Carey wins Syllamo's Revenge

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Beneath towering bluffs and blue skies near the Blanchard Springs Caverns of Mountain View, Arkansas, Syllamo took his revenge on several riders found sporting shiny new red tattoos, not so delicately inscribed by the native limestone and/or the, not so native, multi-flora. Unplanned and misguided rock encounters would change race day fortunes for several riders, including NUE men's defending champion Christian Tanguy (Team CF) Saturday at the Kenda NUE, National Ultra Endurance Series swerved into its second sold out stop this season!

Women: Carey gets first NUE win of the season

Redeeming her loss to 2009 NUE Champion Cheryl Sornson (Team CF) just two weeks ago, two-time NUE Women's Open Champion, Amanda Carey (Kenda Felt) had a clean race with no flat tires, and, although covered with numerous scratches and abrasions on her arms, face and legs, proved that she was still in top champion form, not only taking the women's podium at 7:10:47 but placing 12th overall both men and women.

Brenda Simril, who was fourth last year at 8:07:03 but improved her time and standing this year taking second place 7:47:47 said, "It was so hot! That was definitely the biggest challenge. I felt great, super strong all the way coming into the red loop connector the first time and then I started redlining, overheating really badly."

Simril caught Sornson early, before aid one, and spent the rest of the race expecting her come zipping back by. Instead, she rode with Andrea Wilson (Outdoors) and Kathleen Harding (Team CF/Elite Team CF) until the technical descent on the yellow loop when she got away from both of them.

"I was looking over my shoulder and riding like a scalded cat for the rest of the race," said Simril.

Coming off a big victory at Cohutta, 2009 NUE Series Champion Sornson took the brunt of Syllamo's revenge early in the race yet somehow managed to capture third place rolling up on a torn up tire complete with a sidewall blown out and patched on one side and another major sidewall tear, bubbled out, ready to blow on the other side.

"Oh my goodness, the first downhill it was like 'psssssssshhh,' and I was like, Oh God. I think it was a sidewall, then my tube was pinched or something, but a Guardian trail racer gave me his tube and air." NUE racers are allowed to accept help from other racers.

Sornson lost 40 minutes. A second flat resulted from a rock that tore the valve stem off the tube."I fixed that thanks to a teammate at aid station one that gave me her tube. I picked up more tubes at aid two, then I got a third flat when the patch on my sidewall from the first flat flipped off, 'psssssshhhh' again! I didn't even realize there was a tear on the other side as well that was ready to blow!"

Another racer helped her get air in that tube with its super short valve stem. She topped it off with 30-40 pounds of air at the next aid station, determined not to flat again.

"I wanted to catch Brenda and knew I couldn't catch Amanda, but felt strong and people were so nice, and friendly and helpful so, I'm psyched!"

Kathleen Harding completed her first ever NUE Series race grabbing fourth place, 8:25:06, When asked what she attributed her win to she said, "I have had some awesome training, awesome coaching, and great support by team CF. I tried to stay on top of my nutrition and hydration, watch the clock, making sure I was taking in the right amount, and mostly avoiding the briers (laughing)."

Last year, Christian Tanguy (TeamCF.org) took the top spot at Syallamo's setting the bar at 6:10:19, and going 2-0 to start the NUE season following a win over the three-time NUE Champion Jeff Schalk at The Cohutta 100.

Fast forward to 2012, Tanguy has proven that he is still in champion form, capturing second at the Cohutta 100, less than five minutes behind US Olympic hopeful, Jeremiah Bishop (Cannondale). However, Syallamo struck hard Saturday as it was reported that Tanguy lost it in a loose gravel section, catapulted over the bars and into the rocks, early in the race.

"It was about two miles before aid station two and nothing super technical, just ate it on some root or stone that I didn't see," said Tanguy. "In a split second, I knew I was going to go over the bar and I see this big stone. I was going face down into the stone and I thought, I am going to hurt my jaw. Afterward, I was glad that I didn't break anything in the face but then I noticed a sharp pain, looked down, and there was quite a bit of blood coming out of a puncture wound in my leg."

Tanguy, then tucked in between Drew Edsall (Kenda/Felt) and Brandon Draugelis (Team CF), had to stop and walk to aid station 2. He'd been feeling good until the crash. He was cleaned up, treated and released with no serious injuries at the local hospital and is aiming to come back for the Lumberjack 100.

The only racer to go sub six hours, 5:59:40, and taking his first national win, Edsall, who's previous best NUE Series finish was a top three at the Fool's Gold 100 last year, said, "I felt pretty good today. Brandon, myself, Christian and Rob Spreng were riding together, then, about 30 minutes in, Rob flatted. It sounded like he tore a sidewall so he was pretty much out of it. It was a technical section and it's pretty easy to flat here."

Edsall opened up the gap on Draugelis after Tanguy's crash. He had one minute by aid station three.

Draugelis chased, but started feeling the heat around aid station four. "The gap was maybe ten minutes at that time and I was thinking, it's hot out, I’m suffering, but still keeping the pace high, nice and steady and see what happens. I had no idea how far the next guy was so I was looking over my shoulder every five minutes. There are so many fast guys here."

Draugelis held on for his best NUE Series finish ever taking second place, 6:19:15.

Rob Spreng (Dirty Harry's) took third in 6:34:27. "Everything was going pretty good. I was riding with Drew, Brandon and Christian until I had a pretty bad flat about an hour in, before Christian's crash. I sliced a sidewall and my inflator head didn't work so I had to wait until someone was gracious enough to give me one. I want to thank that guy! Because of him, I was able to finish."

