Big D delivered all three days of the Sunflower State Games, with four first-place finishes, seven second places, and a bunch of top-tens!

In Friday’s Time Trial, the Masters cleaned up, with Susan Ruettimann taking first in the women’s 40+, and Rochelle Schliecher grabbing gold in the 50+. Bill Jennings took first in the men’s 70+, while Lynn Wilson got third in the women’s Cat4. Donavon Hottman came in fourth in his return to racing and Chip Zimmer took fifth in the men’s Cat5.

On day two, Ryan Kelley made a break with about half of the race to go. He and SKC’s Kurtis Albrecht were trading the work until the penultimate lap in the Cat3 criterium, when Ryan made a run for it. “I thought I had him, but just didn’t have enough to hold him off,” Kelley said. The SKC rider came around the final turn to take first, with Ryan close behind.

Lynn Wilson also took second in her Cat4 women’s race, just getting edged out at the line by VeloTek’s Alaina Beckwith. Susan Ruettimann was second in the women’s Masters 40+ and Schleicher was second in the 50+.

Hottman and Bill Wells looked good in the 60+ field, taking fourth and fifth.

The was some hot action in the Men’s Cat5 race and newbie rider Dave Whitney was able to chalk up his first win of the year! Here is his account:

“The course was flat and fast with four right turns, the fourth turn eased left before diving into the right hairpin. During the pre-race warm up JT, BDT, and DanR gave me some pointers about the course and where to be during the race. Given that this was probably the shortest cat 5 race on the calender, the guys warned me that it would be fast from start to finish so get to the front and stay in the top 5 if possible. From the whistle it was BDT on the front pulling hard, and he continued to do so for the majority of the race. So, I just tucked in behind and tried to follow the surges that came up.
After a few laps around the course I got a feel for where the wind was and how fast the corners were and which riders looked sketchy and dangerous. On the 2nd or 3rd lap, JT took a flyer off of the front to see who was willing and able to follow moves and a couple of guys immediately jumped to bring him back. Half a lap later we were all back together and JT told me who to keep an eye out for, in particular, “yellow shoes”. Somewhere in the next few laps BDT took a break from pulling for a few minutes and then jumped off the front. A couple of the Boulevard guys came around me and started to reel him in. I jumped on the third or fourth wheel of the chasers and sat in while they pulled. Things were fast and strung out for the next few minutes and next thing you know, we hear “two to go” and we are all back together. The pace slowed for the next half a lap while everyone was shuffling around, then CZ came up the outside and started pulling hard on the front. A couple of Boulevard guys, BDT, and Yellow Shoes all followed CZ and I just tried to find my way up to 4th or 5th back, and on the bell I was around 5th or 6th.
With half a lap to go, I felt something hitting my right foot and pushing my back wheel. They guy behind me got bumped, and was going down and trying to take me with him. I thought I was going to go down, so I just concentrated on holding my bike straight for what felt like an eternity. Then I heard a bike slide across the ground and JT yelling “It’s just us”. JT just swerved to miss the carnage and there were only 6-8 of us left in the front group with several lengths between us and the second group and we were heading into the second to last turn. I started to think about how to set up for the finish. I could still see BDT in the front 2-3 and he was still pulling hard. I couldn’t find CZ or JT, but I knew JT had to be close behind me. The wind at the finish was blowing from right to left so I tried to set up on the outside of the turn to be shielded on the home stretch. I made it to the left side right before the turn, took it wide keeping up all of my speed. It was about 400 yards (or at least that’s how far JT told me it was) from the last turn to the finish. I took a few seconds to get into bigger gears and get them spinning while trying to find a wheel. At this point I noticed that all of the guys up front were fighting for wheels and drifting towards the inside. So, I stayed on the outside of the guy in front of me to block the wind, and when I got my big gear spinning a bit, I jumped and stayed on the outside. I couldn’t see that actual finish line mark and stopped pedaling 10-15 meters before and started looking around, then when I didn’t see anyone around me I started thinking that I just sprinted for the second to last lap. Then the guy that crossed behind me told me nice sprint and I felt a bit more reassured that I did something right, for once.

Couldn’t have done it with out the tips and hard work from the fellas’, especially BDT who pulled for the majority of the race. After the race I noticed that the guy who went down managed to rip the caliper buckle off of my shoe with his spokes. But he definitely got the short end of that deal.”

Taton took third, Turner sixth and Zimmer held on for a top-ten slot.

Images provided by Dan Ruettiman Photography. See more of his images from SSG here.

