Weekend Recap - June 5th and 6th (Part I)
(Here's hoping this saves when I click publish!) Lots of action this past weekend. Three state championship races were held across IL and WI which will be covered last.
Minnesota
St. Peter Time Trial - Some blistering times were posted in the 40k time trial with the top Pro 1/2 slot being 50:40 by Grand Stay's Ian Stanford. The top 9 Pro 1/2 places were all under 55 mins and even the best Cat. 5 time was 53:40!
Grand Prix of Groveport - Results Photos by Jeffrey Jakucyk. This was a 23 mile time trial that was anything but flat - a very hilly and challenging course. Who would think that with a tough course and chip timing, that the Pro 1/2 event would come down to a tie! Both Andrew Clarke (Panther) and Matt Weeks (Carbon Racing) posted the same time of 49:22 to share first place. Paul Martin (Panther) was third in 50:03.
Michigan
Duck Lake Beach TT - Results - Two laps of a rolling 20k rectangle was won by Nathan Willams in 53:31. Second was Dave Heitikko in 56:23, third went to Mark Hotchkin 57:27.
No results yet out of Indiana, look for them over at IndianaRaceSeries.Com.
Wisconsin
Illinois
Coleta Time Trial (ABR) - Illinois State TT Championships - Results "This hilly course on country roads started heading west from Coleta, half way around you reach the top of the world and a few seconds later you're back down and continue finishing heading south into Coleta. After the race the Fire Dept had a good barbecue for the riders and workers while awards were handed out." Bryce Mead (Tempo Velo) and Leigh Tompson (Vision Quest) are your new IL State TT Champions. Congratulations!
O'Fallun Road Race - IL State Road Race Championships - Results - A pleasing course with hills, tunnels, nice "twisty-curvey" stretches of road it was a rider favorite, but situated closer to St. Louis (1 hour's drive) rather than Chicago (5 hour's drive), this race logically attracted more riders from MO than IL. Interestingly though, the discussion from the MO side is more on center line DQ's compared to the discussion on the IL side which is more along the lines of mud slinging and outrage for having the IL Champ. race so far from Chicago. According to reports, up to a dozen Cat. 4's were DQ'd for center line violations, many denying that they did in fact cross the line. Wild Card Racing has a nice summary of the "No Drop" Cat. 4 race: "The last 10 miles of the race were 10 of the most frustrating miles I've ever ridden. We were going 16-17 mph. The whole group was still together. The group was all bunched up and nobody had any room to move up. I don't know who the hell was blocking the entire race or what the hell they were thinking, but I was pissed. 2000 meters to go, 18 mph. 1000 meters to go, under 20 mph. The last hill should have split the group, but again we took it incredibly slowly. I had no room to move. I had to stop pedaling several times to avoid running into slower riders. 800 meters from the finish line the race started.... ". Project 5 Racing also reports slow races and problems with DQ's in the Women's 3/4 race: "As we approached the 2k from the finish mark, we were neutralized as the P/1/2 field passed - then the guys slowed down, slowed down!!! - just as we were in what should be our critical attack stretch of the course. With the guys jamming up our race, I went by the pace car and said “We gotta go!” to which the driver replied, “I’m not gonna call you on it.” So I took that as approval to go and hit it as hard as I could all the way to the finish line. I was DQ’d for passing the pace car. Disappointing." Luke Seemann (XXX) reflects similar slow racing conditions in the Pro 1/2 field: "Only 22 men lined up for the P/1/2 state championships in O’Fallon, and six or seven were from the Dogfish team of St. Louis. XXX Racing-AthletiCo had me and Dave Moyer, and a hodge-podge of other teams were represented by one, two or three riders. The first of four 22-mile laps was extremely pokey. A Nuvo rider went off solo after about 10 miles. The peloton shrugged. “80 miles in the blazing sun? Ha!” (He would stay away and finish 3rd, a gutsy effort.) Midway through the second lap, three more riders got away, two of them Dogfish. There was no cohesive chase. Dogfish obviously did not want to contribute to the chase, but nor did any of the teams with only one or two riders. None of it was improper or unwise, but it yielded a rather negative race. " None the less, Zach Reed (Dogfish) of Edwardsville, IL wins the Pro 1/2 race and is the IL State Road Champion for 2010. Jessica Prinner (ABD) of Elgin is the IL Women's State Road Champion for 2010. Congratulations!
2 comments:
All of the drama coming out of the other O'fallon fields seems in direct contrast to our experience in the Cat 3 race. We had a solid field that was probably split 50/50 IL/MO. The first lap was slow, but that's expected with so may ahtletes seeing the course for the first time. There was a strong breakaway (with both IL and MO riders) and also an impressive effort to bring it back. Centerline violaitons were few and usually just due to fading riders on the inclines. Sure I'm biased based with the way things worked out, but I honestly feel like we had an aggressive and savvy field that raced up to "Cat 3 standards", a course (and volunteers) that rocked and a clean finish. From a racing standpoint, this event was harder than our local 2009 road championship by a factor of five. Props where props are due - great race Cat 3s.
Awesome. Thanks for that report!
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