Spreng rode in fourth until he saw Chris Peariso (Adventure 212/Specialized), whom he passed. Pearison fought off dehydration and hung on for fourth. Teammate Ryan Krayer rolled in 6:46:55 and Ernesto Marenchin (Pivot Cycles) rounded out sixth place one second later.

Kevin Carter (Gripped Racing) who tore the mounts off his aluminum seat post leaving sharp jagged edges, provided some insight into what happened to the SiMonster, Michael Simonson (RBS MTB Team) who ultimately finished 10th, "He is from the planet Krypton, he is superman, but his kryptonite appears to be named Kevin Carter because I was trolling along with my little pig sticker trying not to get stabbed when Simonson caught me. We were going back and forth for a minute, he was showing me some sympathy for my broken seat post and I must have distracted him because as we entered a rock garden, one of these elusive, Syllamo's granite snakes jumped out and grabbed his wheel so fast I didn't even know what happened! He was kind of looking my way when it grabbed the bike right out from under him and he slammed down hard with kind of a grunt and OooF."

Fortunately, Simonson was not hurt.

Two-time NUE Singlespeed Champion Gerald Pflug (Salsa/NoTubes/Top Gear) took his second straight NUE Series victory again  in 2012, completing the 125k race course in just 6:35:17, more than a half hour faster than last year (7:06:32), then capped it off by taking fourth place overall.

However, he may be looking over his shoulder more this season as NUE newcomer Ron Harding (Trestle Bridge Racing) proved he's hard enough to hang with the Pflug.

Afterward, the "Pfluginator" said, "Up into the first climb, Ron went into the singletrack first. I got by him a few miles in but he was on my wheel until maybe between check point four and five where there was this one climb in the sun. They had done some tree removal there and I was able to get a gap there. Heading into the checkpoint five, I thought my gap was bigger than it was. I was just leaving check point five when I saw Ron coming back, so I just, like, stayed on the gas from checkpoint five to the finish and managed to keep the lead."

Pflug said his half hour improvement over last year came from the course changes, making it more singlespeed friendly.

Relaxing under the cool shade of a huge tree nearby, 33-year-old NUE singlespeed newbie, Harding, who placed second, less than three minutes behind Pflug, was asked about what he was doing before entering the NUE Series, "I've raced mostly cross country up in the Mid-Atlantic region. I've done a couple of endurance events but nothing in the NUE Series and this was definitely the hardest effort. It wasn't as much climbing as I thought it would be. I heard it would be a lot more climbing, a lot more rocks, but it was definitely a lot of fun and it was great riding with someone. We were about halfway through and I was like, 'It's a good thing we’re not in no man's land cause this could be brutal!' After aid five, I never saw him again!"

Evan Plews (Ibis Cycles/Real Racing) grabbed the third spot on the podium 6:40:33, just two minutes behind Harding. Duane Goscinski (Team Noah Foundation) finished in 7:14:23 and Jason Pruitt (LAS) in 7:37:25 for fourth and fifth.

Masters: Irving gets his first ever NUE series win

As if it wasn't already hot enough out there, Chris Irving (Los Locos) poured on the coals for his first-ever NUE Series win, setting the bar at 7:45:19.

"I saw Hershberger three or four times, we swapped positions, and finally got ahead of him on the orange trail. On the red trail, I saw a rattlesnake about two or three feet long. It was in the trail and it struck at me because I didn't see it until I looked down and saw its head coming around at me. That was interesting!"

Miroslav Novak (Alabama Master Cycling/Ivan Leo), 57, originally from Slovakia, took third place in 8:17:04 following up on his impressive second place finish at the Cohutta 100.

Dennis Schueler Jr. (Rbikes.com/fleettruckparts.com) took fourth 8:50:10 and David Grauer (Orthopro) rounded out the top five.

About the venue

Mountain View is considered the "Folk Music Capital of the World" and, in addition to its IMBA epic mountain bike trail system, the area also features Blanchard Springs Caverns and has become a popular destination for rainbow trout fishing and canoeing on the White and Buffalo Rivers, which border the east and west sides of the district.

Syllamo's Revenge, with 50-mile and 125km distances, takes place on the Syllamo, pronounced (Sil-lah-moe), mountain bike trail, a series of interconnecting loops offering mountain bike enthusiast's 50 miles of trail, most of it singletrack. The trail name dates back to an infamous resident of the area in the early 1800s. A Creek Indian named Syllamo who was "tolerated by the native Shawnees". His favorite hunting grounds were a particular creek drainage that was named for him.

While Syallmo grinned down on a record 400 racers, comfortable morning temperatures gradually became unusually hot temperatures by mid-day, forcing many racers to refocus their attention on hydration or suffer defeat by attrition in the hands of the elements. Additionally, hot and dry conditions made portions of the trail very different than last year when overnight rains caused Don Lovelance Jr., from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to describe the mud on the native limestone, better known as slick rock, as "like riding on Teflon".

There were no life threatening injuries to report, however, this year, Syllamo wasn't selling slick rock on the yellow loop, instead he was peddling loose gravel, razor rocks, and even some exceptional overgrowth that could tear at the soft flesh of unwary riders, causing some finishers, including Amanda Carey to arrive looking as if they had just escaped from a scrape with Freddy Krueger, famed character from the movie "Midnight on Elm Street". Perhaps further evidence that The Ozark Mountains of Syllamo's is as much as man versus nature, as man versus man.

Next NUE Series stop: Mohican 100

On June 2, the series shifts to the Buckeye State in Loudonville, Ohio for the ninth annual Kenda Mohican 100-mile and 100km races. Another record turnout of 600+ is expected this year along the remote single loop course that spans the four counties collectively referred to as "Mohican Country". For more information, visit www.mohican.net.

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