The team had some great success at the Sunflower State Games in Topeka. With several podium finishes, and an Omnium winner in the Cat 4’s!
Shawn Knight placed well (3rd) in his TT on Friday. On Saturday, he and teammate Ryan Rochford worked their crit with eyes on a top Omnium placing for Knight. Ryan worked hard chasing down breaks and keeping Shawn out of trouble and it paid off with a second place for Knight. Rochford held on for 10th.
In Sunday’s Cat 4 road race the weather didn’t help create a blistering pace. It was 100° and the pace was slow. Here is a report form Rochford:
In the Cat 4 Road Race, it was Shawn and me trying make sure Shawn got the omnium win. Since I was working for Shawn, I spent the day doing things that I usually do my best to avoid in road races. I deliberately put myself in the wind, on the front, chased down breakaway attempts, and whatever else was needed to make sure we were in a good position to try to win.
The whole race was pretty uneventful until lap 4. We knew there were two guys off the front and I asked Shawn if he wanted them back. He told me we might as well reel them in since we had favorable winds and some time to recover after the catch. I headed to the front and drove the pace for a little while and brought both guys back. I heard later that people on the back of the race were barely hanging on or getting dropped while I was on the front pulling things back. That was nice to hear! After we were all back together, Shawn and I just stayed close to the front. Ryan Kelley, the omnium leader, put in a couple of attacks but I held his wheel pretty easily.
Finally all that was left was a right hand turn, a few miles of rollers with a feed station, then a left hand turn and about 3 miles to the finish into the wind. We made the left hand turn that would lead us to the finish and Ryan Kelley attacked. I was on his wheel easily and Shawn was also right there. Again we all sat up and rode easy, resigned to the fact that we were destined for a field sprint.
As we rode toward the finish, you could feel things start to get a bit more tense. There was a bit of shoulder bumping and the pace was slow, but kept slowly creeping up. Shawn was not protected at that moment so I moved around a rider to position myself for the sprint lead-out. Ryan Kelley had 3 or 4 teammates, who we assumed would lead him out, but they never assembled at the front of the race in the end. As we passed the 1k to go banner, somebody began making a little move on the left side of the field. It wasn’t a very big or strong move, but I was worried we could get boxed in if too many people came around on the left…so I just pegged it right there and began the lead-out. I felt great as I started the move but every second that went by, my legs were screaming more and more. We passed the 200m banner and I flicked my wrist to tell Shawn to go. I was toast. I sat up and Shawn flew around me for the sprint. As I looked around, I realized there was hardly anybody around us. It was me, Shawn right on my wheel, and Robert Englert just dangling a couple meters off of Shawn’s wheel. After that, there was a huge gap to the rest of the field. I was hurting and took too long to consider my options but eventually popped out of the saddle and tried to lay down a sprint. I got passed by 2 more guys before I crossed the line but wasn’t too worried about that as Shawn easily crossed the line first. Ryan Kelley was nowhere near us (he told us later he cramped as soon as he tried to go with us) and we had the omnium in the bag.
We would later find out that a rider had gone off the front on the 2nd of 4 laps for the solo win so Shawn ended up 2nd on the day and I was 6th, but Shawn still took the omnium so we didn’t really care.
In the 40+ Cat 5 crit, Ron Marney placed second, with John Taton close behind in third. Dan Ruettimann played the role of domestique and took the lion’s share of pulling in order to keep Ron and John out of the wind. “I knew I didn’t have much of a sprint so I wanted to keep my teammates fresh during the race and save them some work for the finish.” With two corners to go Marney flew off the front and had a good gap, but Tulsa rider Erik Parkey gave chase, along with Taton. Parkey nipped Marney at the line, and Taton came in third postion. Marney said later that he probably should have waited a little longer to make his move.
In that group’s road race, the pace was pretty slow, with a 21mph+ average. Nobody wanted to make a move. The open Cat5’s and the Cat5 40+ started with about a minute gap between them, but quickly amassed into one group. With the yellow line rule in effect, it made it difficult to move anywhere in the pack with riders spread out across the road. The other races going on at the same time made things confusing, and with about 4 miles to go, one rider in the group got off the front. Nobody from the 40+’s was near the front, so nobody gave chase. By the time anyone noticed him they were passing the last turn and he must have been taken for a straggler in one of the other races. They were racing for second place even though they didn’t know it at the time. The threat came from crit winner Parkey, who moved up close to the front. Lee Wafford was on his wheel, Marney was up there, and Ruettimann and Taton were right behind ready to go with him. Things got a bit faster with 1K to go and Parkey made his move at about 200m. Ruettimann was on his wheel a stuck with him as long as he could, with Taton behind. As Ruettimann faded Taton came around and passed Parkey. The two were neck and neck, but Parkey just barely beat Taton to the line, “I threw the bike at the end, but I might have had him with one or two more pedal strokes.” said Taton. So it was Taton in third, Wafford fourth, Marney fifth and Ruettiman hanging on for eighth.
In the open Cat 5’s, Owen Gurwell took fourth place and Chip Zimmer got 14th. Chip also got 11th place in his crit the day before.
In other racing, Tim Lightenberg placed fourth the Cat 3 crit, and Donavon Hottman came in third in the 60+ masters. In the Time Trails Donavon placed second, and he finished fourth in the road race.
Images provided by Dan Ruettimann Photography. See more of the Sunflower State Games images here.