Winfield wrap-up

Photo by Luke Seemann

With Jordan Heimer (Kegels) off the front of Saturday's Winfield Twilight 4's race, I shouted time gaps and encouragement to the chase group, which included two of my teammates. After the third or fourth update, and after the gap had grown from 15 seconds to 20 seconds to 25 seconds, someone in the pack yelled back: "Save it for your blog!"

Glad to know I'm developing a fan base.

I let the peloton figure things out on its own after that and it never did catch Heimer, pictured above, who after attacking from the gun was assisted by a minor crash that split the field on the second trip up the long climb.

The races were fun to watch, especially in the company of the many enthusiastic neighbors who populated the sidelines. Winfield resident Tim Allen was the ringleader, organizing a party, live music and cowbells aplenty at the top of the hill and donating prizes for King of the Mountain primes. It's a wonderful thing for residents to be this welcoming of cyclists tearing through their neighborhood. I trust racers returned the kindness by keeping lawns free of gel wrappers and nature breaks.

Heimer wasn't the only one to solo to victory: Tom Doughty (AMD Discovery) also did so in the 50+ race, Christopher Sprock (Spin City) of Decatur did it in impressive fashion in the citizens race and Jeff Schroetlin (ABD) ended the day by riding away from the P/1/2 field. Team Get a Grip Cycles had impressive numbers in the 2/3's race, starting with 12 10 out of the 42 and ending up as a third of the 12-man winning break. It was unable to convert, however, with Steven Vandeven settling for third behind Dan Verner (Team Mack) and winner Adam Lesniakowski (Redline). Lesniakowksi, it should be noted, finally tasted victory after coming in second in this race not once, not twice but three times (2003, 2004 and 2005; he got 4th in 2006).

In the women's open race, Susan Peithman attacked out of a two-woman break to win ahead of Devon Haskell (TGAGC).

I didn't make it to Sunday's ABR championships, also in Winfield, but it appears Marek Serafin (WDT) is still in his groove, winning a field sprint in the 3's. ABD again defended its home turf with Joshua Carter (ABD) winning the P/1/2 race. Ryan Baumann (ABD) reports on his blog that a shrewd tactical decision paid off when ABD chose to pull the throttle back on a successful break to prevent it from lapping the field, figuring its chances would be better with gruppo compatto. Carter proved the hunch right.

Obviously there are a lot of local winners so I won't go through them all, but I'll note that Paul Miner (Spin Doctor Cylewerks) won a rainy 4's race in what I believe is the first elite-category victory for this new-ish club. And on the women's side, Emily Hutchins (TGAGC) won in her very first race, being one of only two 4's women to hang with the lead women's open group.

Full Winfield Twilight results. Full ABR championship results.

Winfield Twilight race reports
Ryan Baumann (ABD; P/1/2): "We took the bull by the horns today and attacked time and time again on the hill."

Steve Hansen (North Branch; 4): "It took a keen eye to have any idea what was going on after about five laps."

Seth Meyer (Team Get a Grip Cycles; 3): "It was sort of cool to say, 'I’ll pull up the hill every time. Just help me around the rest of the course!' On the other hand, it was too cocky, snobby and just dumb."

Frank Rowley (Darcy; P/1/2): "Two laps to go and I look for Flora. He has the look of hell on his face. He's about 10th. The sprint and Flora ends up 7th, damn good for a fat guy who rides one time a week."

Jonathan Tenney (Team Get a Grip Cycles): "The one-mile loop was simple and entertaining: You go up a hill, wind down the hill through the lovely local neighborhood, and cross the finish line, and repeat for just under an hour."

Scott Van Maldegiam (Spin Doctor Cyclewerks; 4): "[Heimer] solo'd pretty much the whole race ... He probably won by half a mile, literally. Pretty amazing performance. I am just glad he is moving to Colorado."

Rick Widen (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 4): "The course made the race a half-hour roller coaster ride, ka-chunk, ka-chunk-ing up the quarter-mile climb, then flying thru alternating left and right turns on the way down. "

Melanie Wong (Team Get a Grip Cycles; W-open): "It was great because there were so few people in our race I could rip around the corners like a nut and take whatever the heck line I wanted."

Winfield ABR championship race reports
Ryan Baumann (ABD; P/1/2): "We really didn't want to lap the field since neither of us can sprint to save our lives against a guy like Andy Crater (Wheel & Sprocket)."

Josh Carter (ABD; P/1/2): "The guys never missed a single move and controlled the entire race down to the last lap with Jeff solo off the front."

Ron Cook (ABR; 30+): "Then two riders broke free: one Mack and one Met Life. Something told me right away that I was watching the race leave us."

Eric Goodwin (Team Clif Bar Midwest; 3): "Even in the rare instances when we had even numbers up the road, there was little joint cooperation and the fragile breaks were scattered all across the terra firma."

Seth Meyer (Team Get a Grip Cycles; 3): "My foot must have ended up in some spokes or something like that because I felt like someone grabbed me by the heel and tried to steal it from the rest of my foot!"

Seth Meyer (Team Get a Grip Cycles; P/1/2): "I wanted to close it out on Sunday in the pack and at least know I can hang with it through the bad times and hope that, as I get stronger physically, I’ll have to be stronger mentally next time too."

Paul Miner (Spin Doctor Cyclewerks): "At this point in the race, with the rain coming hard and steady, I decided it was now or never. I swung to the left side of the group at the bottom of the hill and started moving past everyone. Once I knew I was going to get past everyone, I stood on the pedal and gave it everything I had."

Jonathan Tenney (Team Get a Grip Cycles): "The men did their best to establish a race-winning break, but the long downhill and the seeming lack of interest in teams other than TGAGC and TCBM in establishing a breakaway, doomed the field to the usual long and crowded sprint finish."

Winfield Twilight photos
ABD
Sheesh_photo
The Editor

Comments

Posted by: cjb at June 4, 2007 04:00 PM

Posted by: ScottV at June 4, 2007 05:57 PM

Posted by: Steven Vandeven at June 4, 2007 08:11 PM

Posted by: Lee Heaton at June 4, 2007 11:59 PM

Posted by: adig at June 5, 2007 01:30 AM