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!
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The 40+ race, though ridden conservatively, was hard none the less. I think the weather and teams trying to protect their overall position sapped some of the aggression normally found in this race. The climbs were the only place where any attacking occurred as the speeds were low enough to make it safe in the wet conditions, I figure.
Thanks to every one who showed up to race.
The 40+ race, though ridden conservatively, was hard none the less. I think the weather and teams trying to protect their overall position sapped some of the aggression normally found in this race. The climbs were the only place where any attacking occurred as the speeds were low enough to make it safe in the wet conditions, I figure.
Thanks to everyone who showed up to race.