DIRT PaVEMEnT aDVoCaCY RaCIng ToURIng ... - Cycling Utah

12 cycling utah.com MAY 2007Road RacingPerry and Howat Tops at East CanyonAbove: On the road east of Henefer, Sienna Development/Goble KneeClinic drove the break.photo: Joaquim Hailer. See more photos at joaquimhailer.comBy Chuck CollinsSports-Am’s East Canyon RoadRace supported by Mike Hanseen’sCanyon Bicycle Club greeted threehundred participants for the 10:00a.m. start on the last Saturday ofApril. This year was the fourteenthaddition of the sixty-mile USCFout-and- back event from the EastCanyon resort to Lost Creek reservoirlocated north east of Croydon,Utah. The race features some of thebest road racing scenery Utah hasto offer marked by rolling terrainthrough ranch land, red-rock topographynear Henefer, and distantviews of the high mountains of theWasatch. Tactically, the race featuresthe penultimate ten-kilometer climbreturning from Henefer and a halfkilometerfinishing kicker on thebackside of Big Mountain.Some controversy hovered overthe race as registration closed fivedays early where commonly preraceregistration closes the Thursdaybefore a Saturday event. In addition,the total field size was cappedat 300 participants based on thepremise that parking is limited atthe resort. Further, the promoter wasclear that there would be no day-ofregistration. Still, some racers wereturned away at the race or were notable to register including pre-race45+ category UCA points leader,Mark Skarpohl.With the help from CanyonBicycles, all participants seemedto sign in efficiently and the racestarted on time, officiated by USCFGary and Louise Bywater, andCindy Yorgason as the moto-official.As number of USCF category5 men participants exceeded thefifty-rider limitation set by the raceregulations, the group was split intwo. All category five participantswere notified at the sign in that therewould be two groups. The promoterdid not anticipate this possibilitybefore the race announcement wasofficially approved by the UCA.Inevitably some category five ridersmissed the notification and raced inthe wrong group. This led to a delayin the post-race awards ceremony asofficials tried to sort out the mishapas finishers had been cross-listed inthe results.The big boys started innocentlyenough as all of the teams were wellrepresented. Experience reminds allthat show time ultimately occurson the big climb out of Henefergenerally after the establishmentof a fully represented break on theoutbound leg. Of real note, sometimeby the East Canyon reservoirshortly after the start, eventual winnerBryson Perry flatted and hisSienna Development/Goble KneeClinic/ Logan Race Club (LRC)teammate Jared Nelson stopped andgave Bryson his wheel. Jared spentthe rest of the race OTB and did notfinish last.As the race unfolded, a breakof nine riders did indeed get establishedshortly before the turn aroundby the dam. LRC riders BrysonPerry, Mike Booth, Nate Thomas,and super domestique SandyPerrins dominated the make-up ofthe break which also had perennialstrong man Porcupine/SpecializedRacing’s Dave Harward, OgdenOne and former junior US JuniorNational track team rider CameronHoffman, Binghams/Northshore’sEric Flynn and Todd Hageman, andFFKR/Sportsbase/Xango hammerArt O’Connor.Somewhere about a kilometerfrom the top of the climb back outof Henefer, Cameron Evans put itdown and gapped the leaders of thegroup. Bryson Perry and the restof his LRC compadres didn’t panicbut instead after a moment reeledin Cameron. This effort popped Art,Eric, and Nate. Now the nine weresix and they were over the top withten km to the finish - all flat exceptfor the finish.With the big climb behindthem, team tactics and motor speedbecame the cards to play. LRC hadto cover multiple attacks in-boundby Dave, Todd, and Cameron, topreserve Bryson for the finish.Bryson won followed by Cameronand Dave. The race leaders averagedover 41 kph.The women’s category 1-2-3race also was selected on the climbout of Henefer with Laura Howatand Kelly Crawford summiting first.Laura out-dueled Kelly on the finishingclimb, Jill Wilkerson-Smithtime-trialed the remaining ten kilometersfor third.All in all, this beautiful raceSaturday was successful and reflectsthe efforts of a thriving bicycleracing community. Sports-Am hadmarked the course well and had theMorgan County Search and Rescueteam acting as course marshals inHenefer and Croydon. Sports-Amhad marked many of the potholeswith orange spray paint that accentthe country road and had sweptgravel from all of the corners andon the descent into Croydon. Sports-Am provided all with food andbeverage at the post race awardsceremony on the back deck of themain lodge of the resort.See race results on page 18.TestRide aCervéloto enter toWin a DaveZabriskieSigned CSCJersey!Demo BikesAvailable!P2 CarbonNow Only$2999!762 E. 12300 S. Draper, UTcanyonbicyclesdraper.com801-576-8844 • M-F 10 - 7:30 • Sat. 10-7Cervélo atDraper locationonly.