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Get Your Crit On
L ooking the wrong way down Clayton, it seems like a safe bet
that you could get at least as far as the comer without being
stopped. The streets are generally barren, and the traffic is
light. But once you're booming down the road towards the Georgia
Theatre, it will be too late to mind any of the factors that might
keep you from testing this circuit. Residual motor oil, morning dew
and armed law enforcement are all acceptable risks when you're run
ning an illicit road test for the sake of a little joumolisme v4rit4.
Besides, unless you've run the race yourself, there's no other way to
get a taste of the Twilight Criterium, now a quarter of a century old,
and one of the premier races of its kind.
Every year, elite cyclists descend upon Athens for a semi-sui
cidal, 60-lap run through downtown—after dark. Add to that tens of
thousands of unruly, leering
spectators looking for the
inevitable crash and tearing of
flesh, and it doesn't get any
better this side of Sanford
Stadium. Last year's event was
wed to the Dodge Tour de
Georgia, the state's other major
bicycle race, and drew visibly
larger numbers.
"It was a big crowd," says
race organizer and founder Gene
Dixon. *We try and use fairly real
numbers, but who knows exactly?
We didn't know it was going to
be bigger last year, and I'm not
sure how much of that was due
to the Tour de Georgia. It certainly didn't hurt having all those
people so close by and coming back afterwards [to see our race]."
In 2004, one of the higher profile stages of the Tour's race began
in Athens several hours before the other Twilight events got
underway. But this year, the two races will not cross paths due to
logistics and a variety of other factors.
"Several things happened." Dixon says, "but the primary thing
was that they cut out all their transfers. Last year, there were a lot
of times when they had a 100-mile transfer from the end of one
stage and the start of the next. The athletes didn't like that at alL
Primarily Lance [Armstrong] didn't like that at alL So in order to
make that better, they cut all those transfers out"
This year's Twilight will incorporate a unique system of grid qual
ifying the day before Saturday night's main event. Participating
riders will race against each other in groups of eight on stationary
bicycle trainers wired to high-tech software and projected on large
screens for the crowd's viewing pleasure. These individual "cyber"
heats add a special extended twist to the Twilight that brings the
race closer to spectators than the Tour de Georgia ever could once
that race leaves the starting line.
And while riders from both events cross over to participate in
either race, Dixon is happy to place his emphasis within the realm
of the criterium.
"My goal is to see criterium racing become its own thing and not
having to deal with Lance having to be the only star in cycling,
because he's not [Canadian rider] Gord Fraser's a bigger star in my
opinion. [Besides,] 40 to 50 percent of the same guys will be here."
Indeed, last year's winner, Brice Jones, will be turning up to
defend his Twilight title less than a week after riding with the rest
of the Jelly Belly/ Pool Gel cycling squad in this year's Tour de
Georgia. For his part, Jones sees last year's win as one of the jewels
of his career.
"I view it as one of the
biggest accomplishments of my
career," he says. "It was a very
exciting race. Not only do you
have to be on good form, you
have to have a bit of luck, and
be a good bike handler."
As a testament to his form
last year, Jones and another rider
actually took the lead after 20
turns around the course, lapped
the field, and held on to their
lead until it was over.
"It's a good course to get into
a breakaway," Jones says. "It's so
tight that you can only go
around with so much speed. It's really hard for the pack to go any
faster than individual [riders] can. We just got down into a rhythm."
Locally, sprinters like Jeff "Lightnin" Hopkins of the Jittery
Joe's-Kalahari team will be under a fair amount of pressure to bring
home the win for the Athens cycling squad. But the other principle
Category 1 outfit in town, Locos Cycling, will also be looking for
whatever opportunities might come along.
"We've always had high hopes for Twilight* says Locos Team
Manager Micah Mortock, "but we can only be out there as oppor
tunists and try to get in on a break."
In previous years, the Locos team was able to help at least one
rider, Saul Raisan, to the sport's major leagues. Raisan now rides for
the prestigious French Credit Argicole outfit Morlock sees this sort
of development as one of the key focuses of his team's efforts.
"A lot of these guys have dreams of racing with the pros. And we
want to be able to be a platform for them to do that'
JoE Silva
We m cieliveriniT-VrtfHin 5 miles • g:’minimum
oThfli of Athens
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APRIL 27, 2005 • FLAGP0LE.COM 15