Sunday, August 12, 2007

Town Hall Team Time Trial




For the second year in a row, I was unsuccessful in putting together a 4-man all Loon State team for the Town Hall Team Time Trial. Last year, I rode with Grandstay and we ended up 2nd by just 7 short seconds to Silver Cycling. This year I joined Grand Performance for the day and rode with Dan Casebeer, Charlie Townsend, and John Shishilla.

We had no practice sessions, but I knew Shishilla, Casebeer, and I would match up well. I wasn't sure how Charlie would fair, but I know he is incredibly tenacious. We rode together prior to the start for a grand total of about 15 minutes. We talked strategy and determined our order, then reported to the start line.

This year, there was a strong NW wind which made the going tough on the way out, but super fast on the way back. We gelled as a team almost immediately after the start. Our order was Casebeer, Shishilla, me, then Charlie. It was like clockwork. Our first turn around was a little sloppy, but OK. We flew down to the second turn around, and did a much better job on that one. All that was left was to fight the headwind a couple miles to the finish, and we still had all 4 of us taking pulls.

On the way home, Charlie detached for just a little bit, but came right back. Casebeer took the final pull into the finish, and Shishilla and I wound up the sprint for the line. Unfortunately, we gapped Dan a little, and he trailed in behind us by maybe a second or two. Charlie rolled in just behind Dan. What a great team effort, especially having never ridden together until today.

Shishilla and Casebeer were as strong as I had anticipated, but I was even more impressed with how Charlie rode. Job well done boys.

In the end, we won the age 160+ category, but came up just 1 second short of the overall, which was taken by Flanders. Silver Cycling attempt to defend last years title was thwarted by a sick Aric Hareland, leaving them to start with only 3 (Timmer, Homme, and Flood). They finished with a fast time, but dropped Flood in the process. Here are the results with teammates names if I know them.

Results:
1. Flanders (Scott, Woell, Froemming, Zimmerman) - 54:58
2. GP (Casebeer, Shishilla, Townsend, Cullen) - 54:59 (1st 160+)
3. Brones (Brone, Niles, Suntgen, Whyte) - 55:17
4. Grandstay (Casper, Jacobs, Koeneman, Paulson) - 55:35
DQ - Team Hollywood (Timmer, Homme, Flood) - 55:54 (Only finished 2 riders).
5. Birchwood (Maxwell, Hiebert, McDonough, Lockwood) - 56:43
6. Silver Cycling (Abery, Stein, Herbert, Bruininks) - 57:07 (2nd 160+)
7. Achtung - 58:25 (3rd 160+)
8. Silver Cycling 'D' - 59:31
9. Silver Cycling Dream Team - 1:00:08 (4th 160+)
10. First Light - 1:00:27 (5th 160+)
11. GP - 1:01:16 (6th 160+)
12. Buelter's Beauties - 1:01:27
13. AUC - 1:01:51
14. Ragtag - 1:06:31
15. Swiss Missile - 1:13:45

Official Results

Last Year's Results

The composite team going by the creative name the "Woodettes" won the women's division (pictured below).


Here is a shot of Pmax giving the circus bike a whirl. Jordan rode the thing all the way from registration, to the start line and back. What a nut. Thanks again to Julie for hanging with him again today.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One second! If only Charlie would have done what he does best-- and that would have been a sprint over the finish line!
Very impressive team work!
Sherry
The car wrecker.