Schalk crushes the competition by more than 17 minutes for Lumberjack victory

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The sixth annual Lumberjack 100 is on the books, with no major surprises or upsets. Jeff Schalk (Trek Mountain Coop), defending champion, and Cheryl Sornson (Team CF) took home the wins.

The race started with the usual two-mile roll out on the pavement and a new sweeping turn into the singletrack. The fast guys lined it out single-file and pushed the pace stringing out the field, making for a safe start. Overnight storms never materialized, and only slightly above average temperatures posed no serious threats to racers and left only the black flies and mosquitoes to contend with this year.

The race came down to four real contenders: Schalk, Mike Simonson (Gary Fisher 29er Crew), Christian Tanguy (Team CF) and the always present potential spoiler in the race, road pro Derek Graham (Bissell Pro Cycling).

Flats early in the race by Simonson and Graham caused them to drop off the pace and left Schalk and Tanguy together to battle it out. It was a question of who would drop off first.

"I was experiencing one of those fatigue period that just cannot be ridden through," said Tanguy on the Team CF blog. "My stomach was like a balloon, my vision was shaking up and down and every part of my body was telling me to stop in the shade and take a two-hour nap."

"I was eventually left all alone with Christian..., and I was cautious for the majority of the second lap, trading pulls in the lead, keeping the pace high," said Schalk on his blog. "However, he began to show signs of fatigue shortly after the halfway mark, so I went on the attack. Having an uncharacteristic bad day, he backed down, and let me slip away. I was very motivated and in good form, so I tucked down and went to work to secure the win."

Schalk pulled away from Tanguy, leaving him to fend off some attempts from these two to regain the second spot. He was able to hold on to his pace and stay in "best of the rest" postion though Simonson briefly held the second place during the later part of the race.

Graham pulled out a huge comeback from behind to get back into third and Simonson held out for fourth. Another new face in the NUE series, Andrew Fellows, out of Queensland, Australia, came in just after Simonson for fifth.

In the women's race, Sornson dfeated Jen Hanks (Revolution/MTBracenews.com) by eight minutes, and Danielle Musto (Salsa/Twin Six/Kenda) was third, one minute later. Karen Potter (Zanconato) and Namrita O'Dea (Topeak Ergon) rounded out the top five.

The singlespeeders love the Lumberjack course, and this year was no exception as they proved it with two racers in the top 11. Gerry Pflug, Salsa/spk/pro Bikes, almost met his goal of a top five, coming in 6th overall, and 11 minutes ahead of nearest competitor Matt Ferrari (Freeze Thaw/ Hubcap). Tim Finkel (Gary Fisher 29er Crew) rounded out the top three.

Further proof that this is the single speeders haven, Musto was third in the women's field while racing her singlespeed.

"I was really happy to make the podium while racing a singlespeed," said Musto. "Normally I don't race on a singlespeed, but I had just gotten the Salsa Selma and really wanted to race it. It worked out because the Lumberjack course is really singlespeed friendly."

In the old guys' class, as predicted, Rob Herriman (Gary Fisher 29er Crew) smoked it, beating his competition and last year's winner Jack Kline (Pure Balance Water) by 20 minutes. Jim Jordan (Black Sheep racing) came in third.

The big winner of the day was promoter Rick Plite who had instituted the new three-lap, versus the old four-lap, course for 2010. Racers loved it.

"Less lapped traffic made for faster riding," said former time trial National Champion Andy Applegate (Champion Systems).

Full Results