In the inaugural State Line Road Race, Big D came away with five top-ten finishes in three events. The course looked like it would be a fine one for non-climbers, but several laps going up a steep grade and rollers toward the finish, left some competitors gasping for air.

Paul Fancher (fourth place) was the top Big D rider in the Masters 40+ event, with Kurt Wilson right behind in 5th. Paul Aldeguer came in 8th.

In the Cat5 race, Chip Zimmer had a nice showing with 7th out of about 50 riders. Cathy Wood was the lone Chica-D and did the ladies proud with an 8th place in the women’s open event.

It was a beautiful morning for racing and this race looks like it will become a favorite on the calendar in years to come.

Lynn Wilson found her sprinting legs in the women’s Cat4 race, while Ryan Rochford grabbed Kansas hardware in the Cat3 crit at Tour of Lawrence.

Wilson was coming off a great ride in the circuit race on an extremely hot day Saturday, and in the Saturday’s crit, she worked with Velotek’s A’Laina Beckwith to create a gap with about three laps to go.”At about 3 laps to go, Rachel from University of Nebraska bridged up to us and the 3 of us worked together until the final lap. A’Laina and I gapped her before the last turn and going into the last turn A’laina rubbed my back wheel and went down. It came down to a sprint finish between me and Rachel with the field not far behind.” Wilson got edged at the line but held on to second place.

In the Men’s Cat3 Ryan Rochford came away with an unexpected third place in the Kansas crit championship despite having to gain some ground right from the start. Here is his race report:

“It was plenty hot with a little wind out of the South. Course is 8 turns and a whole lot of fun. I was rolling around warming up on the course and when I came around to the starting line, everybody else was already lined up. I rolled up and was unfortunately going to have to start at the back of a 65ish person field. James/Skittles was pretty much right in front of me. My goal was to not get dropped since my fitness was not the greatest and I generally suffer a lot in the heat compared to others. The whistle blew and off we went. James immediately started hammering it to move up the field and I followed as best I could. The pace was super high from the start so it wasn’t easy moving up that big of a strung out field. After about a lap and a half or so, we were in the middle of the pack and got separated. James kept moving up and I hung out for a lap or two then moved up into the top 3rd of the group. That’s basically where I sat for the rest of the race. I was constantly moving up and then getting swarmed and falling back…and repeating. There was one prime that I decided to poke my head out for, but I wasn’t going for the money. I thought the guys who were going for it had an ok gap and that there was a chance it would stay away so I went with them, but it didn’t last long. With 3 laps to go, I was doing what I could to stay very close to the front, but not on it, and so was everybody else. Things started getting sketchy, as usual at the end of a crowded crit.

On the last lap, I was sitting anywhere between around 7th and 20th position. We went around the 3rd corner and some idiot tried to dive bomb the inside and move up. Instead he touched wheels or something and went careening off toward the outside of the turn, through the entire group. This pushed people to the outside of the corner and carnage ensued. James was just behind me a spot or two and got sent straight into a hay bale, ending his race as he flipped over the handlebars and used his skin to slide to a halt on the burning hot asphalt. I was still up and feeling pretty decent, but I was too far back because I’d gotten swarmed shortly before corner 3. As we rounded the last 4 corners, I tried to move up a little and made up a couple spots. I rounded the last corner (where I crashed last year while sitting perfectly at 3rd wheel) and wound up for the sprint. I popped out of the saddle and sat in a draft for a couple seconds to build up speed and shot around about 3 or 4 guys and crossed the line with my heartrate pegged at 209. I was tired, but not as bad as I thought.

I guesstimated that I finished around 17th so I figured I was out of the money and headed to the car to change and cool down. As I walked around to watch the pro race, a friend came up and said “hey Ryan, congratulations!” I responded “for what, finishing 20th?” Little did I know that I was the 3rd place finisher from KS and since this was the KS State Championship crit, I got 3rd in state! So, I unfortunately missed my call up to the podium after the race, but I did collect a nice medal and celebrated with some Chipotle and beer. Tour of Lawrence is a great race. Can’t wait to do it again next year.”

The team did well in other racing too:

Circuit Race:
Women’s 4 – Lynn Wilson 12th
Masters 40+ – Paul Fancher 27th
Cat3 – Paul Aldeguer 26th
Ryan Kelley 28th
Kurt Wilson 29th
Cat4/5 Chip Zimmer 10th
Cat5 Tyler Staples 15th

Criterium:
Masters 40+ – Shawn Knight 26th
Ron Marney 27th
Kurt Wilson 30th
Paul Aldeguer 32nd
Cat5 – Dan Turner 14th
Chip Zimmer 15th
Tyler Staples 16th

At the Tour of Kansas City, shortened this year to two days of racing instead of three, hot temperatures, and an even hotter pace made things hard for Big D and the field as a whole, but some valiant efforts provided good results and incredible racing for spectators.

