Mercer Cycling Impresses at Georgia Tech

Adam Hunt
Senior Reporter / Columnist

Having spent Spring Break resting and recuperating, the Mercer Cycling team sped back into action with an impressive showing at the Georgia Tech Intercollegiate.

Racing in the rural suburb of Newnan, Ga., a total of seven riders competed for the Bears in the team trial, individual time trial and road race portions of the event.

Saturday’s early morning session saw Mercer’s team time trial entry of Evan Ayoub, Jason Glow, Kevin Roberts and Andrew Lockwood take first place in the ‘C’ category with a time of 28:16 around the 11 mile course. The team hit top speeds of 39mph on the downhill section before strongly climbing the middle section of the course to finish just over three minutes ahead of North Georgia.

In the individual time trial, the Orange and Black’s Gabe Denes finished in 7th with a time of 32:19 while freshman Alex Lockwood placed 9th with a 34:46 mark.

The afternoon road race shifted to a nearby 8 mile course on which the ‘C’ race consisted of four laps. As a climber-friendly course, Mercer’s riders worked near the leaders for most of the race in the most epic event of the weekend. Gaining more than 2,100 feet of elevation over the course of the race, the peloton of 32 riders was split into a much smaller group of 12 by the end of the race with Andrew Lockwood and Kevin Roberts working with several teams near the front.

Robert’s attack at the base of a steep ladder climb halfway through the race helped set him up for a last minute sprint to the line at the top of a hill to finish 6th. Lockwood then came in just 5 seconds behind the sprint group after suffering from cramps for the last half-mile to register a top-10 finish in 9th. Evan Ayoub would follow up the peloton in 15th, crossing the line in fine style.

“I saw there was a steep climb coming into the race when we drove the course and I wanted to use that climb to my advantage. Out of the two courses, I loved the Saturday course the most because of the uphill finish,” commented Roberts after the weekend of racing.

Sunday’s race proved even more exciting as well as almost the entire peloton finished at the same time. Attacks from College of Charleston, Clemson and Georgia Southern throughout the 33 mile race were unsustainable, setting up the group for a wild finish at the end. Georgia Southern’s Matt Gentry blazed into the lead coming into the final turn. But despite crossing the line first, Gentry was later disqualified for crossing the yellow line on a hill during the final sprint.