Harriman 4: Dark Horse surprises the ‘Baggers

Section head text.

Out of the select group of six Cat 4 men who destroyed the field in last year’s edition of the race only one, Petr ‘the Czech’ Huppert, would return to the race still a 4. Along with Mertro Sanchez teammate Norbert O’Reilly and last minute addition Pavel ‘mini-Ekimov’ Samko, he was the favorite.

The first lap established a pattern that everyone seemed happy to follow for the entire race: a good pace was set up the big hill which acted as the selector, and with the exception of a couple of attacks, the rest of each lap was ridden defensively. Most racers were not willing to jeopardize their top 10 or 20 result for a long shot at glory–such is the status accorded to Bear Mountain around here. Norbert ‘what the hell is he doing in the 4’s’ O’Reilly was seen on the side of the road after the first lap, leisurely parking his bike along a fence for a break ‘au naturel’ before rejoining the field. Stopping to chat for a minute or two, he then decided it was time to roll off the front. Justin Reid of Visit Britain initiated a chase but teammate Petr Huppert disrupted it well and not too many riders in the pack were interested in joining him. Norbert was sailing along over half a minute up but by the time he got to the hill he was again seen on the side of the road, this time with a flat that cost him the race. Someone just give the man his upgrade already…

J.M. Turner, (1775-1851). English proto-Impressionist

Though Petr was clearly the strongest climber, effortlessly leading the select group up the pass each lap, the rest of the group was pretty evenly matched and the infrequent breakaway attempts were quickly reeled in. On the last lap the final selection had been made and there were twenty riders left, the visibility was about thirty feet, and scenic Seven Lakes drive looked like a Turner painting of a ship in a storm. A few half hearted breaks were attempted to avoid what was becoming an inevitable sprint finish. The racers themselves didn’t know exactly where they were due to the almost complete lack of visibility, so everyone kept an eye out for the feed zone which came about a 1k before the sprint. When the field finally approached the feed zone people seemed to emerge from the thick soup like apparitions reminiscent of the fog scene in ‘Apocalypse Now’.

In the end when it was clear it was no longer going to be a climbing contest Pavel made his move. Attacking a few hundred meters from the line with about twelve guys in tow, he initiated a hairy sprint that featured lots of braking and elbowing and resulted in two crashes. Canny David E. Burns of Foundation saw a hole and pounced to pass Pavel at the line, with the rest of the field skittering in behind him shoulder to shoulder across the road. Petr, who has placed top six in this race for something like five years in a row, rounded out the podium in third position. Congratulations to a brave and humble champion, I’m sure we will being hearing more from him soon.

Photos courtesy Marco Quezada.

(By the way, anyone notice that three of the winners on the day were Burns, Byrne, and Boyle?)

27 Comments

Jay

Thanks to Davie Burns wife, who bought him the winning Zipps days before the race. With all due respect to David, she is the true Champion – a model for Club wives everywhere.

Aaron

In hindsight I have to say that this felt more like a 5 race than a 4 race. I didn’t talk to Petr or whoever wrote this, but I have to wonder why, if Petr was so clearly the strongest guy up the hill exhibiting no effort, he thought it was OK to bring so many people along with him? It seemed to me that Metro was the strongest team (a shame about Norbert’s bad luck) but at the times where the race was soooo slooow (10 mins slower than the masters!!) they had no interest in driving the pace. Neither did any of the other teams, for that matter. Why make it any easier for Samko who seemed to be saving it all for the sprint? I think I rolled obliviously off the front on the last lap at some point, but not in a halfhearted breakaway attempt, I was only trying to get the pace up above 20mph. My mistake was thinking to myself that with no teammates in the race I had no business being on the front. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing, even the teams. Lessons learned: be more aggressive, pay attention to individuals not teams. Agree? Disagree? Advice?

Alex O (NYVC editor)

Petr didnt write the article, after the race he said he wasn’t feeling that well so he didnt want to take any chances, though he did try and bridge up to Norbert solo at one point if you’ll recall. I definitely agree with your point that the non-sprinters let some tired looking sprinters off the hook on the last lap by not attacking. However if the race is slow that doesn’t necessity mean you should go to the front and work for the hell of it, you should have a purpose for doing it, read Oscar Pinetas article on this site.. Of course with more advanced team tactics and teammates concisely working for other riders it certainly would have sped things up, but hey that’s Cat 4 racing we are learning as we go.

