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.