|
|
|
West Side Mountain Bike Series #3
6 March 2005
Report by: Barry Campbell
It was back to North SeaTac for the third round of the West Side Mountain Bike Series. Gorgeous
Spring-like weather greeted us at 7:15am when I rolled up and parked behind Ben and Derik. We
were just finishing getting changed, about to head out for a warm-up loop or two when Becky showed
up as well. It only took one trip around the course to realize a few things. One, my legs were
not the least bit happy about having to do this sort of thing at this hour of the morning,
particularly after doing a road race the day before. And two, even I would be shedding layers
before the race.
It was pushing 60 degrees by the time we lined up. We got our instructions and the field, a little
smaller than the last two races, was off. Ben and Derik led the sprint up the road, and I was close
behind. The guy on the cross bike managed to get there ahead of me, or the race would've been over
even sooner than it was. D got the hole shot, and strategically kept our group of 4 or 5 together
for the first stretch of singletrack, and then let Ben go by. Ben was off like a shot, and quickly
had 100m on D's well-controlled group. As we cruised past the rugby pitch, I could hear the chase
group coming hard. I told D to step it up a little, the rest of the group was gaining. A couple
of guys caught us, but we gained some ground on them and made it on around to the finish line, and
D let me and the cyclocrosser go. I told him "Nice work" and concentrated on keeping the other guy
in my sights.
I tailed him through the course back to the road sprint, and Ben was nearing the top of it when we got
to the bottom. He headed up the road, intent on making up some time, but I could almost hear it
when he popped halfway up the hill. I rode his wheel into the singletrack, then passed him over the
little BMX hump. I semi-chased Ben, mostly just to make sure I convinced him to stay passed, and when
I looked back after a couple of minutes the kid was gone. The next time I looked back, I only saw Derik.
Ben kept up his pace pretty well, my legs had finally warmed up and I felt pretty comfortable, and I had
no interest either in pushing hard enough to catch up or in scaring him into going faster. I was solidly
in 2nd, leading my age group, and the bunnies were 1-2-3. The third lap was pretty much status quo, and
when I came through some of the last corners and discovered Ben's 100m lead had suddenly become 10m, I
wondered if he'd blown. I told him to keep going, D would hold off the rest, but he didn't hear me. I
followed him in, and it turned out he'd crashed on a slick turn about 1k from the finish.
I cruised in behind Ben, and D showed up in 3rd less than a minute later. Becky was a little slower than
she would've liked, but still came in 18th overall, and 1st in her division. It was good to feel like we
worked together well as a team, and sweeping the top 3 places was a nice reward.
Results:
Beginner:
Ben Ulness 1st overall, 1st 19-34
Barry Campbell 2nd overall, 1st 35-44
Derik Andreoli 3rd overall, 2nd 19-34
Series standings:
Beginner 19-34 Men:
Ben Ulness 1st, 21 points
Shawn Larson 4th, 8 points
Derik Andreoli 5th, 7 points
Beginner 35-44 Men:
Barry Campbell 1st, 17 points
Beginner 19-34 Women:
Becky Pittman 1st, 8 points
Sport 19-34 Men:
Wilbur Kelly 8th, 9 points
|
