Keough wins Spartanburg round of NCC

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The Friday Spartanburg, South Carolina nightlife was ratcheted up a notch with the arrival of a National Criterium Calendar (NCC) event. The downtown played host to the Spartanburg Regional Classic with the professional men racing for 70 laps on the rectangular one-kilometer course.

Coming out of the shadows Jake Keough (UnitedHealthcare) launched off his leadout man Robert Forster and took the victory over Carlos Alzate (Team Exergy) finishing in second and leadout man Forster holding on for third.

Because this was an NCC event, the UnitedHeathcare squad was making an appearance as they were chasing the overall series win. In addition to the boys in blue, the usual suspects were lined up in Spartanburg: Kenda/5 Hour Energy p/b Geargrinder, Team Exergy, Competitive Cyclist and Wonderful Pistachios.

With just 12 laps in to the race, a massive crash on the backside of the course sent about 40 of the 125-rider field into the pit. Because the road was choked with riders walking to the pit the race was paused for safety reasons.

Once the race was restarted, the prime bell was clanking with regularity, but breaks weren't sticking.

On the 30th lap, another huge crash, this time on the home stretch, forced the officials to pause the race once again and restart the group as riders were in the pit swapping wheels and straightening bars.

The corners of the course were illuminated by floodlights and the home straightaway was lit with ambient light from the street lamps causing patches of shadows. Also, the road pinched inward, narrowing the finishing straightaway which was blamed for this second crash of the night.

As a result of the second restart, the veteran riders went to the front and drilled the speed to keep the field strung out.

By the midpoint, the top riders started to make their way to the front with UnitedHealthcare making an appearance.

That didn't stop Kenda/ 5 Hour Energy's John Murphy from striking out on his own to gobble up several cash primes. However, with every lap, Team Exergy slowly ate into Murphy's lead.

Finally with about 20 laps remaining, Murphy was caught. Riders continued to launch off the front to grab the cash primes, but it looked like Kenda/5 Hour, UnitedHealthcare and Team Mountain Khakis were setting up their trains for the field sprint.

With two laps to go, the blue kits of UnitedHealthcare took over control at the front looking to launch their sprinter Jake Keough.

On the bell lap Brad White (UnitedHealthcare) lead the field across the line with his teammates in tow.

Blasting around the corner it was no surprise to see the blue train of UnitedHealthcare first. Keough jumped from behind his teammate Forster with 100 meters to the line to take the victory.

"The racing in Europe is really hard but when you come here, it jogs your memory of how fast it really is and how good the competition is," said Keough.

"Usually this is an easy one, but it wasn't! Everyone was willing to race which made it hard and fast.

Keough explained the team's strategy.

"It was a little different than what we usually do of taking it from a long way out. Exergy and Mountain Khakis were riding really well, but we had five guys here and we went over the top with two laps to go."

What's remarkable is that this squad had just returned from Europe about 20 hours earlier so they were struggling with the effects of jet lag and fatigue of international travel.

In about 10 days, Keough returns to Europe for the Tour of Belgium.

Carlos Alzate (Team Exergy) leads the USA Crits series with two races remaining.

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