Tour of Hermann
26/04/10 13:33
Last weekend some of the BMC boys made the transfer up to the hill country west of St. Louis for the Tour of Hermann omnium stage race. An omnium is a multiple stage event where each rider is awarded points based on their finish in each stage and the rider with the most points overall wins the general classification or GC. Ian Silovsky went up to take on the 4’s solo while Will Frank, Nicholas Rogers, Patrick Small, Tyler Sutton and Caleb Magee made up the cat 3 team.
After consuming our weight in pasta and rolls at a local Italian restaurant Friday night we awoke and loaded up in The Beast (Neal’s van) and headed into Hermann for a morning time trial and afternoon crit. The time trial was 11 miles and flat with the exception of a bridge over the Missouri River. The weather was pleasant with a deceptively strong headwind on the way out and a welcome tail wind for the return trip. After much pain the team ended up with strong performances from Will Frank good for second place in the 3’s and a fifth for Ian Silovsky in the 4’s. The rest of the 3’s ended up with 15th, 19th, 22nd and 25th out of 46 starters.
On tap for the afternoon was what was advertised as a criterium. In fact it was a 1.1 mile death loop featuring a brutal hill. We scored a prime parking spot to show off The Beast and our full array of bikes and settled in to watch Ian’s race. Ian was looking strong and half way through the race got away with another rider attacking on the hill. The next time through the start finish Ian came through solo after dropping his breakaway companion. A group of 5 organized behind and gave chase but it was to no avail as Ian continued to increase his lead each lap and won convincingly with a 30 second margin. It was an impressive display and exciting to watch Ian who has been racing for less than a year take the race by the horns.
The plan for the cat 3 race was to protect Will’s GC spot and move Nicholas and Patrick up into the top 10. The race started fast and furious and the pace was relentless throughout. The start finish line was located at the top of the major climb and Will Frank (205 pounds) took the uphill sprint for an early race GC points prime. He was obviously born to climb with his svelte physique. The race turned into a race of attrition as more and more riders were shelled out the back each time up the hill. 72 riders started and on the final lap the lead group had been decanted down to 15 riders. Nicholas Rogers was the highest placed rider on the day with 4th place and Patrick Small followed in 6th with Will Frank pulling off 12th place. It was an extremely difficult circuit and the BMC boys raced well as a team but were unable to match Ian’s victory.
Going into the Sunday morning road race Ian was sitting in first place in GC for the 4’s and Will was in 3rd for the 3’s with Nicholas and Patrick both within striking distance of the podium. The road race was a 30 mile loop that revealed the only flat roads around Hermann were utilized for the time trial as demanding hills filled the road race stage.
Ian patrolled the cat 4 field and rode strong fending off attacks on his GC position single handedly. He decided to make his move in the last kilometer before the finish and had a decent gap on the charging field before he had to lock up his brakes due to the apparently lost lead car stopping in the middle of one of the final turns. With his momentum lost he was caught by the chaotic field but was able to accelerate back up enough to get 8th in the sprint. The lost points would relegate him from 1st on GC to a still very strong 3rd for the weekend.
The cat 3 race was 2 laps and BMC was present from the beginning with Tyler and Caleb patrolling the front of the field with the GC men attentive not far behind. The attacks came frequently on the endless climbs and Patrick Small was able to get into a small breakaway for a while but it was not to be as it was brought back. Towards the end of each lap there was a king of the mountains sprint offering GC points and the team strategy was to win those points each lap. Caleb Magee started the lead out for Patrick Small but ended up with a gap on his own and won the KOM points on the first lap. Going through town for the second lap the riders had to negotiate an always sketchy feed zone and then were rerouted up a street that was not used on the first lap and was about as steep as the side of a building. This unexpected obstacle wreaked havoc on the field and set the pace for the relentless second lap. Patrick Small proved he was worthy of the most aggressive rider award as he found himself in another move off of the front that looked very promising but again it wasn’t to be as the field brought the group back in a rare organized chase. Nicholas Rogers ran into some bad luck with a puncture about 10 miles from the finish and that bad luck continued for the team as Will and Patrick got stuck on some bad wheels in the chaotic sprint that placed them out of the GC points at the finish.
After the smoke cleared Will had dropped to 7th in GC with Nicholas following closely in 9th and Patrick in 12th. Overall it was a great weekend for the boys even though the GC placings weren’t quite what we desired. We didn’t leave Hermann without one final victory though as we talked Tiffany at subway into giving us a stack of free cookies.
