Matthews and Haywood win enduro stage at Trans-Sylvania Epic

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Madison Matthews (The Bicycle Shop / MBR / Maxxis) and Sue Haywood (Stan's NoTubes Women's Elite) won the enduro-formatted stage 4 of the Trans-Sylvania Epic on Wednesday. The 20-year-old Matthews schooled his elders, beating Derek Bissett (NoTubes / Trans-Sylvania Epic / BMC) and Drew Edsall (Kenda/Felt) as well as all the top GC riders. 

It was the other way around in the women's race, in which veteran and former World Cup cross country racer Haywood out-descended Andrea Wilson (Brickhouse Racing) and local Vicki Barclay (Stan's NoTubes Women's Elite).

The stage was an unusual one for a mountain bike stage race. It featured five timed enduro segments, linked together by un-timed transfer stages. Generally, the transfers were mostly on gravel roads while the enduro segments were on the rocky, narrow singletrack common to the area.

Men

The young Matthews used his local knowledge of the trails to help him take the stage win.

"I tried to ride smoothly and not crash today," he said. "I live about two miles down the road from where we started today. These are all home trails. I probably didn't ride these trails as much as I should have with a big race coming through, but yes, I do ride them all the time."

"It's like a dream come true almost to race all these guys here."

The Trans-Sylvania Epic is Matthews' first-ever mountain bike stage race, but he has done two other enduros. Although he led the U25 category earlier in the week, mechanicals cost him some time and the lead spot among the U25s.

"The most important thing today was to not lose any more time and not crash, but I also wanted to chip away at the U25 GC and try to get back a little more time," said Matthews. "It's still anyone's race at this point."

Runner-up Bissett especially enjoyed enduro segments 3 (Croyle) and 4 (Wildcat). "The enduro segments today were more enduro like than in the rest of the race," he said. "It was good for big bikes and big tires."

Enduro GC leader Edsall kept his green jersey with a third place finish on the day.

"Today was the first true enduro race for me. I'm having a really good time on some fast, technical downhills. I was spinning as fast as I could today," he said. "I felt like a downhiller out there taking big risks. I took a crash, but nothing major, just went too fast in a corner."

"This week didn't start off the way I wanted to. I thought I had great fitness after winning Syllamo's last weekend, but it didn't play out that way. I've always been good at the downhill sections - that's why I got into the sport. Normally I don't push it quite as hard as I did today."

Although Edsall is planning to defend his enduro jersey, he's not giving up on the GC yet. "Looking back at last year's times, we're only about halfway through the overall race," he said. "I made up some good time today."

One of the favorites for the enduro, Sam Koerber (ProGold), who is third overall in GC finished fifth on the day, after Aaron Snyder (TSEpic Team) in fourth.

"It was fun. Those were some good, hard downhills," said Koerber, who then joked, "I don't know if I can live up to my reputation any more. I'm too cautious. I'm getting old."

Race leader Justin Lindine had a trying day from a mechanical perspective, but given that only the enduro segments and not the transfer segments counted toward the GC, it was probably the best day of the week to have to deal with mechanical problems.

"The day did not go exactly as planned. I had some mechanical issues before we got going, which is never good," said Lindine. "It happened at a good time in the parking lot beforehand. I had to make a last minute crank switch. It was a single ring set up that I borrowed, so I had to make a couple of changes. It took a little time to get that working correctly."

"You don't do seven days of racing without having some adversity."

During the stage, Lindine had more issues. He got a flat at the end of the first enduro segment, but it was just seconds before the end, so he lost little or no time. Later, he had to shorten his chain.

"I lost a little of my lead today so I don't have as much of a cushion, but we'll see about tomorrow and how everyone wants to race," said Lindine.

Women

The rocky, slightly damp, narrow singletrack descents were a perfect match for the skills of veteran racer Sue Haywood, who took her second stage win of the week.

"The stage was cool. It was a different format," said Haywood. "I've done super Ds and enduros, but not in the middle of this big stage race. It was a little hard to get in the rhythm."

Her first run got off to a sketchy start with a wreck in the first corner; however, once she got back into the groove of racing with cushy fat tires, she was unstoppable and wowed many with her fast descent of the super steep and technical Wildcat enduro segment #4.

"Today took a change in mindset. Not knowing where you were going made it exciting," said Haywood. "I liked it - but it was hard on the adrenal glands. After that Wildcat section, I wanted to go take a nap and rest my adrenal glands."