I also want to make it clear that we are not accusing very strong Cat 4 riders like Norbert and Petr of intentionally sandbagging, it’s only due to circumstances that they haven’t upgraded and I know they both really want to become 3s as much as the rest of us want them to.

Also a lot of people are complaining that the results are mixed up, they have been changed three times already. Im glad they got Justin Reid in there finally!

Thanks for your input Aaron, and great race BTW, if anyone else in the race has comments please dont be shy.

Justin

I’m with Alex on this one – a slow, tactical race is just as much fun as a balls-out Gulla chase from years gone by. You had 20 guys all evenly matched – pretty much all in with a chance of a win – thats great. It was a race in which I’ll bet 95% of the finishers could say they enjoyed. Anyway the guy who did as much work as anyone was the deserved winner David Burns (and I don’t think he would be labelled a sprinter) so I don’t think anyone can complain on that score either.

On the question of sandbagging however…… I’m sure we’ll see Norbert upgrade very soon – hes definitely a cut above the rest of the 4’s so far this season and was very unlucky on Saturday. However whats with a different guy who has won at least 5 races in the past 12 months(a couple of them big out of towners as well) and placed in countless others still doing showing up in the 4’s ? Aren’t upgrades mandatory after a certain number of points ? (Lord knows I’ll beg, steal or borrow any upgrade points I can get!)

All in all though a great day I thought

Alex

Thanks for your input Justin-

If I had any upgrade points I’d be more than happy to give them to you.

Aaron

Just to clarify, I didn’t mean to suggest that Petr wrote the report. I also really enjoyed the race, I’m mainly trying to figure out what I might have done differently. One thing would be to know where the finish line is! I’m not saying I would have done any better, but I wish I’d paid more attention the first 3 times around.

Jon

If you had paid attention you would’ve noticed the day-glo “200 meters to go” sign a little ways after the feed zone boundary. It was one of the better marked finishes, fortunately.

USCF Official

You don’t need any points to upgrade from Cat 4 to Cat 3.

You only need 10 top tens in 25 qualifying races.

Jon

And what about answers to the really big questions?

1. Who is the dude lying in the road?

2. What happened to the guys riding on the grass?

Aaron

Yes, the sign was very easy to see if you were on the right, but it was only a foot off the ground and impossible to see from the left with 10 riders blocking it. But like I said, my fault for not paying attention.

Puny (Man on the grass at Bear)

The race was a great experience. The reason no one wanted to do anything significant was that most were content to leave it to the last few hundred yards.

On the last lap as I turned the descent into the climb my chain came off. I had to get off the bike, spin it back on and chase the pack as they set off up teh climb.

This effort made me pay a price, so when the final uphill off the second turn began I was in recovery mode.

Regarding the sprint, I had little left and just went with the flow, managing to stay on the bike after the line when some poor bastard crashed and was all over the road (see picture), hope he’s okay.

I nearly knocked the photographer over in my bid to stay upright, something I achieved luckily.

Roll on Jiminy Peak

Porter

Hey “Puny” why don’t you use your real name? Where you even in the race? I did not see a “Puny” any where in the results.

Puny

Porter, whoever you are — is this YOUR real name, were you in the race? Puny Pawling — read the results “porter”

Phew!

Porter

Hey “Puny” still afraid to use your real name? Why is it that a rider like you who supposedly placed in the top 20 won’t say who you really are. There are two grass riders in one of the pics, which one is you? I was in the race and crossed the finish line well ahead of you driving the pace car.

Jay

Clearly this “Puny” is a world class ‘crosser. Check out those bike handling skills on the grass. He’s most likely a foreigner – Belgian?

Jay

Skyline may not be able to spell or use the chat facility, but they sure can put men in the break. Does anyone know when they will be having another recruiting event at the Hairy Monk with those Irish hostesses?

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