Another hot, dry and dusty weekend in Colorado for the duo of Cyclocross races on September 25th and 26th. No mud. No rain. No cold. No snow. . . . yet!
Saturday kicked off Race number 1 of the 5 race Boulder cyclocross series. It was held at the Xilinx facility near Longmont, and was very popular as there were almost 450 starters. Five racers, and team photographer Annette Hayden, were out there representing our team. Green Mountain Sports racing team member Tim Miller finished 11th in the Cat 4 race:
Pieter Schouten and Mike Schaub raced in the 45+ race with Pieter placing 27th and Mike finishing in 35th place:
Rod Yoder, who won the 45+ race, posted a video clip that he took of lap 1 of the race. Gives you a good feel for what racing cross is like (without the high heart rate). Check out the crash too!
In addition, Peter Lopez and Blaine Haskell competed in the 35+ race with Peter finishing in 24th and Blaine in 28th place:
Alpha Cross #1:
Sunday the 26th saw the ACA Cyclocross circuit pay a visit to the City of Centennial Civic Center grounds, and round 1 of "Alpha Cross." The race was put on by the Alpha Bicycle Team and included a whole host of categories and classes of racing action. Our team had three riders out there on this hot and sunny day. When the racing was completed, Craig Hofer took his second consecutive cyclocross win with a victory in the 45+ race! Finishing 5 places behind in 6th place was Pieter Schouten. Green Mountain Sports racing team's Ed Tokarski kicked-off his cross season with a 14th place finish in the 35+ race at Alpha Cross.
Pikes Peak Velo Cross:
The weekend of September 18th and 19th was another busy one with two area races. Saturday kicked things off with the Pikes Peak Velo Cross down in Colorado Springs. Hardcore crossers Blane Haskell and Mike Schaub made the trip south for some dry and dusty racing. Blane took a 3rd place in the 35+ race and Mike finished in 16th in the 45+ race.
GMSV Lookout Cross:
Then on Sunday September 19th, cyclocross came to the metro Denver area for the first time this season with the GMSV "Lookout Cross." Lots of racers were chomping at the bit to begin their season, as the race drew more than 425 starters in all of the various categories. Temperatures were steaming hot and so was the racing.
This was the season opener for most of the Green Mountain Sports racing team of ten riders. It was a great day of racing for the team with some members just shaking off the rust, some honing their form, and all enjoying the close-to-home cyclocross racing.
Pieter Schouten navigates a barrier under clear blue skies.
Jim Hebert stays grounded over the small rise.
While Todd Reisinger catches some air with his Santa Cruz Blur mountain bike.
Speaking of mountain bikes, Craig Hofer won the 45+ race, competing on his full suspension mountain bike no less. Chris Phenicie also competed using his mountain bike and finished 5th in the Open race! Other finishes included Blaine Haskell in 18th, Peter Lopez in 20th, Pieter Schouten in 22nd, John Wahl in 25th, Todd Reisinger in 30th, Chris Shamis in 34th and Mike Schaub in 37th. (Racers were competing in various different categories).
Steamboat Cross:
The 2010 Colorado cyclocross season kicked off with the Steamboat Springs cyclocross races on September 11th. Tim Miller wins the prize as the first Green Mountain Sports racing team member to do a cross race this year, as he was there for the season opener. Tim finished in 2nd place in the 35/45+ Cat 4 race, a great way kick things off!
Copper Cross:
Then, on Sunday September 12th, Tim traveled to Copper Mountain for the Copper Cross race. Both Tim and Mike Schaub entered the "C" race at Copper representing the GMS racing team, with Tim finishing 4th and Mike finishing 14th.
Mike made the trip to Copper from Breckenridge where, earlier in the day, he completed the Fall Classic mountain bike stage race (and finished in first place no less). Mike did 4 races in two days over the weekend, 3 mountain bike races and 1 cross race!
Fall Classic MTB Stage Race:
The 9th and final stop in the Mountain States Cup series for endurance racers was the Fall Classic Stage race in Breckenridge, which took place on September 11th and 12th. The origin of this race dates back to the mid 1980's when the sport of mountain biking was just beginning.
Over the years, the small local Summit County mountain bike race grew to be the first mountain bike stage race in Colorado, and a key stop on various mountain bike race series schedules. Many of the sport's greats have competed in the Fall Classic including Tinker Juarez, Risi Grewal, Travis Brown and other mountain biking legends.
The 2010 edition of the Fall Classic consisted of three stages; a circuit race, a hill climb time trial, and a backcountry XC race. Organizers offered racers the opportunity to compete in any of the stages individually, or to do all three stages for the overall general classification competition.
Mike Schaub opted to do the whole enchilada and entered the Cat 2 50+ stage race. He was certainly up for the challenge as he finished 3rd in the circuit race, 1st in the hillclimb and 1st in the cross country race. Wow!
That resulted in a first place overall in the stage race for Mike. If that was not enough, shortly after finishing the XC race on Sunday, he headed over to Copper to compete in the Copper Cross later that afternoon.
Green Mountain Sports racing team member Pat D'Innocenzo chose to focus his efforts solely on the Fall Classic XC race on Sunday. The Pro and Cat 1 cross country race course was a tough one as it was more than 32 miles long. It included climbs with over 5,400 feet of elevation gain, a sizable creek crossing, nasty technical descents, and miles and miles of sweet singletrack. Pat finished on the podium in 2nd place in the Cat 1 (50+) XC race at the Fall Classic.
Winter Park Pursuit:
On Saturday September 4th, the Mountain States Cup series visited the Winter Park resort for the first time. The "Winter Park Pursuit" was the 8th race in the 2010 schedule, and included competitions for downhill, short track, super-D, dual slalom and cross country. GMS racing team's Ed Tokarski raced in the Cat 1 40-49 XC race and came away with a podium finish in 3rd. He completed the 25 mile course in slightly over 2 hours. Yea, that's fast!
Steamboat Springs Stage Race:
The second annual Steamboat Springs stage race took place over the labor day weekend of September 3rd through the 6th. This stage race included a Time trial, Circuit Race, Road Race and Criterium over the 4 days. It was quite successful last year and grew to be even more popular in this its second year because of its great courses, challenging terrain and strong community support.
Two Green Mountain Sports racing team members made the trip to Steamboat for the race; Brent Webb and Craig Hofer. Brent competed in the always tough 35+ category and finished in13th overall, highlighted by a 9th place finish in the Criterium. Craig finished in 5th place in the 45+ overall general classification, after taking 2nd in the Time Trial and coming in 4th in the Criterium and Road Race.
No comments:
Post a Comment