Hillside RR 8-22-10
Report by Rick E.
This was a tough race. The 50/60 guys rode as a combined field, as usual; perhaps 10-11 total. The initial (mostly) downhill rip was civilized; old guys are a bit more patient. Then there were rollers and the uphill attacks began in earnest. Shortly before the turn from highway 96 to 97 the peloton fractured on a longish uphill and I ended up with 2 big Landis/Trek guys that I could pull away from on the uphills but they re-acquired me on the following downhills. After a while I gave up and stayed on their wheel. Approaching the turnaround, I saw Bob Pongratz first with one of my competitors (Jim Morehouse from Las Vegas) shortly behind him. Just before the turnaround I saw Ralph Duckett going the other way and at the turn, figured he was about 2 minutes ahead of me. I saw the 4th place guy in my group about 3 minutes later coming toward the turn after I and the Landis riders had already rounded it. At that point I knew the race was set, barring catastrophe. I stayed with the Landis guys until the real uphills began about 7-8 miles from the finish, and then rode away from them to finish 3rd. I was a little disappointed, having kind of hoped to finish 2nd, but the unknown rider from Vegas (Morehouse) was strong, finishing 2nd in the combined group right behind Pongratz.
Report by Elijet (edited by Kurt)
Jim, pistols for 12th in definite style; that sh*t was hard. Your face looked puffy and red, I know from the 4’s that Jim worked hard with Echelon and Landis a lot. Leo and Jeremy: great job. I enjoyed watching my competitors get annoyed and spend some energy catching Jeremy on the massive initial descent as he flew away many times.
As usual, I was worried about the shorter hard power climbs, especially when the other strong riders were drilling the tempo on the penultimate climb. As I got dropped off the back at that point, the group of 22 went down to 10 quickly with me fading back in 11th. I knew I had to stay calm and tempo myself and so, I finished in 7th. The end was exciting though… this dude and another Bike Haus guy were all trying to claw our way back; we work together for not very long, before I dropped the Bike Haus guy, then slowly dropped the other rider, caught Matt P. from Eschelon and Troy Burns.
The point being, had I known those rollers were the final rollers, I would have definitely TT and stayed away from the yellow guy with my lead. But, he was right there with me at the 1k mark and I was determined to win the sprint… With 1K to go, I was drafting, then he was drafting and then he slowed down and I wasn’t into that. I swerved and slammed on the brakes and forced him ahead, got on his wheel and we were side by side for the last 200m. He drifted into my draft and popped back out in the last 30 meters and was gaining fast, looking to win, BUT then ELJET did with the most extreme, ridiculous bike throw ever, and the only one that I’ve ever used – it was so sweet & won by inches to clench 7th (sounds like a clencher indeed- had to leave that one:).
View from the front – The Gladiator – Vic
Different course….same result! booyah!
I attacked the main field halfway up the final climb and bridged across to a small break that had a 45 second gap. I left them behind a mile from the summit and rode solo to the finish. Watch out bitches; I’m a climber now!
http://www.azcycling.com/10cal/RESULTS/hsrr.pdf
