The expected and some great developments

Eneas Freyre is the head of the cycling program at TARGETRAINING. Eneas is a father. Eneas is a great bike racer. Eneas won the road race stage of GMSR yesterday up the epic App Gap. It was freaking great. But first, how it all happened.

The TARGETRAININ Elite team went into the road race stage with the simple goal of doing what it took to score the overall victory in this four day race. Everyone was on board to support Eneas and Justin in doing so, as this course was perfect for both of them. After a long neutral section at the start of the stage, the attacks were non stop from everyone in the field. At only 75 miles this year, the winning move was going to have to be soon and super fast. The team was covering everything well until a solid attack went and the Adam Bomb covered it hard. These guys were flying and Adam was spinning his 11t cog just trying to stay involved. At the first sprint line (which was also for GC time) da' Bomb took 2nd place and robbed the overall leader of a few seconds. Yup, the sprint leader, the GC leader and the KOM leader were all in this breakaway. Adam had picked the right move.

Back in the field, Big Craig Luekens was trying to bridge but got caught. This allowed Eneas to counter will Monster Will Nowak glued to his wheel. This kid is great as I specifically told him to always be with his teammate. They finally caught up to Adam and now the move of ten had three TARGETRAINING team member in it. At the feed zone at mile 27 (which they took 56 minutes to reach, ouch!), Adam was leading the group with Will and Eneas in the group and they had built a lead of two minutes already. Wow. Adam led up the seven mile 8% Brandon Gap climb and flew down the long descent at speeds reaching 65mph.

Adam and Will were completely dedicated to making the move stick and did over 75% of the work themselves to keep the group away and put pressure on the field. In the field, CCB and the Fruities starting to panic and put 6 guys on the front to chase. It was not easy as the boys in the break were also going fast. Finally, after 60 miles, the break was caught, but at what price. Those two teams burned a lot of matches, but with our GC men doing no work. As it was caught, TARGETRAINING was back at the front making things fast and scary and bang! Eneas attacks the tired field with a tailwind move. He is gone with only a few elite riders going into the last ten kilometers. Big Craig sets tempo for a bit and then Eneas jumps them all with 2k to go and heads up the final climb. He is going hard, but the steep slope makes it seems like he is crawling. Time slows to a stop as the crowd and announcers realize he has the stage and is getting close to the overall lead. The riders behind him are speeding up but he does it! Eneas takes the stage with every bit of strength he could muster. He suffered like I have never seen him and I catch him at the line and push him to the recovery area. What a great win!

To the right is a podium picture at the top of the mountain at the finish line. Eneas is holding future GMSR winner Eneas Caden. What a great team!

What made it even better was how the team all worked together.

Adam and Will hammered themselves to make the break work which forced the other teams in the field to chase hard but allowed Eneas to sit on the move and stay fresh. In the field, the lads covered moves and kept Justin safe in case of complete disaster up the road. Especially strong was David BFD Hoyle. Dave has been finding his form all season but got it figured out on the road yesterday. He was always with Justin and even led the field through the dirt road sections to make sure that we dedicated the pace and line for our riders to keep things safe. Great job BFD!

The whole purpose of this team is to take young riders and teach them about cycling and racing and how to race as a team at the highest level, not just always try to win alone. Over the past two years this has really begun to take shape and has been a really pleasure to watch. All of my faithful readers know about Justin, but to watch Adam has also been great. He didn't finish his first Bethel Crit last year, but this year he is driving breakaways for his team and sprinting heads up for GC time. Dave is got it, and Will Nowak is amazing. He has raced alone a lot in his short career, but his natural talent now matches his tactics and he is always there for his team. Craig is a powerhouse, Gabe always ready, Nate and Lee also are always doing the right thing. What a great group of riders.

Today is the last stage in Burlinton, VT. It is a very tough fast and super technical criterium and there are GC time sprints and lots of action. The team is going to go hard to get the overall win for Eneas as he sits only three seconds off the lead. Watch for updates soon!

Kyle Wolfe

Director, TARGETRAINING Racing Teams
http://www.targetraining.com/