It was beautiful to watch, not only as a racer in the heat of battle, but as a fan of the sport and of TPR. You ask what? 5 podiums in three races with first place wins in all of them with two second places as well as several top 10’s. And by the way, that was just the first day on Saturday!
Yes folks, TPR showed up this past Saturday with one goal, to bring the battle to all the teams out there, including the Z Motion juggernaut, and that’s exactly what happened. In the Masters 35/45+ race, Jose Hernandez, Peter Carlos and Israel Vera took on the rest of the field in a very fast circuit race which had all the top teams represented, including Z Motion and TPR. It was a case of who’s turn with every attack. Z Motion tried at every opportunity to send someone off the front with hard attacks and each and every time, TPR would cover and counter. You could see their frustration as what up to know had been a dominant season for Z Motion, had quickly shifted in just one race. No longer could they control the race for TPR was ready and able to respond. In the end it was TPR that took the battle to Z Motion when Israel Vera, in what now is considered “the move”, took a flyer with 500 meters to go and left the rest to react late and not be able to catch him on the final sprint. Israel gapped the field and came in with 20 meters to spare and saw Peter Carlos take second and Jose Hernandez sixth as they all came to the line with no separation between the best of the rest but hundreds of a second.
The CAT 4’s had Tomas Velez at the front of the race for every lap not falling below 5 places, but in the final lap was not able to sustain a very difficult pace towards the finish. It was a great effort by our young and rising star and certainly used that experience to help him for the following days race where he placed 6th in the long road race.
Finally, in the CAT 3 race, Jose Hernandez, Peter Carlos, Mateo Zuluaga, Israel Vera and Fernando Garcia came together and once again proved why TPR is the number one CAT 3 team in Florida. Nothing was more telling than what happened during the race when one racer asked Peter Carlos, why isn’t your team chasing down some small break that had formed, and Peter very wisely and almost prophetic responded, “cause we are busy winning the race”, and how true that was. TPR controlled the race at every turn, every attack and had one and two racers going off the front forcing the peloton to chase throughout the race. In the end, TPR formed the green train for the lead out with the conductor, Israel Vera, leading the way. Israel had Mateo on his wheel followed by Sheriff. Peter Carlos took to the front and raised the pace to string out the peloton. Israel came hard on the left as the main group pressed to the right and Sheriff gapped Israel and Mateo for two seconds. They were off!!! Sheriff jumped and opened a gap with Israel and Mateo in sight and the peloton charging hard behind. The lead out was at over 37mph and Mateo had just enough to come around Israel as Israel screamed, “dale Mateo”, to take first place with Israel in second. The charging peloton swallowed Sheriff in the final 10 meters for 16th and saw Peter taking 6th and Fernando Garcia just a few seconds behind in 24th. That was no doubt the best team effort of the year and hopefully the roadmap for the rest of the season.
In the Junior 17 – 18, Mateo held on for a 4th place finish to cap off a great weekend where he had two 1st places and one 4th place. Finally, in the CAT 3 race on Sunday, Fernando Garcia was left to deal with the Pro 1 2’s as both categories were combined. Fernando did a great job of remaining in touch with the main field which is never easy to do, and came in for a great top 20 finish in 18th. Great job Fernando!
Great job to all the racers and thanks for your time and effort!
The Sheriff
Yes folks, TPR showed up this past Saturday with one goal, to bring the battle to all the teams out there, including the Z Motion juggernaut, and that’s exactly what happened. In the Masters 35/45+ race, Jose Hernandez, Peter Carlos and Israel Vera took on the rest of the field in a very fast circuit race which had all the top teams represented, including Z Motion and TPR. It was a case of who’s turn with every attack. Z Motion tried at every opportunity to send someone off the front with hard attacks and each and every time, TPR would cover and counter. You could see their frustration as what up to know had been a dominant season for Z Motion, had quickly shifted in just one race. No longer could they control the race for TPR was ready and able to respond. In the end it was TPR that took the battle to Z Motion when Israel Vera, in what now is considered “the move”, took a flyer with 500 meters to go and left the rest to react late and not be able to catch him on the final sprint. Israel gapped the field and came in with 20 meters to spare and saw Peter Carlos take second and Jose Hernandez sixth as they all came to the line with no separation between the best of the rest but hundreds of a second.
The CAT 4’s had Tomas Velez at the front of the race for every lap not falling below 5 places, but in the final lap was not able to sustain a very difficult pace towards the finish. It was a great effort by our young and rising star and certainly used that experience to help him for the following days race where he placed 6th in the long road race.
Finally, in the CAT 3 race, Jose Hernandez, Peter Carlos, Mateo Zuluaga, Israel Vera and Fernando Garcia came together and once again proved why TPR is the number one CAT 3 team in Florida. Nothing was more telling than what happened during the race when one racer asked Peter Carlos, why isn’t your team chasing down some small break that had formed, and Peter very wisely and almost prophetic responded, “cause we are busy winning the race”, and how true that was. TPR controlled the race at every turn, every attack and had one and two racers going off the front forcing the peloton to chase throughout the race. In the end, TPR formed the green train for the lead out with the conductor, Israel Vera, leading the way. Israel had Mateo on his wheel followed by Sheriff. Peter Carlos took to the front and raised the pace to string out the peloton. Israel came hard on the left as the main group pressed to the right and Sheriff gapped Israel and Mateo for two seconds. They were off!!! Sheriff jumped and opened a gap with Israel and Mateo in sight and the peloton charging hard behind. The lead out was at over 37mph and Mateo had just enough to come around Israel as Israel screamed, “dale Mateo”, to take first place with Israel in second. The charging peloton swallowed Sheriff in the final 10 meters for 16th and saw Peter taking 6th and Fernando Garcia just a few seconds behind in 24th. That was no doubt the best team effort of the year and hopefully the roadmap for the rest of the season.
In the Junior 17 – 18, Mateo held on for a 4th place finish to cap off a great weekend where he had two 1st places and one 4th place. Finally, in the CAT 3 race on Sunday, Fernando Garcia was left to deal with the Pro 1 2’s as both categories were combined. Fernando did a great job of remaining in touch with the main field which is never easy to do, and came in for a great top 20 finish in 18th. Great job Fernando!
Great job to all the racers and thanks for your time and effort!
The Sheriff
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