Before winning the Cat 3 gerneral classification at Elkhorn, Brian had a perfect tuneup at the Montana State Championship road race in Bearmouth. Below is his report:
Gallatin Alpine Sports / Intrinsik cycling team showed up to Bearmouth for the State RR with superior numbers and a plan for aggressive racing in the 1/2/3 field. From the Start of the Race, the action was swift, with attack after attack being dished out from the various teams eager to get someone up the road before the big hill climb where there inevitably be a selection.
After BIG attacks on a few rollers it was apparent that none of the teams thought conserving energy before the climb was the best strategy. On the big hill on the way out to Drummond, there was an attack again starting at the base of the hill which started to fizzle about halfway up. With 3/4 of the hill behind us I gave a slight push off the front, got a gap and rolled over the top with Scott Herzig and Elliot Bassett. We were hanging off the front on the descent, so I went to the front and drove knowing I can descend faster than most, which increased our gap. John Weyrich was able to bridge up solo, and away we went. This was a great breakaway, all the major teams were here. None of the teams would chase, so away we hammered towards the big climb.
On the climb, John Weyhrich fell off the back early as Scott Herzig pushed the pace during the steepest part of the climb. Elliot was the next to go, but was just hanging off the back by 10 or so seconds. I wanted to keep Elliot in the break, cause I knew if he was dropped, NRO would steamroll our break in no time. Scott and I slowed to let Elliot catch back on and rest on the descent as we rolled down the backside towards Helmsville.
At the turn around, we had about 1:30 or so on the field which was largely intact which made me very nervous. I went to the front feeling good and hammered up the road towards the pass as hard as I thought I should, trading pulls with Scott, but trying not to drop Elliot who was suffering from an asthma flare. Scott and I needed Elliot there till the end!
The descent back to Drummond was awesome, with mach turns and no brakes in a stunning canyon. What an awesome course!!
Towards the end, we were starting to feel the effects of the long breakaway. Could we hold out till the end? I needed to keep the pace high, but save something for the end.
With 2 miles left, the peleton was 20 seconds out. My legs were cramping. I had gone too hard maybe. I sat at the back for a few and shook out the legs, then moved to the front and Drilled it! I would rather be third than spit out the back of the charging peleton which was now 10 seconds away!
With 1k left to go, I sat up, swung to the back, got a brief rest and prepared for the sprint. I figured Scott or Elliot would go at 200m, but Elliot jumped at 300m and caught me by surprise even though I was tucked in behind him! He had a small gap, but that gave me enough room to ramp up and pass him just before the line winning the race! Whew, that was close!
Not many in Montana have even heard of the Early Bird XC race up at Whitefish Mountain Resort. Though it is a non-USAC sanctioned race, it is an annual event and kicks off the summer season at the resort. It's a long drive from Bozeman, but great trails, good friends, and rumors of heavy competition drew us north.
Lisa puts down the power on the 29er
We rolled into the parking lot early and were seemingly the first ones there. Lisa curled up in the Suby for a nap while I fiddled with my cleats. We took a lap of the course, which featured lots of fast fun singletrack and not much in the way of climbing (surprising for a ski area course!). Soon enough the competition emerged. Among the 25 or so in the Pro/expert class were Parsons, Butterfield, Gonzales, Shryock, Grove, Muhlfeld, Kiester, Gue, not to mention a certain Sam Schultz.
The Homestake mountain bike race was this past Sunday, under a hot sunny sky and on a very fun and improved race course. Lots of short steep climbs.
