Spring in the Southeast means crits. OUCH Presented by Maxxis sends four fast men for the week.

Oakland, CA – The OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis will be sending just a four-man squad to contest the USA Crits Southeast Speed Week beginning this weekend. But those four riders pack a ton of horsepower.

Leading the charge will be Karl Menzies, who pulled off an impressive 2nd place at the Tour of the Battenkill last weekend, to go with his Sprint competition win at Vuelta Mexico in March. Right along side Menzies will be sprinter John Murphy, who notched wins at the Redlands Criterium and the Long Beach Festival already this year.

The team also boasts another veteran fast man, Canadian Andrew Pinfold, who had an impressive Vuelta Mexico in March, earning a stage win and two more podiums in the eight-stage race. Bobby Lea, the 2008 U.S. track Olympian, rounds out the squad. Lea has quickly found his road legs this season. He spent over 100 km out in the main break at the Tour of the Battenkill last weekend, and was still able to hang in the small front group and contribute after being re-absorbed.

“Even though we aren’t bringing a full squad for these races, we have four really strong guys who know how to race criteriums, and who have plenty of experience with these races,” notes team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo.

The festivities start this Saturday with the 30th edition of the Athens Twilight Criterium, which habitually attracts over 20,000 boisterous fans along the course, many who are students at the nearby University of Georgia.

“People in Athens plan for this race all year,” Murphy said. “Living here, it doesn’t take much to get motivated for it. The course is great and the crowds are awesome. Having lived here for three years now, I know a lot of people in town. So it’s not just thousands of people cheering for the race. It changes things when a bunch of people are actually cheering for you, so it’s even more motivation to pull off the win. I’m pretty excited about the race. I just need to bottle it up until I roll down to the start.”

This year, Murphy’s personal cheering section will also include his parents and sister.

Athens kicks off what will be seven criteriums in nine days. On Sunday, the quartet will make the hour or so drive to Roswell for the Historic Roswell Criterium. Following in close succession is a trio of races in South Carolina – Beaufort, Walterboro and Spartanburg on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The trip concludes with a visit to the Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama on Saturday before a return to Georgia for the Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge Sunday.

“Athens is big for me,” notes Murphy, “but we want to win as many of these races as possible. We have four guys who are really strong and any of us can pull off a win. In a perfect world, we’d get wins for all four of us, but that’s pretty hard to do. But we have a lot of cards to play in breaks, trying different combinations and different guys for the sprints. Bobby and Karl are going really well right now, and Pinner is so experienced he’s always ready on race day.”

Notes

The race for a good start position in Athens actually starts the night before with a series of CompuTrainer races. “They put eight of these up on the stage and program in three laps of the course on the trainers,” Murphy says. “Anyone who finishes in the top eight fastest times gets a call up to the start line on Saturday. Plus each team gets one more call-up as well.

“Anyone who does the competition gets line up first. There’s a lot of motivation to do the competition and get a good time. If 80 guys do the trainer competition and you don’t, that’s a long way back to start and work your way through to the front.”

Murphy won the competition last year.

The Sonny King Criterium isn’t part of the USA Crits Speed Week. It is, however, part of the NRC Series.

OUCH Presented by Maxxis for the Southeast Criteriums:

Bobby Lea, USA
Karl Menzies, TAS
John Murphy, USA
Andrew Pinfold, CAN