Athens Twilight

2008-04-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

Athens Twilight is always a special event for the Locos Cycling team, because Athens is where the team’s heart and soul lies. The very core of the team, Locos Grill & Pub along with Georgia Cycle Sport and Cycle Co., are all based out of Athens, making the event one that is highly looked forward to each year. It would be easy to say that this year was no different, but this year surely was. Just like the past few previous years Twilight is the start of the Crit Series, but this year Locos celebrates something great; heritage. This year marks Locos Grill & Pub’s 25th anniversary and Twilight was one big part of the year-long celebration.

To start off, three of moose men on bikes raced the early pro-am qualifier race to spread the Locos colors throughout the long list of events during the day. As this venue attracts some of the best talent across the country, this particular weekend was no exception. The morning pro-am event boasted quite a bit of firepower in addition to Locos Cycling’s Matthew Hansley, Travis Hagner, and the monstrous moose man Whit Clifford. From the gun the nerves that showed on the line were put out into instant pedal power. Within laps of the gun going off for the start there was a breakaway beginning to form initiated by none other than Travis himself. This placed massive pressure on those behind and quickly turned into something serious. With a small group of seven riders formally established and well on their way to victory, Travis sat in the group comfortably and was poised to strike at the precise moment. As the break was surely victory bound the final laps of the race for Travis were nothing beyond pro forma and he just stayed calm cool and collected as it was rapidly coming to a close. With the bell ringing for one lap to go and two riders slipping off the front of the break group Travis reacted in a hurry and floated across the gap with ease and set himself in place with just 1.3 miles to go. Coming into the last 300 meters climber turned sprinter, Travis, sat third wheel in position for the sprint and darted to the far left 250 meters out to earn the victory along with the right to pump his fists followed by a strong 9th for his celeste wearing teammate Whit Clifford.

As the day was headed towards its end, the real racing had yet to begin. With every event done for the day there was one left to close the night off with style and speed. The pro race which is the hectic and crazily exciting main event got underway at 8:45pm and fielded over 150 riders including the hometown heroes of Locos Cycling. Both blistering and chaotic, the race started off as it always does in a tail slinging fist to fist showdown dropping people from the line. Also not to disappoint, the race had its exorbitant number of crashes that scooped anyone and everyone up in the carnage lap after lap. As the number of casualties grew the Locos riders found themselves apart of the count with Chris Scott being the last unfortunate one to add himself to that list in a mad dash crash to the finish with just three laps to continue. Amongst all of the hair raising action, Seth Hansley would be the local Locos hero on the home team to make it through unscathed to pull out an impressive 22nd for the night in a remaining field of not many.

Locos Cycling News, Athens Twilight

Athens Twilight