Blowin’ Smoke

Last night for the final Blackhawk TT we rolled a short track race instead. The course included most of the trails on top by the east chalet (although it was shortened after input from our racers). After the re-routing and fine chainsaw work by Dean and David (mostly Dean, David’s arms were too wimpy to get the chainsaw started), we found a nice course that would take the fast kids about 4 minutes to complete.

We ran the race in two heats: a “I have a life and don’t spend every waking moment training” category, and a “There’s more to life than riding my bike?” category. The first race ran 20 minutes plus 1 lap, and the second added an extra 5 minutes.

In the first race, Bill Larson (who showed up on his special short track bike with cross tires) threw in a blistering first lap attack that decimated the field. Despite wasting valuable energy ‘clearing some brush on the ranch’ right before the race, Dean Kahl was able to claw his way up to Bill and make a race of it for a few laps. However, in the end, it was tri-geek Mark Larson who displayed some Ironman power and soloed off the front for the victory. Tim Clavette put in a valiant effort to hold on and rolled in in second place. In the women’s race, Samantha Kaplan set a tough pace in the opening laps, with Jen Jones just hanging on, trying to close the gap. They battled back and forth for a few laps before Jen’s WORS experience paid off and she was able to open a gap that Sam couldn’t close (it should be noted that after complaining initially that the race wouldn’t be long enough, Sam tried to quit one lap early. Be careful what you wish for!).

In the second race, the big question was whether David R. would allow himself to get lapped, or if he would display some semblance of fitness and hold off several highly motivated racers (well, maybe just one) who enjoy humiliating David at every available opportunity. The racing started fast and furious, with Sandbagger Tri-Geek Mark Larson (showing that the first race was just a warm-up) blasting off the front of the group. Not being content to be only the second fastest kid on the street, Jerry Long soon pushed Mark into the woods and sprinted past to take the lead, with Ron Knutowski and Ryan Rysewyk close behind. These three battled at the front for a while before Jerry had to stop shortly to fix a minor mechanical problem, allowing Ron to take the lead. Suddenly, Ben “42 flags aren’t enough for me” Neff flew up to the lead group, showing that even getting lost temporarily can’t slow him down. Seeing that a guy in a white t-shirt was about to take the lead was all the motivation Jerry needed to find an extra gear, and he managed to squeeze in just before Ben for the victory. We’ll never know if Ben’s horrible sense of direction and atrocious cycling fashion sense cost him the victory (I hear that white t-shirts cost at least 3 mph in the average short track effort). But of course, the real winner was Mr. David Reddington, who avoided being lapped by about 5 seconds. Nice work David!