Big ups to Mr. Dave Roberts for making the Masters A race so exciting to watch! I’ll admit that I probably would be thanking Devin if I raced for Deadgoat for making the Masters A race so exciting to watch… but I don’t race for Deadgoat so the congratulations are strictly for Dave. Ha! John Clarke hung in there like a tough nut and made his bid for the win which was exciting to see. Dave and Devin would have been pretty frustrated if he did indeed get them at the finish but he was too fried. There was also exciting racing going on throughout the field as a group of 5 guys (plus or minus depending on when you count) including Jan Plavec representing Fiera dueled it out for places 7-12. It was clear that they were all racing to their potential and many of them looked to be dieing a thousand deaths, so who cares if they weren’t going for the win, it was great to watch! A bit further back Joe and Darren from Fiera dueled head to head for much of the race, both challenging one another in just the latest match of a few head-to-heads over the past couple weeks. This time it was Darren out on top. The Master B guys raced at the same time and Mark Rumsey of Hardcore took the win. He likely would have been head to head with the lead trio in the Master A group if he didn’t start a minute back with the more seasoned racers. His finish time doesn’t reflect that but we should also consider that he did need to work his way through the vast majority of the younger category over the course of the race. Overall Master A&B was the race of the day to watch!
The women’s race was great as well but unfortunately we watched Katy fly off the front solo and not have Pepper Harlton there to defend her title and give her a run for the money. The race of the day was Bridget Linder vs. Marg Fedyna, for second, who went head to head for another edition of the season-long battle. A crash in the closing section of the final lap gave Bridget the opportunity to go past and hold on for the win. It wasn’t exactly how we wanted to see the race play out but I suppose it’s part of the game when you’re racing on the edge. If you go over the edge you make mistakes. A slip at the dismount into the sand cost Marg the second step on the podium (Who was racing up TWO categories among the elite women!).
The Elite race was also entertaining as we watched Aaron Schooler blow the doors off the competition. It’s nice to know that the guy is a class act, we discussed it on race day and if we had to watch races against someone who was that good all the time and they had a different demeanor we’re not sure how much we would appreciate the talent. Then there was the late charge by Mack Carson trying to tear the last podium spot away from Matt Krahn… which was indeed super exciting. Matt did hold on which is great to see. He has made huge progress since last season.
The two photos are hijacked from Bill Quinney’s Flickr page which has more great snaps of the other races of the day