SEPTEMBER 08 NEWS

September is half gone and the MTB season is officially over for me. Some good news to report, though…

I tried to rest up after the August debacles and headed off to the NUE series finals, the Tahoe-Sierra 100 down in California. Since Chris Eatough had overtaken me for second place during my absence from the last three east coast events, I was mostly racing to defend my position and hoping for some prize money.

It was super dusty and I backed off several times on the early descents to protect my sinuses. (remember the sickness during AMC? well, it still wasn’t over) Each time I was able to bridge back up and even push the pace a little bit. By the midpoint of the race, there were only four of us left at the front. First me, then Harlan Price got dropped by Eatough and Jeremiah Bishop on one of the rougher downhills of the race. I bridged up to Harlan and we rode together for awhile but eventually I began to pull away. Nice–third place, and in the money!

Again, I easily bridged up to Chris and JB and they seemed surprised to see me. Oh, well, wonders never cease! I pulled them for about 20 miles before Eatough attacked. OK, wow, I am sick and doing all the work, so knock yourself out, man. JB followed suit and I was on my own again. Knowing I had 20 miles still to go and feeling the effects of no real training or even a long ride since July, I rode my own race. Eventually, I finished comfortably in third place, and third place in the NUE series overall standings. Not bad for the 100 mile experiment!

Article below…

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb/?id=2008/sep08/tahoesierra100_08

Last weekend, I headed south to Ashland, Oregon, to contest the State MTB Hillclimb race. This is a great event which begins in town and ends at Mt Ashland Ski Area nearly one vertical MILE later. The other interesting twist is that there is a road event that happens concurrently, so everyone gets back together on the pavement and races one another to the finish!

I have owned the MTB event here for the last two years and really wanted to win again. In Oregon, we also have something called the MTB BAR competition for Best All-Around Rider. While I don’t chase points for this, I have won last year and three of the last four! I was in the BAR lead again, so might as well pad the stats, right?

I set-up singlespeed based on last years course hoping to set a new personal record. Unfortunately the course ended up getting changed so who knows how I really did. My gearing may have been touch high at 38-17 but how about those Rotor Q-Rings that make SS so much better? Oh, YEAH–beat all the roadies and all the MTBers and set a ‘new’ PR. I attached a pic of some hardware from this one, too.

So, the final annual highlights are:

3rd place NUE series (top four in each race)
3rd place National Marathon Championships
Oregon State XC Champion (2 years in a row and 3 out of the last 4)
Oregon State Hillclimb Champion (3 years in a row)
Oregon BAR Champion (2 years in a row and 4 out of the last 5)

On another note, The Statesman Journal (second largest newspaper in Oregon), took some time to talk to me and put together a nice article. Here is the link:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809100388

Hopefully I get to catch up with some of you at the ‘cross races or InterBike show next week. Until then thanks for all your support and keep the lid up!

Over,
Evan Plews