A big thanks goes out to for Neal letting us borrow The Beast and Nicholas’s dad Larry for getting the team water bottles in the feed zone.
After consuming our weight in pasta and rolls at a local Italian restaurant Friday night we awoke and loaded up in The Beast (Neal’s van) and headed into Hermann for a morning time trial and afternoon crit. The time trial was 11 miles and flat with the exception of a bridge over the Missouri River. The weather was pleasant with a deceptively strong headwind on the way out and a welcome tail wind for the return trip. After much pain the team ended up with strong performances from Will Frank good for second place in the 3’s and a fifth for Ian Silovsky in the 4’s. The rest of the 3’s ended up with 15th, 19th, 22nd and 25th out of 46 starters.
On tap for the afternoon was what was advertised as a criterium. In fact it was a 1.1 mile death loop featuring a brutal hill. We scored a prime parking spot to show off The Beast and our full array of bikes and settled in to watch Ian’s race. Ian was looking strong and half way through the race got away with another rider attacking on the hill. The next time through the start finish Ian came through solo after dropping his breakaway companion. A group of 5 organized behind and gave chase but it was to no avail as Ian continued to increase his lead each lap and won convincingly with a 30 second margin. It was an impressive display and exciting to watch Ian who has been racing for less than a year take the race by the horns.
The plan for the cat 3 race was to protect Will’s GC spot and move Nicholas and Patrick up into the top 10. The race started fast and furious and the pace was relentless throughout. The start finish line was located at the top of the major climb and Will Frank (205 pounds) took the uphill sprint for an early race GC points prime. He was obviously born to climb with his svelte physique. The race turned into a race of attrition as more and more riders were shelled out the back each time up the hill. 72 riders started and on the final lap the lead group had been decanted down to 15 riders. Nicholas Rogers was the highest placed rider on the day with 4th place and Patrick Small followed in 6th with Will Frank pulling off 12th place. It was an extremely difficult circuit and the BMC boys raced well as a team but were unable to match Ian’s victory.
Going into the Sunday morning road race Ian was sitting in first place in GC for the 4’s and Will was in 3rd for the 3’s with Nicholas and Patrick both within striking distance of the podium. The road race was a 30 mile loop that revealed the only flat roads around Hermann were utilized for the time trial as demanding hills filled the road race stage.
Ian patrolled the cat 4 field and rode strong fending off attacks on his GC position single handedly. He decided to make his move in the last kilometer before the finish and had a decent gap on the charging field before he had to lock up his brakes due to the apparently lost lead car stopping in the middle of one of the final turns. With his momentum lost he was caught by the chaotic field but was able to accelerate back up enough to get 8th in the sprint. The lost points would relegate him from 1st on GC to a still very strong 3rd for the weekend.
The cat 3 race was 2 laps and BMC was present from the beginning with Tyler and Caleb patrolling the front of the field with the GC men attentive not far behind. The attacks came frequently on the endless climbs and Patrick Small was able to get into a small breakaway for a while but it was not to be as it was brought back. Towards the end of each lap there was a king of the mountains sprint offering GC points and the team strategy was to win those points each lap. Caleb Magee started the lead out for Patrick Small but ended up with a gap on his own and won the KOM points on the first lap. Going through town for the second lap the riders had to negotiate an always sketchy feed zone and then were rerouted up a street that was not used on the first lap and was about as steep as the side of a building. This unexpected obstacle wreaked havoc on the field and set the pace for the relentless second lap. Patrick Small proved he was worthy of the most aggressive rider award as he found himself in another move off of the front that looked very promising but again it wasn’t to be as the field brought the group back in a rare organized chase. Nicholas Rogers ran into some bad luck with a puncture about 10 miles from the finish and that bad luck continued for the team as Will and Patrick got stuck on some bad wheels in the chaotic sprint that placed them out of the GC points at the finish.
After the smoke cleared Will had dropped to 7th in GC with Nicholas following closely in 9th and Patrick in 12th. Overall it was a great weekend for the boys even though the GC placings weren’t quite what we desired. We didn’t leave Hermann without one final victory though as we talked Tiffany at subway into giving us a stack of free cookies.
A big thanks goes out to for Neal letting us borrow The Beast and Nicholas’s dad Larry for getting the team water bottles in the feed zone.
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