to make a break work. With a lap and a half to go Hagman launched a brutal attack bringing two men with him. He drove hard doing most of the work in the break allowing the other two riders to hang with him (they were barely hangin on), giving him recovery for the next pull. One lap to go and the break of three was gaining ground on the peleton. It was the move of the day and Hagman put all of his cards into it knowing Tommy was there to finish it if he was caught. With 500m to go one of the riders jumped only to be countered and jumped by Hagman who held off the other escapee for his first win of the season!

In an impressive display of force Dan, Tommy and Alex rode together like a team that has been riding for years. Each put in their share of work obtaining the ultimate goal: winning for the team!