Thursday, June 6, 2013

Race number 3!

What a night! It seemed like every racer was having fun, getting big air off the rock drops and pulling wheelies across the finish line. We had a whopping 143 racers during the evening - 21 more than last week! I guess word is spreading about all the fun at Valmont. I'll have to check our racing records from past years to see if it's an all time best. It's gotta be close.

We had Full Cycle grilling hot dogs all night, which were very tasty and very much appreciated by hungry volunteers such as myself. A huge thanks to all of you who raced - we're really glad that so many people are enjoying the races we're putting on. And thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help - course setup, registration, marshaling, grilling, doctor-ing, and cleaning up the course afterwards. We really appreciate the help.

A few notes:

There were a couple of people who did not check in - I recorded some racers whose names and numbers were not on the start sheets. Be sure to check in with registration at every race, even if you're pre-registered and have a number.

We actually have a new waiver that everyone needs to fill out - it includes both the University and the City of Boulder releases on it. You only need to fill it out once this summer, but it is different from the waiver we had the first week. So please check in. Also, take a look at the results to make sure I got you placed correctly.

How the night went down:

Carden King has some new competition in the Kids race, he took 3rd to Luke Kreidl and Dale Boyer. An incredible 21 other kids enjoyed the course too! In the Juniors race, Bjorn Riley stayed with Nolan Stevenson until just before the last lap and managed to get a nice gap for a solid win. Not morally defeated, Nolan slowed down to pop a wheelie for a 2nd-place finishing photo-op.

After a strong win last week, Marina Lepikhina took 2nd to newcomer Brittany Jones, who started out a little slow in 4th, but got her groove and passed a rider in each of the last 3 laps to take the win.

This was the first short track of the year for 8 of our 12 Men's C's. Christian Long and Brendan Lee finished 1-2 with a 15 second gap over 3rd place Michael Bachman. Bachman has won the C's competition in past summers. Are these guys on form to upgrade and fight with the massive B field? The B's had 40 racers, which included a few riders who upgraded from the C's. None of them could keep up with newcomer Maxx Chance. Maxx says he's still looking for his form, but he might think about A's for the next short track. Racing against faster bikers gets you faster too, after all.

Brad Berger, a former CU Cycling National Team mountain biker, was flying through the back end of the B field, doing sub-3:30 minute laps. He couldn't shake Tom Hopper, but did manage to hold on to the win. Tom's 2nd place increased his overall lead over Mark Beaudry, who ended 5th on the night.

Our Women's A field is getting some good attendance now. Nicole Duke and Erin Huck have fought hard in past short track series for the over-all. Nicole was absent yesterday though, so the rivalry will have to wait. Diedre York started out fast, with lap times around 3:40 on the 1 mile course. She slowly let herself drift back towards the end, making sure she's well-rested for upcoming Worlds. Erin Huck capitalized on that and took the win (now tied with Nicole for the overall).

The 29 Men's A's riders were flying through this course, taking risks through slippery turns, and attempting a few passes with alternate lines through the obstacles. Their lap times were around 3:15 for most of the race, led by a group of 5 that included Brady Kappius, Sam Morrison and Bryan Alders. Bryan and Sam were able to drop the other 3 in the final 3 laps. Bryan, who is fresh off of a long rest due to injury, and with a lot of pent up riding energy, sped around Sam on the last lap to take the win by 5 seconds. Sam's 2nd place pulls him within 14 points in the overall of leader Brady, who finished 5th on the night. About 3 minutes after Bryan's win, Kurtis Barth held a very impressive wheelie over the line for 20th place.

We didn't keep count, but we think John Mansell did upwards of 50 laps on the night, who started his warmup during the C's race. We're going to have to keep track next week.



Thanks again for coming out, and we'll see you next week!

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