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The race was put on by NOVA - Jerry Sievert (?) for jerry’s kids.....
A youth cycling group dedicated to building an Arian race of USA cyclists.
As opposed to previously rekindled cactus cups promoted by the same group, this event
was fantastic.
Four days of near flawless execution, at least a half dozen or so Olympic, national and
world champion riders were there.
The pro-men fielded 94 riders! The women's side also had a great field of 58 pro’s.
For the Procon team we had about 4-5 of us ride the three day stage race.
I know that Steve Hughes won the GC in his expert 50+ class. It was a small group, but a
win is a win. Way to go Steve. U-da-man! I can’t accurately report on the others so I will
leave that to them.
When I did see Greg Rogers racing he looked strong.
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Stages
Friday – Time trials day: Having never been in one I sought the advice of some more
experienced riders who let me in on the secret... Don’t red-line at the beginning, but leave
it all out on the trail. So out of the starting house I went at 8:52 am. The course covered
the long loop, an 8.2 mile course with ample rock and rolling hills and an uphill finish for
the last mile or so. As I left the start I kept focused on catching my minute man. A quick
glance at my monitor some 18 minutes into the race and no sign of the “rabbit”
anywhere. Damn, it’s hard to keep hammering when your all alone. Good News though,
no body behind me either –even though I keep hearing sounds like someone is on my tail
- keep hammering... A minute or so later we have the bogey in sight and some extra
energy is found and the chase is on. It didn’t take long to catch the rider as he was
blowing up on one of the three short climbs. Except it wasn’t my minute man, it was my
two minute man. My guy was out there somewhere and I now have but two miles to find
him and make him cry for his mommy. Within the next mile I catch two other riders who
are my three and four minute men but still no minute man. Finally in the last quarter mile
I see my minute man. I can’t catch him but do beat him by 45 seconds. The finish at the
other end of the parking lot that looks so flat is actually a wall when your out of energy. I
get 8th in class in the TT. I am happy with my time for a first time trial, but it could have
been better. I have learned a lot from this one..
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Day 2 – Short Track:Okay, this is my baby now, I have 2 crit races on the road under my belt, so I am ready to
crush this group like a bunch of grapes. It looked so good on paper. I was mentally ready
for this incredibly short 10 minute + 1 lap race, what could go wrong? How about 17
minutes. The race promoter decided to combine the start of all sport riders to “speed”
things up a little. So we had a group of about 40 riders on a tight course run over a
combination surfaces. The Parking lot surface is basically an asphalt like base with a peagravel
covering resembling the Coyote’s Ice den. That leads down into a single track for
about 250 yards where you encounter a sharp, short steep descent with studder (breaking)
bumps. At the immediate bottom to this drop, we make a tight 90 degree right hand turn
onto a service road. This means that you have to be breaking at the crest of the hill in
order to slow down enough to make the turn and not eat the huge sucker bush next to the
turn. The service road is all climb starting with a short steep ascent and leading you back
to the parking lot for another round of “days of thunder”. At the start this guy wipes out
just as we start reaching terminal velocity. He is hamburger on the unforgiving parking
lot and I just miss his buns. Suj, bring the medical kit will ya??? this guys gonna need it.
So I am in the middle of the pack tasting the fresh dust and I have nothing in the legs, the
heart is pounding like my quad espresso just kicked in, and that gives me time to think...
Did I warm up enough since the race is so short?? No time to debate it now, I have a race
to ride so I’ll use my vast experience in road crits...I’ll sit on a wheel and let those
rookies come back to me, after all, they are just hairy legged sandbaggers. I guess
someone forgot to tell them, because they could have ridden a 20” Schwinn with a
banana seats and beaten me.
There was no “pack”, there was no “peloton” just a full out sprint from start to finish. I
won’t even tell you that I thought the final lap was one lap earlier and I shot any
remaining wad I had one lap too early. The story of my life. Final result: 18th of 21.
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Day 3 – The Cross Country Race: Who cares, I am depressed, I am slow. The only reason I didn’t finish last yesterday was
because the three guys I beat were Chinese triplets riding a unicycle. Today I will try a
new approach, my coach calls it a “warm up”. Since I have arrived in plenty of time amid
a beautiful sky that is working its way toward total sunshine, I will continue the trend of
warming up without the “trainer” and hit the trail for a 45 minute spin. I go up to
Pemberton trail and get back in perfect time. 10 minutes to start. but and I’m in the last
line because everyone else got there early while I was “warming up”. The race is going to
meander through the sport loop out on to the long loop and back through the flat parking
lot for another go round on the sport loop. A total race of just 14.2 miles. The race starts
in the parking lot and quickly funnels into a single track so a good start is definitely an
advantage. At the start I hit it hard to try and make up some quick positions and get into
about 16th. They have combined two age groups so there are about 45-60 or so in our
wave. I manage to passed a several riders on the single track and get near the top ten as
the group is now starting to string out out. I have the lead group in sight as the pack is
quickly divided into the haves and have-nots. There is now the lead group of five and the
chase group of five of which I am the tail. The pace is fast since the race is rather short
and I lock onto the wheel of a Titus team rider. He drags me through the long loop at a
time that was probably faster than my time trial time. I managed to clean a technical part
of the course going around four riders who decided to have a get together and picked up a
few more spots. Then I picked off a guy having some ghost shifting issues on the rocky
final climb (I told him about bicycle showcases expert mechanics as I went by and gave
him Dan’s card). By the time we got to the Rocky Ridge – a very rocky descent while
taking a sweeping turn, we were picking off riders from the earlier waves. I managed to
pass two riders in my wave as they go stuck behind a couple of slow moving vehicles that
didn’t like the scary rocks. I passed on the inside and shot them the bird. The race was on.
Now I am in about 6th place and leading the chase group. I managed to gap them a bit
with the downhill pass but gave it all back when I became unclipped due to my foot
hitting a big rock at the beginning of a short steep climb. I sprinted up the hill with bike
in toe and managed to crush the family jewels jumping on the bike at full sprint speed.
Eyes watering, the chase group and I were nose to tail all the way through the remainder
of the loop and through the “flat” parking lot where I succumbed to the Titus rider and
some super cool CA dude.
By this time, we had gapped the rest of the field and the two slowly pulled away from me
over the last three miles for a15 second gap. The California dude flatted about .5 mile
from the finish line. I just laughed as I passed the weaker rider to take 9th in the 35 man
field.
It was a killer weekend. I am more jazzed than ever to train and race more. Thanks for
sharing
-- Dean Henthorn
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