2 0 0 1   R A C E  R E S U L T S

Freetown Big Bang

Probably the best part of this race was hanging out with the a great group of people after dragging in off of an unrelenting course. The 13 mile loop was a punishing combination of rock gardens and loose sandy climbs followed by loose sandy front wheel-swallowing descents.

Highlights:

*The bees were out in force -- stinging Adam Bucklin on the head and North Shore Dave on the leg. Dave was stung at the top of a climb after a minor collision with another rider. Dave felt the sting, and started screaming and flailing about. Apparently this is good race strategy as the other rider backed off of Dave, thinking Dave was coming after him for the collision (editor's note: at times the writer of this race report may exaggerate. This, however, is not one of those times ;).

*Adam Codega's great gesture of leaving behind a cooler of Gatorade for the gang after finding out he couldn't get out of work. Thanks Adam!

*Cozy, Chris and Glenn cheering on the riders on the descent.

*Smilin' John Myntinnen making the drive up from New York and riding like a man on a mission.

*Jeff Cutler put on a show in his race, but carried his cell phone with him, just in case Shonny called.

*Latest sign that the Apocalypse is upon us: Two Clydesdales protest the race stating that the times listed on the results sheets for the class were off by 9 minutes. Although this effected none of the placings, they wanted a more favorable time comparison with the rest of the classes (my, this is all getting very serious).

PHOTOS

• I dont' think there are any photos at this time. Maybe on the Yahoo site?

THE RESULTS

Once again Team Rage / Harpoon / International put on a show with 17 racers at the starting line with 2 wins and 10 top ten finishes. Here's the highlights along with some comments picked up after the race.

Beginners:
Andrea Jones - 1st -- Andrea's first question of the officials came at the starting line -- "Are you sure that starting all novice women with the Clydesdales is a good idea?" Response, "That the way we're doing it." Not 15 seconds after the start, a crash stacked up women and Clydesdales (those poor women). Guess those officials should listen up. Andrea avoided the crash and never looked back, taking the win in 1:46. Andrea tried to catch the Clydedales on the fire road to the finish but found out not only are Clydesdales inhumane creatures that just get in the way, but that they are fast!! ha.

Jeff Cutler - 7th -- Jeff was so psyched about his performance that he can quote you his finish time to the 100th of a second (he really had a great race). After the race, he insisted on drinking Sobe (just in case Shonny stopped by). If fact, he'd appreciate it if everyone drank a whole lot more Sobe.

Max Saunders - 11th -- Big Max wisely talked his buddy Matt Potter into upgrading to Sport so that he could take the beginner class schwag to himself. Max raced a strong race despite all of the sandbaggers in his class. Max reports his next project is to talk Matt into giving him his Merlin ("Come on Matt, this Specialized is so fast and it actually has paint on it -- can't say that for your Merlin, now can you?")

Jim Urbine - 16th -- Jim felt much better than he did at Mt. Snow, took the descent like a pro and whipped around the course in 1:42 -- "It was tough, but I had a blast and felt great out there."

Tom Walker - 20th -- Tom reports that his Sugar used every ounce of its suspension as he frantically chased after Cutler. Unlike Mt. Snow, derailleur explosions were kept to a minimum. As the world spun after the finish, Tom wisely sat down, had a Sobe (much to Jeff's approval) and entertained the Rage team with various and sundry Cutler stories.

John Myntinnen - 22nd -- Our favorite New Yorker drove up, pre-rode, never stopped smiling and finished in 1:47.

Sports:
Tristram Langford - 16th -- Our favorite Kiwi actually came off the course smiling (that's saying something after riding a hard tail around the 7th level of hell for 26 miles). He too had a great race, felt great about his finishing time and even better about talking Andrea into being his chauffeur for the ride back.

Francis Blesso - 18th -- Right behind Kiwi, Francis kept his good mojo going from the Mt. Washington Hill climb, finishing the two lap race in 2:34. Francis was last seen wandering in search of food as everybody was pretty ravenous following the race.

Matt Potter - 33rd -- Matt cleaned up in the novice class at the beginning of the year and upgraded to sport just in time for 26 mile pound fests. Matt finished in the top 2/3's of the sport class and improves at every race.

Joselle Crandall -- 7th (I think) -- Joselle showed a lot of character finishing this sufferfest. Bonks were the order of the day for many of us, but Joselle hung in there and finished with a smile.

Leo Devellian -- Mechanical. The course swallowed parts of Leo's bike part-way into the first lap. This was a fortunate break for the Sport class as Leo is usually a podium lock-in.

Experts:
Ben Moody - 1; Adam Bucklin - 2 -- An hour and fifty minutes and it all boiled down to a sprint with Ben edging Adam by one second. The crowd went wild. Ragers went wild. Adam attributes the one second difference to the aerodynamic drag of the bee sting on his head. Ben was down two minutes to Adam, but turned on the afterburners on the backside of the 2nd lap. Great race guys! Wow.

Chris Smith - 7th -- Chris sported the California attitude and casually pedaled to yet another top 10 finish. With the cross season just around the corner (look out for his subtle recruiting), Chris is in great shape to close out an impressive mountain biking season over the next month and hop into cross (pun intended) as strong as ever.

Dave Currie - 12th -- North Shore Dave is proving he belongs in the expert class and is starting to put the same hurt on the expert field that he did on the sport class. Despite the bee, this course was well-suited to Dave's technical skills and it showed.

Kalle Karu - 20th -- Like Dave, Kalle is transitioning with great results in the Expert class.

Oh yeah, Clydes:
Jon McNeill - 4th -- Note to self: going out as hard as one can and building a multi-minute lead is not good race strategy. Blowing up half-way through and mixing in a crash-tree combination for good measure and this race began to have more issues than an Oprah episode. Ah, lesson learned.