In Sunday’s Cat 3 event in Lee’s Summit, Ryan Kelley turned himself inside-out trying to catch a breakaway by Colavita’s Andrew Lyles. Lyles had lead a two-man charge, which failed earlier in the race, but then made a solo run for it with about a third of the race to go. Kelley was getting no help from the field, and busted it on the front of the chase for several laps. His effort kept his teammates in contention, but left himself spent. Shawn Knight and James Summers were the only Big D survivors in the race, which saw nearly a third of the starters shattered.

Knight, Summers and Ryan Rochford also competed in the Cat 3/4 earlier in the day with good results: 8th, 12th and 15th, respectively. In the women’s 3/4’s, Lynn Wilson got 7th in a tough, fast field.

The day before, at New Longview, our riders dealt with a crazy course and a wind that seemed to be shifting all day. Kurt Wilson and Paul Aldeguer battled for the second half of the race to close down a gap which had formed with about ten riders leading. The Bat was close behind and the three of them finished 12th, 13th and 15th respectively. If you weren’t in the top ten heading around the first turn from the start, it was difficult to move up. There was no place to grab a break, and by the time riders completed their first four turns, there was a hill and wind to contend with. The field was strung out from the whistle.

Lynn Wilson, who fought some familiar, and not so familiar faces snagged a fourth place finish in the women’s 4’s. In the Masters 40+, Paul Aldeguer finished well with another lucky 13th place.

See more Dan Ruettimann Photography images from Sunday’s racing here.

Big D presents a first in a series of rider profiles, where we highlight team members and talk about what makes them tick.

First up is Dr. David Whitney, a resident at the Kansas University Medical Center Department of Orthopedic Surgery. David joined the team earlier this year and has made progress in getting comfortable in the peloton and getting stronger as a racer. He has gone from getting his butt kicked in the crits to finishing in the middle of the field while helping his teammates along the way. His fellow Big D riders love riding behind Whitney because he has a powerful engine and is a formidable presence during an elbow-to-elbow race. “He’s such a big guy, that if somebody bumps into him, you know the’re just gonna bounce off,” said fellow racer Ron Marney. It’s just a matter of time before Whitney starts to channel his strength and produce win after win for the team.

Here’s a little more about Dave:

Age: 32
Height/Weight : 6’2”/ 220ish
Day Job: Orthopedic Surgery Resident at KU
Interests: Hanging out with my wife, Jamie and daughter Zoe, surgeonizing, riding/racing, single malt scotch and beer (in that order), music, post race/ride liquid carb loading, convincing my wife to let me buy bike stuff.
Cycling goals: get stronger, do well competing, help the team win, win myself, then…world domination!

After my last of several knee surgeries while an undergrad, my surgeon gave me the option of swimming or cycling as exercise for several months while rehabbing my injury. Preferring not to drown, I went to my local bike shop to look into a bike to cruise around on. A couple of weeks later, I purchased my first road bike and took my first ride, which consisted of a nice 7.5 miler with two pit stops, which included several four letter words and a couple bouts of vomiting. I was instantly hooked. I met a few people at the shop that took me under their wing and taught me the basics of cycling. I continued to ride throughout undergrad and medical school, racing a couple of times here and there, and getting thoroughly pummeled.

After medical school, my wife and I moved to Kansas City for my job and I was surprised to find a huge cycling community here in the KC area and so much enthusiasm for cycling. Motivated by this, I began to train and attempted to put together a club team in my department at work. And while the idea was met with great enthusiasm, getting a bunch of orthopedic surgery residents together to train and race is nearly impossible with the work schedule. So, when that idea fizzled, I began searching for a team to help me reach my riding and racing goals. I got in touch with Steve “Whales” Whalen and began riding with the team within a week. The team welcomed me and has been great! I couldn’t have found a better group of guys (and girls now) to ride with and learn from (although one of my new goals is to hurt Whales, JT, BDT, and Twan on a training rides as much as they hurt me). The team is strong, has a great dynamic, and superb support from all of the sponsors.

And as always, thanks to my beautiful wife and daughter, Jamie and Zoe for their support. Couldn’t do it without you!

Look for Dave at the upcoming criterium and road races the rest of the season as he begins his world domination run.