Sunny King

Race Recap
John Pratt
Sunny King Criterium
March 28, 2015

Sunny King Criterium was my first race for SBR Quantum. I am so excited to be a part of the
team. Our support we have received from BMC, SBR, and teammates, like Nick Grigsby, who
made all the team meals has been nothing short of humbling.

Sitting at the start line, I realized that I had plenty of nerves. I was trying to play it cool, but it was hard to fake it sitting up there was a herd of professionals and seasoned amateurs. My only other professional race had ended with a throw-up DNF after just 20 minutes, so I had plenty to be nervous about.

The opening laps saw Grant, Shane, Matt and I up towards the front of the race. After 7 laps, I made it up to the very front of the race and was up far enough to consider sprinting for a preme. As soon as I hit the front I had this weird sensation that I was really tired and that I couldn’t figure out why I’d want to be at the front. After 20 of 60 laps, my stomach turned into a knarly knot of undigested food and nerves. Big races get me anxious and I just can’t keep my stomach quiet, so now I was racing around near the back of the peloton trying to keep my gut quiet. I wasn’t having much success. Thankfully, the winning 7-man break got away at this time, and the overall pace of the race slowed down. I was sitting near the back, just biding my time and trying to recover from my upset stomach. With about 30 laps to go, I realized that I was starting to find a groove and I started moving back toward the front.I got really excited when with 15 laps to go I was still feeling strong and felt I could sprint the race out. I was sitting around 30th-40th in the field. It was pretty fantastic to be pushing the limits behind UHC and Hincapie. Totally exhilarating! As the laps ticked down, I found that I was stronger than lot of the guys around me because gaps kept forming and I had to bridge across them. With 5 to go, I got gapped for good and missed out on the lead 33-man group. I tried bridging, but I don’t quite have the horsepower of UHC, so that didn't happen.

In the finale, I finished 4th in the second group with a strong 37th place finish. After the race, the announcer, Brad Sohner, gave me a big smile and told me that he had gotten an awesome pic from my ND teammates watching the livestream. I have to say, it was so cool to have family, friends, teammates, and sponsors all watching the race. Mostly, I was just out there having a blast. I haven’t smiled that much racing in a long time. Even with all the pain, it was one grand party. I can’t wait to keep racing for Swim Bike Run, BMC, and all my teammates. The support has been unreal.



Sunny King report
Nick Hand

This weekend the Domestic Elite guys, Grigs, Austin, and I headed down to Anniston AL to race in the Sunny King Crit and the Fort McClellon road race. Because of a cancelation earlier in the year the Sunny King Crit was now the first race of the NCC series. The team was really excited as this was the first time we were going to get most of the "pro" guys together and race against the best in the country.

For years I have been trying to pull together a team like this. I have never thought I would be a top level rider, but I have always loved to manage teams and building one from scratch with Quantum Racing has been a blast! So taking the next step and building this elite domestic squad has been really exciting for me. I could not have have done any of it without a LOT of help from a ton of people. First of those is my wife, I could never do any of the things that I do without her behind me, taking care of me and propping me up when I am down. Next is my team of guys who all have a desire to improve and be something more than what they could be on their own. A few of those guys are now helping me to manage the team as we grow which has been great since there are plenty of aspects of team ownership and management that I am not great at. Last is our sponsors, the people who pay the bills. We have a lot of new sponsors this year who are excited about being a part of something new with a desire to make it to the levels we wish to go. However there is one sponsor who has been there since the very start, Mike Rickey and Quantum Solutions has been there since day one. Not only as a sponsor but as a great friend and mentor. In another post I will go over all our great sponsors but for now back to Sunny King.

Sunny King is hosted in Anniston Alabama. A quaint little town with a lot of amazing history. The host housing we were provided was actually a very important building in the history of equal rights for African Americans in the 20th century. The team headed down Friday in order to get a good start to the day on Saturday. Grigsby did an amazing job with food for the team and had some amazing food for us before the guys got on the bikes to get the 10 hours of driving worked out of their legs. I had to head down to registration to set of a booth for my company TW Carbon and advertise my new product Race Care.

