Idaho State Championship Road Race

This weekend was the Idaho State Championship Road Race out near Emmett. It was a very subdued atmosphere as we all mourned the loss of a friend and fellow competitor Kevin Pavlis. I was just grateful to be able to think about something else for a few hours.

My race (cat 3, master a 45+) started with the somewhat traditional flyer by Justin Harvey. Going with the Harvey express was Klaus Vandenbeld, and a little bit later followed by Milt Gillespie and Jon Engan. Having strategically lined up at the very back of the pack, my teammates and I were not in a position to see the breaks go, much less join them.

I have known Justin Harvey for a long time. I have seen the Harvey flyer many times. I have never seen it work. That said, one Harvey up the road is OK. Two Harvey’s up the road is questionable. Three Harvey’s up the road is probably bad. Here we were with the potential for 4 Harvey’s up the road. Four powerful riders that can really eat up a rolling course like this one. Four Harvey’s – that’s no good at all.

Fortunately, the second two Harvey’s never made it up to the first two Harvey’s. So we had two groups of two Harvey’s – which is much more manageable than one group of 4 Harvey's.

So anyway after that there was some attacking and some chasing, then chasing and attacking. I guess the most interesting part for me was looking at Cody Caldera’s tattoos, and wondering when we would start going fast – causing me to pop off the back.

Well, we caught the original Harvey on the only real hill in the race. Better luck next time Justin, I’m sure it will work one of these days. Even Jacky Durand won a tour stage. The remarkable thing was that I was still in the group at the top of the hill.

So there were some more attacks and more chasing, and finally we caught the other Harvey’s. Then Jake Turner had a nice roll off the front. It probably would have been nicer if Steve Parker, who was sitting on his wheel could pull through.

Jake and Steve got caught just before the last set of hills on the course. At the top of the steepest hill I looked around and thought ‘holly crap, I am still here!’. I never expected to be there. I attacked going into the final hill and amazed myself again when I found myself leading the group at the top of the final hill.

We ended in a sprint finish, with my teammate Nick taking second. I took eighth – losing to all the guys who sprinted, but beating the guys that sat up. Pretty good for me.

Steve Parker’s jersey won the state championship. Unfortunately Steve wasn’t in it. Tim Doelman was. Tim forgot his jersey at home and Steve let him borrow one of his old ones. It’s really kind of funny. Steve is probably a size XS. Tim could probably fill out a large. Tim would have been like a tube of biscuits, but he doesn’t have any biscuit on him – too skinny.

I think he was showing skin between his jersey and shorts the whole day though.