Team Exergy US Pro Road Report!

US Pro Road Race Championships

When you go to the US Champs with a man like Freddie Rodriguez on the roster, you ride for that man.

On the first long lap, a break of 28 riders went up the road, Team Exergy had 3 men in it. Of those 3, Quinn Keogh and Conor Mullervy haven't raced anything but flat, 90 minute crits for 2 months. They suffered well in spite of this less-than-ideal preparation, leaving their guts on the road.

On the 3rd ascent of Paris Mtn, Quinn and Logan Loader fell out of the break and were absorbed by the charging peloton. They were caught over the top of the KoM and immediately went to work trying to close the gap to the break.

The duo reduced the gap to 30 seconds, but without help from other teams it soon started to expand again. At 2 minutes Garmin assumed the heavy lifting, but it was too late.

The break blew apart on the final trip up the climb, and the peloton did the same under Matt Cooke's pressure.

Over the top the gap was down to a minute as Cookie and Freddie led the chase, again without help, but they could get no closer and it slowly crept out the rest of the race.

In the end, Freddie never had a chance to ride for the win, as only the guys in the break had a chance to take the stars and bars jersey. Our boys rode valiantly in support of their captain, but the crazy dynamics of a national championship caught us out.

Losing sucks! And it hurts especially bad today after waiting for this race for a year. But we race again in a few days and must begin thinking about Philly.