Austin, Grigsby, and I all had races early in the day. Austin had a great ride and looked strong in his race. Girgsby and I didn't do as well as we had hoped, but we were there to help the pro guys set up. When I got back from the 2's race the guys were all in their own stages of getting ready. Some were sleeping, some working on their bikes, others just relaxing. Grigsby got started at dinner for after the race and we got all the ducks in a row for the night's final race.

With the most of the team being NCC virgins we really wanted to see how it would work out. We went in with a plan but we were trying to not have too high of expectations. Mostly we wanted to see the guys give it everything they had and have fun. It is a long season and the key to it going well is all the guys jelling.

 The race started off fast with Uhc sending a rider off the front from the gun. It only lasted a lap but the attacks did not stop. Grant and Shane were sitting pretty good up near the front, Brophy and John were about half way back, and Jesse looked to be struggling from the beggining. He was still recovering form a bad crash the week before so this was not unexpected. Jesse was the first out and John looked like he was starting to struggle. I was starting to worry this was going to be an early night for us. About 20 minutes in Shane was all of a sudden gone from the race. After starting so well the cold weather plaid havoc on his lungs and he wasn't able to continue. Soon after Grant started to have some serious mechanical problems which saw him go to the pits twice, once having to do a cx bike exchange and chase the field for 4 laps. He was able to catch back on but the effort put him too far in the red and even sitting in the field he couldn't recover. His night was over. Brophy and John were the only riders remaining. Now Brophy hanging in there was pretty amazing considering he can only see out of one eye!!! He looked like he was sitting pretty comfortable in the first quarter of the field for most of the race. Unfortunately his night was over with only about 10 laps to go, but I was pretty impressed by what I saw from him. The last man standing was John, as the race had progressed he seemed to get stronger. He was farther and farther up the field every lap. And when UHC went to the front of the field to destroy everyone, John just missed the front group by feet. Just a split second delay he made when he looked behind him while going up the front stretch could have been what did it. But John played it smart and slotted back into the group that did not make the split, which was still a sizable group. He was able to sprint to 37th place, just outside the money, but a great result for his first crack at the NCC.

When we all got back to the host housing Grigsby already had dinner ready. A huge amount of pasta and veggies. A few of us walked down the block after dinner for a couple drinks, and then it was time for bed. We had to be up at 6:30 the next morning for the Fort McClellon road race. This was not going to be fun for me at all.

Grigsby again made a great breakfast in the morning and Jesse had the coffee going when I rolled out of bed. He seemed like he had a lot of pep after last night's ride, a lot more than I had seen him have the last few times I saw him even. Once everyone had eaten their fill the guys got ready and headed out the door to ride over to the staging area of the race, about 5 miles away. I drove over as I was planning on leaving right after the race.

The course was a 20ish mile loop that featured 2 climbs on it. And from a Midwesterner's point of view, they were mountains! The first climb came at the end of the neutral roll out, and that is also pretty much when my race ended. The climb is only 2km long but near the top it gets steeper reaching close to a 20% grade. Even with my 28 tooth cassette that was too much for me. I was able to make it over the top with a couple other non climbers and we chased for a good while, but there was no use really. When we hit the second climb of the lap I pulled the plug and just hit my own rhythm. When I reached the spot where you turned to go to the first climb again, I asked the marshal there which way to get back to my car. I packed up and headed to the feed zone to help feed anyone left in the race.

When I got there it looked like Brophy was between a chase group and the main pack. John and Jesse were in the pack and looked good. Grant was out. I did not get a chance to talk with the other guys about their races as once the race was over Grant, Austin, and I headed home. But Grant struggle from a lack of sleep the night before. He was so pumped from racing he couldn't relax. He was able to hang with the strong climbers the first couple times up the climbs but his energy didn't hold. Austin had a good ride again but was pulled with one lap to go when he was not able to stick with the lead group over the harder of the two climbs. He still had a great showing and placed high in the standings.

It was great to see how we stack up in the big races. We have a lot of work to do, but when you just start out you have to work hard. I know we are going to see a lot of improvement this year. The team is pumped and eager to get in sync with each other. It will just take some time.