Schalk squeaks out another win

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If you were Pua Sawicki (Team Mata/ Ellsworth) you’d probably be breathing a deep sigh of relief after Saturday’s performance in the wilds of central Pennsylvania. After her win by almost an hour over the women’s field and an eighth place finish overall, she can finally feel her luck changing.

July was a tough month for Sawicki that saw three chances at national championship races hurt by sinus infections and injuries. That seems to be firmly behind her, and it’s just in time as she prepares for the Marathon World Championships in Austria later this month.

Sawicki’s race win was heightened by the fact that it was the largest women’s field ever to show at the 101. Some 27 women showed for this year’s race, including past winner Betsy Shogren (Cannondale Factory Racing), retired pro Sue Haywood (Turner Mo’chines), 2008 NUE series winner Cheryl Sorenson (Trek Racing Co-Op) and Karen Potter (Bikect.com).

The pace of Sawicki off the front saw her hanging with the top men to mile 20 and aid station one. “After the first checkpoint, on the climb I saw the field split,” said Sawicki. “I was at back of group of about 20 but I caught a lot of the guys as they went hard at the start. About then I moved up to eighth place and stayed in no-man’s land for ever.”

While Sawicki was off the front the race for second place heated up with the climbing skills of last year’s winner Shogren countered by Haywood’s descending techniques. The two came into aid station three together at the 60 mile mark and stayed close enough to be forced in to a sprint finish after almost nine hours in the saddle. Haywood just pinched Shogren at the line, but you could tell there was nothing but respect and a new sense of camaraderie after battling for so long.

Karen Potter stepped off the bike at the end of the day in fourth place, while Pennsylvania resident Sorenson secured a fifth place. Shogren still leads the series, which next visits the Fools Gold race in Georgia on August 15.

Schalk maintains series lead as pressure increases

Christian Tanguy (Fraser/ Cannondale) has an unassuming persona. Family man, engineer and French expatriate. Jeff Schalk might have won on the day, but it is this humble, bespectacled man that has the men’s field shaking their head at his incredible display of strength. At the opening climb of the day Tanguy went to the front and set a pace that didn’t seem to impress and as the group hit the second climb of the day he was actually dropped from the top 10.

As the field split, Schalk went on to have a day that first saw him and Chris Beck (Subaru/ Gary Fisher) pair up to take on the lead through mile 70 with Chris Eatough (Trek Racing Co-Op) and Josh Tostado (Bach Builders/ Santa Cruz) sitting back about two minutes. Slick bridges and rocks eventually gave Eatough and Tostado enough of an advantage on the downhills to catch the two leaders about two thirds into the race. Meanwhile in the back Tanguy was slowly working his way through the trails and trying to use his climbing skills to cruise back to the front.

After finding himself in fifth place Tanguy said to himself that he was happy to be there, but was not complacent enough to slow down. Somewhere around mile 80, after being 10 minutes back at one point and getting lost for two minutes at a confusing corner, he found himself passing Beck who was beginning to fade after hanging with Schalk’s pace and hitting the deck on a slick bridge. Next to be caught was Tostado who was having in his own words a ‘stellar day’.

Schalk had no idea that Tanguy was on the move and was more concerned with Eatough and Tostado. “I had no Idea that Christain was coming back,” said Schalk. “Apparently he walked through everyone insanely fast. I was looking back for Chris and Josh.”

Eatough’s experience with the Tanguy’s train was one of helplessness. “When Christian came pass me it was on a section that would have been good to do some drafting, but he blew by so fast I didn’t even have the strength to latch on,” said Eatough.

It might have been the earlier battles amongst the rest of the top five that took the late punch out of their legs. In the last 20 miles everyone was trading spots and sitting within two minutes of each other, but it can’t be denied that the Frenchman from Michigan is a force to be wary of.

Schalk has a tentative lock on the series at this point, and barring a sweep of the last three races by Tanguy, looks set to take the title

Pflug overcomes early issues for single-speed win

Slick bridges and strong local riding by Matt Ferrari (Freeze Thaw Cycles) put series leader Gerry Pflug (Speedgoat/SPK) in early trouble when he flatted in the famous three bridges section of the opening single track. It wasn’t until the climb after aid station three that Pflug was able to role up on the two men in front of him.

Ferrari was in second place within sight of Joe Kedrowski (Founder’s Ales/ Alger Racing) who was just ahead at the start of the brutal climb out of aid station three. While the battle was raging at mile 60, eventual second place rider, Roger Masse (Trek Racing Co-Op) was apparently eating cookies at earlier aid stations waiting for his moment to attack.

On the climb out of aid station three, Kedrowski was pushing up the single track climb as Ferrari stood up and mashed a few more yards and seconds out of Kedrowski before stepping off. It was a short wait to see Pflug also standing up, keeping his rear wheel locked to the ground and his eyes locked on the two men in front of him.

Pflug pushed through the last few sections of new rollers that were added to the race and rode into the finish line just under ten minutes ahead of the late charging Masse. Ferrari came in five minutes later with Kedrowski in fourth and Nathan Kraxberger (Sid’s-Cannondale) in fifth.

Nagel Punishes the Masters

Guy’s Racing masters rider Bill Nagel came to the 101 to set some new standards for the master’s category. His 8:48:03 was almost an hour fast than any other masters on the day, but more impressive was the fact that as a record it blew away the previous record by almost half an hour.

Left to battle amongst themselves were 22 other masters riders. Jim Mathews (MBR), John Williams (Bike Line Newark, DE), John Wyrick (Biowheels) and James Wilson (Human Zoom) rounded out the top five. Interestingly to note that the Masters category had the least amount of DNF’s amongst all categories.

Andrea Slack (Bike Line) was the only masters female to finish and did so in style with an 11:18:35 finish.