It started as any mountain bike race, at a very fast pace. Guy settled into second place during the climb, and waited for the leader to make a small mistake on the first downhill. Guy assumed the lead and soon realized that his to companions could not downhill as well as he could. That is when he decided to go flat out on the following downhill and push hard through the short climbs. With this, he open up a gap and settled into a comfortable but hard pace. Unfortunately during the second lap, at the bottom of a steep decent, Guy's front tire poped off the rim momentarily and lost some air, as well as spraying Stan's No-Tubes liquid all over the place. Luckily, with the use of a CO2 cartridge, the tire was inflated up to operating pressure and it sealed back up. Just as Guy finished pumping his tire up, second place (Kelley Mattingly) went by, and Guy jumped on his wheel. Once again, Guy put a big effort on the downhill to re-take first place and pushed hard on the next couple of climbs, to open up a gap. The race stayed like this, with Guy taking his first MORS series win, and Kelley Mattingly, in only his second Mountain Bike race and his first CAT-2 race, finished second.
Last Friday June 19th was the Longest Day of Trails. GAS/Intrinsik team members showed up in big numbers to help out in this event that we've been involved in since it's inception. The brain child of Dan Harding from Intrinsik, the event consists of a membership drive for the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. We rode around the trail network, talking to people and leading others on tours. It was a great day and GVLT raised $20K with the help of many generous local sponsors.
Josh Crutcher and Lisa Curry had a heated battle with Pete Behrends
The forecast looked gloomy and we came prepared for brutal conditions but in the end the sun shined and the conditions were perfect. Plus, the discovery race crew had its classic custom-made trophies, sandwiches, chili, and pie to refuel depleted bike legs after the race. I was happy not to be driving home because the food coma hit me like a brick and I snoozed almost all the way home.
Guy Mackenzie surprised John Weyrich (Five Valley Velo) by out-sprinting him for second in the Cat. 2 race.Lisa Curry rode again “in a league of her own” as the only women in the Cat. 1 field, measuring herself against the Cat. 1 men and giving them a good run for their money.Angela Bates represented GAS/Intrinsik proudly for a second weekend in a row with a 3rd place in the Cat. 2 women’s race.Alex Shoenfelder, Josh Crutcher, and I raced in the men’s Cat. 1 field. A notable absence was our own John Curry who suffered an injury a few days ago. He will no doubt be back next week to defend his leader's jersey. He graciously showed up at the race to cheer us on and help with the feed zone.
As we pulled in to the parking lot we saw Sam Schultz's Subary / Gary Fisher team car.Of course we knew that unless Sam had a mishap we would likely be battling it out for second but the opportunity to race with one of the best in the country is always a treat.He did not disappoint, riding off the front early, never to be seen again by any of us.
However, Frank "the Tank" Gonzalez (MT Velo) was not intimidated and took the lead on the first climb, setting a pace that only Sam, Ben Parsons (Sportsmans)and Matt Butterfield (Sportsmans) could match.I started conservatively with sore and (I thought) tired legs but soon realized my legs were better than I expected.I caught Frank about a quarter into the race and soon had Ben and Matt in sight. I caught Ben at the end of the first lap and we rode together for a while but he gapped me again on the steep climb in the woods.I knew it was bad news because he would probably catch Matt, and the two of them could work together on the long but fast dirt road climb.This is exactly what happened.I wasn’t quite ready to give up and I clawed my way back up, catching them near the top.I was frankly quite impressed with myself and decided that if I could do that, maybe I could drop them?
As it turns out, both Ben and Matt mistakenly thought the race was a 3 lap race.So, I attacked, and Matt thought I was out of my mind and let me go.Ben hoped on my wheel and latched on through a few more of my attempts to get away.With a few miles to go I decided to settle in and wait for Ben to make his move around me.Of course, thinking he had another lap to go, he never did come around, and I sprinted all by myself for second.The three of us were equally disappointed that we will never know what epic battle could have been.We’ll never know.But, I felt great about my riding and the apple pie tasted fantastic so we’ll chalk this one up as a success.
Breaking News! Brian "Freight Train" Frykman has won the Elkhorn Cat 3 stage race. His wife Amy has also won the women's Cat 3s. Congrats Frykmans. A LOT of HARD work has paid off. Stay tuned for a race report...