Andrea Wilson impressed everyone by taking the runner-up spot, despite cracking her frame somewhere en route after a crash during a timed segment.

"I broke my frame today. I don't know if it was a result of wrecking. I did have one wreck, and it seemed like my bike hit the ground harder than me," said Wilson. "It would be great if the second place prize was a new full suspension bike. I guess I'm riding my hardtail the rest of the race."

Wilson held the enduro jersey earlier in the week before Haywood took it over.

"I know Sue is real good going downhills, and she'd have to have a flat tire for me to make up time on her. Second on a stage is the best I've done all week," said a happy Wilson.

"The enduro stage format was a lot of fun. It seems like it was hard on everyone's body and equipment in a different way the the other stages the rest of this week."

Local Vicki Barclay took third on the day, despite breaking a shift lever during the stage.

Race leader Amanda Carey (Stans' NoTubes Women's Elite) finished fourth on the day and held onto her overall GC top spot. She took a spectacular crash at the bottom of the Wildcat descent, but somehow managed not to seriously hurt herself.

"I went into today to have some fun, ride conservatively and protect my GC lead," said Carey. "I put on some bigger tires and tried to keep it safe."

"I did have a pretty heavy crash in the last part of the fourth segment. They warned us to walk it, but I rolled up on it and didn't recognize it as something that I would need to walk. Half way in, I endoed and hit the deck the hardest I have hit it in a very long time. I was pretty shaken - I still can't believe I didn't break an arm, hand or shoulder!"

"I rolled the last segment way easier. I think I'll be fine for tomorrow. I really just feel lucky that I was able to ride away from it all."

Singlespeed

Race leader Matt Ferrari (FreezeThaw/Hubcap Cycles) adopted a more safe approach, holding back on some of the more aggressive descents to finish third in the stage. Dax Massey (Breck Epic/HoneyStinger/Light and Motion) pushed hard through the five enduro segments to finish first, over one and a half minutes ahead of second place Dejay Birtch (Ride for Reading/Stan’s NoTubes/Maxxis/Pivot).

U25 Men

The U25 men's race was dominated by Madison Matthews who not only won the U25 race, but the men's open stage overall. For Matthews this was sweet vindication after mechanicals on stages 2 and 3 took him almost 11 minutes out of the lead. Gunnar Bergey (Cannondale/Champion Systems) still holds second overall in U25 GC as Cory Rimmer defended his lead sensibly and sits five-plus minutes ahead of Bergey in the overall.

Duo men

The strong duo of Jon Firth and Drew Simson (TransRockies/HoneyStinger/Planet Foods) continued their control of the duo men field with another strong victory in stage 4. The pair added another three and a half minutes to their lead over Philadelphia Ciclismo riders Mike Festa and Craig Lebair, who finished second in today’s stage. Christian Baks and Paul Wojciak (Pawling Cycle and Sport) mixed up the top three with their third place finish in the stage.

Duo coed

The duo coed competition retained their status quo after stage 4, with Lawrence Plug and Kaarin Tae (Java Blend) once again taking first place over Libbey Sheldon and Chris Mariam (Crosshairs Cycling). Griggs Orthopedics riders Elizabeth Shaner and Sean Riley took third place, resulting in no changes to the overall GC standings.

Masters 40+

With Alex Hawkins taking a strong win in stage 4, he successfully unseated Nathan Ruch (Evolution) from the top position in GC and claimed the leader's jersey. Jon Stang, with a second place finish in the stage, remains in third for the GC. The 40+ category is one of the tightest competitions in the event and is far from over as Ruch calls tomorrows stage, "one of my favorites".

Masters 50+

For the first time this week, Jim Matthews relinquished his hold on the top podium position after a second place finish in stage 4. John Williams surpassed Matthews for the day, putting almost two minutes into the GC leader's time. However, his finish was not enough to unseat Matthews from the overall GC lead, as Matthews still leads by over an hour over second place.

Stage 5: R.B. Winter

Racers head to the second and final remote stage of the week on Thursday. Stage 5 will cover 26 miles in R.B. Winter State Park.

Race leader Lindine said, "R.B. Winter is usually pretty rough. I overheard that there might be some new sections. It's a short stage, only 26 miles, but it has almost as much climbing as we did earlier in the week. It's all really slow speed rock garden stuff. It takes a toll on you physically more than length would suggest."

The stage has a purported 4,457 feet of climbing and an infamously steep mid-race descent that will count as one of the day's two enduro segments.

Non-elite reports written by Tim Darwick.

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