The Birds of Prey, the second road race of the 2008 George’s Series, started calm and collected with much of the field looking for Bob’s to open a bag of tricks after the fireworks went off early at the Slammer.  Looming in the distance, a storm was brewing and we were headed straight for it.  As the pack turned right onto Swan Falls Rd, Mother Nature decided to offer up a chance to make things a whole lot more intense.  With blowing wind driving the field into the gutter and rain falling sideways making visibility a lot tougher, the game changed entirely. 

Tad “Captain Cross Wind” Hamilton quickly orchestrated the Bob’s symphony into a fierce force to be reckoned with.  Within a couple minutes of full throttle efforts, the field shattered and the front group consisted of five Bob’s riders (Hamilton, Calvin Allan, Chris Stuart, Justin Rose and Matt Weyen) and Richard Feldman.  After the group developed a bit of a cushion on the field, Stuart flatted and the Bob’s train decided to wait considering the chase group had two Bob’s riders now (Stuart and Erik Slack).  As soon as the two groups were put back together, Allan attacked, taking BODE riders Tim Root and Shawn Mitchell with him.  Shortly after developing a gap, Allan jumped again to go solo. 

Watching from behind, the Bob’s crew put a steady, but easy paced pull to keep BODE in check while at the same time letting Allan open the gap quickly.  With approximately 10 miles to go, the gap was four minutes ten seconds!  With around seven miles to go, Weyen and Stuart attacked the remnants of the field.  Steadily, Feldman brought the two back in and at the same time Weyen broke two spokes which caused substantial brake rubbing.  Once the two were caught, Feldman continued the pace into a cross-headwind that left little room to hide in a draft.  One-by-one, the field popped off the high pace until there were only four Bob’s riders left on Feldman’s wheel at which point he looked around and asked if we were going to pull.  Immediately, the Bob’s riders said yes!  With one kilometer, Weyen’s tire blew from being rubbed on the frame too long. 

Coming into the sprint for second, Feldman started things from around 300 meters out.  With around 200 meters to go, Slack came around for good.  With less than 100 meters to go, Stuart came around Feldman for third.  In the end Calvin Allan won the race by two minutes thirty-seven seconds, having been off the front for well over half of the race!  With three of five races down in the George’s Series, Bob’s riders fill the top three places.