The inaugural Pikes Peak RR over the hills of Brown county was the final race in the spring series. We might now be into summer but the weather was most spring-like with rain in the air at all times with occasional torrential downpours. Given the conditions the turnout wasn’t too bad and Dan Daly took the wise decision to combining some fields as rolling around 50miles in the pouring race with 6 other riders would have made a miserable day even worse! Many of the riders had both eyes on their overall positions so it was that the 40+ event Mike Brauner and Gary Palmer were confronted with significant numbers of Papa Johns and Zipp riders. However our brave Tortugas more than held their own and in a race of few breakaway attempts both finished in the main ‘group’ of 10 or so riders. This enabled Gary to hold on to his 2nd place overall in easily the most competition race division (results are unofficial due to Dan Daly still trying to decipher his results at time of writing!). Hopefully it’ll set up Gary for his tilt at the national title in PA in the next few weeks!
The MAS3/4 squad of Myron Lewis and myself had a bit of good news as the two overall leaders of the spring series were MIA at Pikes Peak meaning Myron had a very real chance of taking the overall title. During the race this became more than likely as his main competition was suffering on the hills whereas Myron was driving the pace whether I looked up toward the front of the bunch. Aside from one 5mile breakaway (featuring Myron) our MAS3/4 and Cat4 group stayed together for most of the race and in the final kick to the finish Myron and I both finished within the top15. More importantly Myrons position was sufficient for him to take the overall spring series title!
So congratulations to all Tortugans who rode throughout the spring. In the 3 categories we focused on, we garnered two overall victories (Myron and Ren-jay- Cat 4 overall) and a top 2 finish (Gary). An excellent haul from the elongated spring series to be sure! Now on to the summer crit season!

Over the Sunday and Monday of Memorial day weekend a band of Tortugans made the trek up to Elkart IN to participate in ‘The Great race’ This weekend long festival of competition includes a downtown crit on Saturday afternoon and then a rolling road race on Sunday morning. The crit course is wide, safe and whereas the racing was competitive a doubling of competitors would have really made the event ‘Great’. The RR in Bonneyville Mill Park is an up and down challenge on a overly sinuous 14mile route that one might think would be amenable to breakaways. However every race on Sunday ended in a bunch sprint but the abiding thought is one of thankfulness that no-one was injured as the route and the especially the finishing straight could be greatly improved upon!

            The prime Tortugan performer was Sarah Rieke who finished second on both days. In the crit Sarah was part of a four girl chase that battled all race long with eventually winner Kendi Thomas of Morris Trucking. In the finale Kendi maintained her advantage but Sarah dispatched her break mates in the kick to the line. The RR also finished in a bunch sprint and once again Kendi took the victory but in fairness to Sarah her opponent is better suited to a downhill big gear sprint!

It was I think a frustrating weekend for the Masters 40+ team of Gary Palmer and Tims Heffner and Davis. The crit didn’t fit to their skills and the due to some confusion over the length of the RR, Gary was priming myself for a last lap assault just as the rest of the field sprinted for the finish line!! Tim Heffner’s final sprint was not helped by the 40+ group sprinting into the Cat 3 squad as they began their final lap! Catastrophe was fortunately avoided but it didn’t help Heffner’s sprint any!!

The Cat 3 crit team of Purvis and Parry rode sensibly in an attacking race and were certainly pleased with a top ten finish by Purvis. The RR squad was significantly bolstered by the presence of Myron Lewis and he rode a great race at the front of the bunch pretty much at all times. Purvis retired after burning his matches early in the race helping the team cause and Parry probably could have finished the event but the recent development of a strangely sore leg meant it was not worth risking the coming weeks. The bunch sprint certainly favored those riders with the large quads yet Myron sprinted to a position around the top ten.

All in all a decent team weekend as we now move onto the hilly St Crispian and Pikes Peak events that finish up the ABR ‘Spring’ Series!

The warm weather, the 446 circuit and the recent end of the school year meant the Wednesday Worlds likely had a season high of riders as approximately 45 riders met at the samples gates ready to do battle over 8 laps of our high speed circuit. The few Tortugans who joined us out at the circuit must have had quite the shock as the herd of riders appeared over the horizon!! Added to about 20 Turtles were a flying group of students about to head off the Collegiate Nationals and also other local luminaries.
Credit must go to all participants as the ride was very safe with no obvious close-calls either with each other or with any passing vehicles! The size of the group really dominated the day as even though the pace stayed high no significant breakaways could form. This was exemplified by the fact the pace at the top of the ‘446 rise’ was sedate on most laps and lacked the usual furious chase from those at the back of the bunch. Into the last two laps, and aside from a brief solo attack from Mike Kehrberg, the group was focused on the finish. Through the final corner and into the last half mile a group of at least 30 riders were still in contention as only Tim Heffner was willing to lead out the sprint. Fortunately the finale was safe and it was the ‘peaking’ Mike Sherer who pipped ‘just starting out’ Karim Abelkader to the line.
It was also great to see so many ladies out on the rider and props to Sarah Rieke who rode near the front for the majority of the ride and seems unfazed by the excess of testosterone all about her! Next week- the Paragon loop.