2009 Skull Valley Road Race
Team Aggress scored two historic victories on August 23rd, winning both the Category 4 and Category 3 men’s road races in closely contested sprint finishes.
The race was held on a hilly 55 mile “out and back” course. The first half was mostly dowhill, with one fast steep descent right before the turnaround. The feed zone was located just past the halfway mark, followed by a rather nasty climb. The rest of the race went up a false flat with rolling hills, and the finish was about 600 meters up a gradual climb.
Cat.3
The break: Jeff Herrera(Procon/Carlos O’Briens Racing), Michael Puchowicz(Aggress), Robert Chorost(Syncardia), Paul Kealey(Summit Velo)
The Cat.3 race was dictated by an early 4 man breakaway containing men from 3 well represented teams . They were away and out of sight not more than 10 miles into the race. The gap hovered around a minute for about 20 miles, but by the top of the climb after the turnaround attacks from the peloton had cut the gap in half. Once over the hill the main field relaxed, and the gap began to grow again.
Neil Becwar(unattached) attacked the peloton when the gap to the break was at around the 45 second mark, and managed to bridge across solo. At the same time, Summit Velo’s man in the lead group popped, and drifted back to the main field. With Becwar in the break the gap opened up over the minute mark again. Summit Velo, now not represtented in the lead, took control of the race and turned on the pressure in the peloton. With the time gaps tumbling down Becwar attacked the break in a last ditch effort to take victory. Only Team Aggress’s Michael Puchowicz stayed with him, but after over 2 hours in the wind and with a strong sprinter in the peloton behind, he would not help Becwar.
The break was caught inside the last kilometer, and Victor Riquelme showed off his speed, winning the race by half a wheel over Procon’s John Cavner.
Cat.4
The Cat.4’s started off calmly enough, but on the steep descent before the feed zone a high speed crash in the back of the peloton took about 10 riders out of the race. By the time the race was over the climb after the feed zone the peloton had been split up into small groups of riders struggling to survive. A general regrouping occurred on the flats, and Team Aggress’s Elliot Anderson worked hard, chasing downs moves and fighting to keep the field together for fast teammate Khris Dodge.
On the finishing hill Elliot gave all he could to get his sprinter into good position, and Khris unleashed a ferocious sprint in the final 200 meters. He crossed the line unchallenged.
Cat.5
Aggressor Jim Averill missed getting into a decisive split on the climb, and finished 9th in the Cat.5 race.
Masters 65+
Rick Ellwanger got dropped from the 65+ group on a climb on the way out, and barely survived a very close call with a car driving on the wrong side of the road on the descent before the feed zone. He finished 4th in his category.
Disabled List
Kurt Garbe and Jeremy Wilson were both wounded with broken hands, but still came out to the race to support the team on the road. They are awesome.
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2 Responses to “2009 Skull Valley Road Race”
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Khris, congrats on the cat 4 win. Nice comments on the video clip. Apparently this “small puny ass dude” was good enough to give you a killer lead out for the win.
Great write up gang! Hope you all had a great time and looking forward to see you at future events.