From:"Edward Peterson" <edwardpeterson@hotmail.com
Well, he did it again. Ryan makes it 7 for 7 with an epic win at one of the premier races on the east coast, the Battenkill Roubaix. To set the stage, this is a 55 mile road race with 8 miles of dirt roads in upstate New York; lots of climbs, lots of 50 mile an hour downhills, a brutal race under any conditions. The race drew over 1000 entrants on pre-reg, the cat 4 sold out (125 spots) in 4 days back in December. Add in a weeks worth of rain that turned the dirt roads into a quagmire and you get a feel for what these guys were in for. We had Dennis in the cat 5 45+, Richie in the cat 4, Anthony in the cat 3, James Flaherty in 40+ (the guys didn't see him up there, did you make it James?), and Ryan in the under 35 cat 5. I'll report back when the full results are in, it's probably gonna take a day or two to sort it all out, I'm guessing there were racers comin' in every which way. Dennis finished somewhere in the cat 5 field as did Richie in the cat 4 field; I'm assuming that just finishing this race is something of an accomplishment. Anthony busted his bike at the 10 mile mark, ending his day. All in all a pretty brutal day.
So Ryan apparently crashed on one of the downhills and ended up in a ditch at the 12 mile mark. He lost both his water bottles and rode the next 10 miles on his own to catch the group. From there about half the field (20-25 guys) started to put time on the rest of the bunch and that became the winning group. Ryan attacked the pack with 5 miles to go and solo'ed in for the win, I believe about two minutes up on the bunch. So Ryan wraps up cat 5 seven for seven and moves up to cat 4 for next weeks race at Lower Providence.
Congratulations to all the guys that finished that race; sounds like a real classic. I'll get out the final results, they should be posted on bikereg sometime in the next day or two.
As for other racing action this weekend, the "B" team decided to head out to Mt. Joy for some road racing action against those Pa climbers. I was scheduled for the 50+, Dirty Dave and Mark were doin' the 40+, and Caleb and Bob Jaggard entered the cat 5. Now I have a general rule when it comes to racing that I don't enter anything that has a "Mount" or "Hill" in the name( like Turkey Hill or Mount Nebo), it never ends well. But with Marlton being canceled due to the impending storm I decided I had to race somewhere this weekend, and this was my best shot. Besides, it's Mt. "Joy"; it sounds cheerful enough, how bad could it be? Plus I figured with Marlton canceled the Pro Pedals ride would probably turn into a war (which it did with Eric, Bob Jansen, and the rest of them goin' at it); and I figured it's 50+, I'll be okay. And I had the "25" on the back, that'll get me over the hills.
I really love the race descriptions from the Lancaster race promoters, they called the course "rolling". That's western Pa talk for hills that you can barely walk up. So me and Dave make it up there, Mark comes flyin' up 30 minutes before the race(business as usual). I'm scheduled for 23 miles, 4 laps; Dave and Mark are doin' 29 miles, 5 laps.40 riders in each field. Our race started pretty easy, the first several climbs I felt real good; started thinking I might have a chance.About half way in there's a pretty nasty climb, and that's when the big guns started to turn the screws. I made it through the first lap with the front bunch, but I knew the end was near. The next short climb I was popped and I shifted into Mt Nebo slow motion time trial mode. So I ended up finishing off the back, passed a few stragglers along the way, and came in 27th. About what I expected.
Dave faired much better, I got to see the end of his race and he finished real strong. In the final sprint a group of five came in about 50 meters ahead of a small bunch of 20; with Dave finishing up 19th overall, a decent finish against the 40+'ers. Another note, lest you think the 50+ group was docile, they came with-in 100 meters of catching the 40+ group. Of course we did one less lap, but still pretty impressive. Mark unfortunately had his knee swell up on him, probably the result of trying to push a 42 - 21 over those climbs, so he pulled out early before he did any real damage.I didn't get to see how Caleb and Bob made out, I'll do a follow-up after all the results are in for the weekend.
In duathlon/triathlon Steve Smith took third in his age group at the
Wildwood Duathlon today; I'm sure he'll be checkin' in with the details.
Nice job.
So the weather continues to play hell with the racing schedule. Next week
I'll be doin' the Cherry Blossom in Newark on Saturday and Lower Providence on Sunday. Anybody who's racin', start checkin' in. I think Eric is going to Rahway (LP is a late start for the 1/2/3).
See ya all soon.
Final results will be on bikereg in a day or two I'm sure, the initial
results from the Battenkill website have our guys as follows:
Ryan Pettit 1st cat 5 U-35 2:43 (of 50)
Dennis Gunn 24th cat 5 45+ 3:22 (of 50)
Richie Owens 75th cat 4 3:03 (of 125)
James Flaherty 80th 40+ 3:14 (of 125)
Anthony Dalicandro (broken bike, could not continue)
All in all a decent showing against the best riders in the northeast under hellish conditions. Buy way of comparison the winning pro time for 75 miles averaged only 23 mph. An excellent job just finishing what sounded like a brutal ride. Congratulations, well done. A coupla footnotes. A rider from one of the New York City clubs, Empire, named Lisbon Quintero ended up second in the pro 1/2 after apparently pulling a "Zabel",started celebrating too soon and got pipped at the line. That'll leave some deep emotional scars for years to come. One of the NY teams, Jonathan Adler racing nailed 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in cat 4. We see these guys at Branchbrook and Prospect all the time; gotta give it to 'em; that's a hell of a result. We'll be seein' them in the 3/4 at Prospect on 4/29; so far it's me, Richie, and Ryan. Could use Stevie Wu and Dirty up there.
Now let's can back to our regularly scheduled program of flat, fast criterium action! Wash off the mud and get ready to race the way we like to race! So far it's me, Ryan,Caleb,Ruben,Mark,Joey D.,and Otto for Branchbrook and Lower Providence it's me, Ryan, Joey D. and probably Steve. Time to bring home some more top tens.
See ya Saturday(or Sunday, or at Greentree)
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