Plaxton claims men's TT

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Today’s race was the first of a three-day US Pro XCT stage race and is part of the Carmichael Training Systems International Classic. Max Plaxton (Sho-Air/Specialized) powered his way to victory, followed by Geoff Kabush (Team Maxxis/Rocky Mountain) just nine seconds back.

Plaxton seemed like he was on par with the other riders in the technical first mile, but then applied the gas once the trail became double track. “It’s a hard time trial course,” he said. “In that first section, the rocks are really tough. You can’t get a rhythm, and I was hitting my pedals and I hit my shoulder pretty hard once.

“I think I chose the right bike,” he said. “I was riding the dual suspension…it was better through the rocks.”

Despite hitting a tree with his shoulder, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Trek) was able to ride himself back to third place. Trek teammates Sam Schultz and rookie Russell Finsterwald finished fourth and fifth respectively.

The race was on a challenging 4.39-mile track, with 393 feet of climbing, and a base elevation above 6,000 feet. It began on pavement but quickly entered the Medicine Wheel Trail for about 25 percent of the course. This trail is extremely twisty and is littered with huge rock obstacles. Several areas are so tight that riders' pedals could be heard scraping against rock. Pre-riding the course helped many of the top professional riders not only to find faster lines, but to also gain confidence in the tight sections.

Once through the Medicine Wheel Section, the course mostly followed the Sundance Trail, which is hard-packed doubletrack, often covered with slippery pea stone. The climb to the high point on the course is also twisty, broken up by an occasional downhill, so that it does not feel like a sustained climbing effort. The final downhill section of the course is wide but tricky. Not only are there slippery, off-camber corners, but there are also about 10 water bars that can throw a rider off their bike.

“I am just going to try to clean it…no dabs…just going to have to manage it clean through the first section and then there are lots of places to lay down the power in the middle out there, then cruise to the finish and not wash out,” said Kabush before the race.

“The downhill is all about cornering speed…going fast enough but not too fast and staying smooth,” he said. “Today is all about tyres - big volume and low pressure. It’s pretty skittish out there so you need a lot of rubber on the ground.”

Gould rides smoothly en route to victory

Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) took a 45-second victory over an ever-improving Katie Comton (Planet Bike) in the women’s race. Heather Irmiger had a solid ride to third ahead of Chloe Forsman (Tokyo Joes) who had another impressive ride to finished fourth. Mary McConneloug (Kenda-Seven-No Tubes) continued her acclimation to racing at altitude by finishing fifth.

Two hours before race time, the course was soaked with downpours. It was quite amazing that the course seemed to soak up almost all of the water before race time. “The rain definitely made it a little bit better traction,” said Gould. “I was worried that it had made the rocks slippery but it had all dried off by the time I got there. I definitely was riding better than in my pre-rides, when my laps kept getting worse and worse.”

“I was really relieved to have a clean run in the technical section,” Forsman said. “My strategy was to bury myself in the first minute-and-a-half then try to recover a bit, and ride smooth through the technical stuff.”

On Saturday, the riders will move on to the cross country competition. Women start at 4:00 PM while the men start at 6:00 PM. The men will race approximately 120 minutes and the women 105 minutes.

Results