The Hospice ride offered both a Road ride and a Mountain Bike Ride. Our on-scene Road rider Chris Hoch shares the following:
The charity ride started like all others do. Once everyone lined up for the start other teams starting rolling in like Santos, Herbal Life, and Bike America so we knew it was going to be fast. About 250 riders of all calibers were there, but the main peloton stayed together only in the the beginning. The wind played a huge factor in the ride as it was gusting between 15-25 mph. The peloton got smaller and smaller as the miles tacked on. As the groups started to break up, there was a crash amoung the not so experienced/conditioned riders, where a guy lost control of his bike, taking down Shannon and 5 other riders. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt with the only damage being a few scratches on the bikes.
Once the group started picking up speed, a few riders broke away including Julio and a Bike America rider which lasted for many miles. Bike America partnered with zMotion and controlled the front of the peleton to allow them to pull away. Unfortunately it wasn’t the right time for a break as it got caught. After about 25 miles, Pedro and Chris got into a break with two other riders. Julio did some blocking at the front to allow them to get away and they were gone for nearly 30 miles when Hector and 4 other riders caught the first break. With only about 6 miles left, the 9 riders kept attacking each other until they all were exhausted and 8 of them came in together for the finish, 3 being zMotion Team Racers…
The end of the ride was finished with everyone hanging out enjoying Firehouse Subs and trying to rehydrate from a hot windy ride…
Our on-scene Mountain Bike rider Karl Fele adds:
The mountain bike race was extremely challenging. Markham park is one of the most technical trails on the East coast.
There were over 50 solo riders competing on the 100K track, but only 6 finished the entire distance. I think Joe Vitro was setting the fastest laps for the first third of the race, but he paid the price of being away from mountain bike training later. It was amazing how fast he went though without really training on the MTB. I went out a little slower, but I only lasted till lap 6 (out of 10). I couldn’t continue riding safely, so it was just not worth the risk. Once you are cramping and making mistakes on that course, it can be deadly (literally). Adam Goldfarb and his team came in second in the team division though, so that is an awesome result.
It was great training and I had a lot of fun. I will really appreciate this tough experience during the Vista View road race. Thanks for the support and putting this event together.
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