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Highlands - Maroon Bells - Ashcroft - King Hill Road Race

Hot sunny weather greeted a big crowd of 86 racers at the starting line of this year’s classic race that takes racers up & down two of Aspen’s most famous valleys: Maroon Creek & Castle Creek.

The SMA race held together all the way to the finish with 9 guys duking it out to the line.  Joel Mischke crossed the line first in the sprint, showing off the fine form he’s had this summer.  Ambre Levy continued a strong winning streak in the ACC races, while Mike Maple, Wade Smith, Nancy Pickard, Dawn Gordon, John Davis, Charles Brewer & Danny Pierce took top honors in their respective catagories.

There was some sort of road rage incident on the descent from the Bells that could have ended worse than it did.  As i was marshaling near the high school to bike path turn-off, a a big pickup truck pulled over to let me know how steaming pissed he was at two male racers… for… it was not quite clear.    It must have had something to do with his nearly running the two racers off the road.  The guy felt threatened & told me that (clean version) he desired harm upon these two racers…  Yikes, there’s no contest between an F350 and a carbon Colnago…  If i were to guess, this guy was not interested in “sharing the road”, and the racers were trying to pass him, perhaps aggressively, perhaps not.   Please let this be a reminder that we’re racing on the open roads & safety is in your own hands.  There is always going to be a few drivers out there who are not even close to being deferential to the needs or desires of cyclists.

Any more information to share from the 2 racers involved?  Please comment below… Anybody else have a crazy bike/car confrontation story to share?  Any good lessons learned?

Thanks to Jane for all her diligent work on this year’s race results!  Jane made a couple great points in her email today.  The rules clearly explain that you cannot draft off racers that you did not start with.  This is clear grounds for disqualification.  Reporting of this to race officials can be difficult… But please remember, it’s not fair to win a Citizen category if you’ve caught up to the Vets and gained the advantage of a draft off of this group.  If you find yourself in this situation, stay 2′-0″ to the side and at least 15′-0″ back from the racers you’ve caught… Since you’ve already caught them without the benefit of a draft, push on and pass the group if at all possible.  Rules & Regs here.

Lastly, please help to keep the finish line area safe.  If you hear Mouse or any other volunteer asking for racers to clear the road around the finish line, DO IT! And while doing so, please help to move the rest of the finished racers off the road while you’re at it.

Congrats & nice job to everyone, Mike.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

5 Responses to “Highlands - Maroon Bells - Ashcroft - King Hill Road Race”

  1. Charles Brewer Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    Thanks indeed to everyone for a great race.

    Regarding the rule about not drafting with riders that you did not start with - that was a pretty difficult situation in this race. I was just catching up wth the lead group of from the Citizen group at the same time as they were catching up with the Veteran A group. So here was this jumble of now 20 or so riders, and with the exception of a few individuals, I had absolutely no idea who I started with and who I didn’t. I was aware of the rule, but I really did not know what to do! After a little while they pack broke up, but even then I did not know who I had started with and who I hadn’t. I ended up riding most of the second climb with a group of five guys. Did they all start with me? I still don’t know!

    And how could I know? If we are going to have this rule, perhaps some kind of color coding of numbers would help.

    I think even better would be to scrap the rule. All of us in the last starting group (the ones for whom this is most likely to be relevant, I suppose) are riding with lots of people not in our actual categories anyway. Let’s have one less thing to worry about. The suggested behavior of staying 2 feet to the side and 15 feet back is really not workable at all in a situation like last night when a whole group from one starting flight catches up to a whole group from the previous starting flight.

    Finally, I would like to apologize for my intemperate response to whoever it was who was shouting out reminding everyone of the rule during the first climb. I surely didn’t want to cheat, or to be told that I was. And without some way of knowing who it was legal to ride with and who not … it was a difficult situation.

    Cheers,

    Charles

  2. Mike Says:
    August 1st, 2008 at 8:10 am

    Good comments on the drafting rule Charles. Perhaps a color coding on the bib numbers could be a solution. A colored dot of red, blue or green, about 1″ in diameter on the corner of the bib could signify Senior, Vet, & Citizen riders. This issue comes up only once or twice a year, but for the sake of fairness, I don’t think we can eliminate the rule.
    It’s certainly a bit of a mess for a large Citizen pack to catch on to the Vet peloton. What were those Vets doing, going so slow?! Ahh, some of them did have a longer course to contend with… Sorry for the stress that this drafting rule caused you. Just keep in mind that no disqualifications were issued as the Board is most interested in dealing with truly flagrant violations… Especially the case of a category leader or two taking advantage from a group that they’ve caught on to.

  3. Ed Cross Says:
    August 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    A great race with a large turnout. Maroon and Castle are 2 of the great road rides anywhere. I think we should have races on Maroon and Castle as well next season; casual riders are familiar with them and thereby less inhibited of racing them. I also think we could start the season a little later and go into early October, with Saturday races as we lose evening light. That may make it easier to accomodate the Missouri Heights race and attract a better turnout.

  4. Mike Says:
    August 3rd, 2008 at 9:24 am

    Good thoughts Ed. We should consider going back to having a couple races in the Maroon and Castle valleys, as we used to do just a few years ago.

  5. Mike Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    I heard from one of the two riders who dealt with the pickup truck. As they were coming through TLazy7, the truck pulled out right in front of them… the best choice for them seemed to be: pass on the left since they were going faster than the truck, then singlefile to the far right edge of the road, so the truck could safely pass them on the slight uphill rise after TL7. Instead of immediately passing, the truck was honking continuously. After that the truck passed, but then slowed down on the descent to Maroon Creek. The two cyclists were afraid to pass at this point…
    Seems like this was a case of a driver not wanting to have the patience to deal with the bike race passing through. Next time around, the ACC should place some race in progress signs and a Marshal at TLazy7… That might be the best way to put in place some traffic calming measures.

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