April 19, 2010

Front Range Series #2, race report from Fuentes


Hats off to Alec and Ann at racepacepromotions.com for offering a cheap, close mountain bike race series for all of us desperate to get some shred on after a cold dark and snowy winter! 25 bucks gets you an hour LT workout and some drool on your jersey, what a deal! Come help support a local promoter who actually is doing this for the racers and not their own pocketbooks.

So to recap from two weeks prior for those who missed the excellent Mtn. Flyer article by photocycle.com man Eddie Clark-

http://www.mountainflyer.com/news.cfm?itemid=353

Front range mountain bike series race numero uno – at the first bear creek Front Range race, with 60 desperate dudes (welcome to cycling) in the Men’s A,

http://www.americancycling.org/results/cross?year=2010&eventId=475&resultsetId=1875

It was sunny, windy and fast and we were all dusting off our racing skills after a long cold snowy winter which left most of us off the dirt for a while. For team Waltworks it was Ezster in 4th in the ladies and myself also in 4th in the boys race behind JHK, who rode from Boulder and was 5 hours in at the start, along with new fisher junior recruit Russ Finsterwald, who is going well early in his pro debut.

This weekend was down from 60 to 30 men’s A racers with the big boys at sea otter at the North Area Athletic Complex off hwy 93. Big Mike West of Maverick and Kelly Magelky from Trek made their debuts and a strong repeat performance by Kevin Kane (Rocky Mountain) made for a good hard day with steep grassy climbs and twisty turns through the taped off field. Kevin Kane was third at the first front range race, and attacked me the last lap going into the big climb leaving me in 4th two weeks ago, so I knew we would be dueling it out a bit at this second race.

After taking out Kelly Magelky at the start by tripping on my own pedal like a true pro (which i do not feel bad about at all, since Kelly, put like 20 minutes into me at King of the Rockies last year, and therefore deserved it), I made a big effort to get to the front before Kevin could make too much ground on myself and the rest of the field. After i got back to his wheel, I sat on for a few laps drooling my brains out trying to recover, and then made the move to the front and rode a good smooth tempo pace for half a lap when I was surprised to look back and see I had a 5 second gap or so. I punched the nitro button and pretended I was Cancellara crushing it in the Roubaix for a half lap or so and put it at 10 seconds where it stayed until 2 to go.

At this point i had maybe 30 seconds or so and could relax a little, and enjoy riding my rad 2009 WW El Jefe team bike to a sweet W number 1 for team FD/WW. Given that Walt’s blog has featured the different build kits in the last week or so, I thought it would be fun to run a few posts on what the team is riding, as we have a good diverse group and it might be fun to compare. No podium girls or champagne at the inaugural Front Range Mountain Bike Series, but free bratwurst and fun dirt biking with your pals! Hope to see you all at the next one. Thank’s to Kevin’s dad for the photos –

http://www.summitshots.com/2010-Mountain-Bike/2010-FRMTB-2/11872519_r2PvJ#839790053_NQ7fe