Rathe, Pennington Win Banana Belt Finale

Jacob Rathe (Hammer/CMG) won the Men's Pro/1/2 event and Alice Pennington (Veloforma) claimed top prize in the Women's 1/2/3 at Sunday's Banana Belt #4 around Henry Hagg Lake. Contested under relatively mild weather, the men’s race covered 77 miles and the women tackled 44.

WOMEN PRO/1/2/3

Veloforma’s Alice Pennington celebrated her first complete race with the 2009 Banana Belt women’s field by winning a bunch sprint for the top prize ahead of Team Group Health’s Jen Akeroyd and Therapeutic Associates’ Jill Howe.

Pennington, a Hood River racer who earlier this season finished second at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Ultra-Endurance Calendar’s Mas O Menos in Terlingua, Texas, has been testing her road racing legs in the Senior Men’s Cat. 3 field and crashed out of last weekend's women's race, but it didn’t take long for her to put that behind her. With a contingent of Veloforma teammates controlling the front of the race, several short-lived break attempts served only as preamble to the all-out rush to the line on the last of four laps.

Pennington’s experience paid off with a win on the line just ahead of early season powerhouses Akeroyd and Howe.

MEN PRO/1/2/3

The Hammer/CMG Racing Team pulled off a hat trick Sunday by picking off the top three spots in the Pro/1/2 field’s mad dash for the line.

Jacob Rathe crossed the line first, ahead of an obviously pleased Marcel deLisser and third-placed teammate Austin Arguello, whose aggressive riding throughout the 77-mile day allowed his teammates to reserve their top effort for the fast, slightly downhill bunch sprint after the race came back together on the final lap.

“I was just trying to be aggressive and try and get in some breakaways,” said Arguello (pictured), who literally did not miss a chance to go down the road and was off the front for 5 ½ laps of the seven-lap race.

Arguello’s adventures didn’t go unnoticed by his teammates, who were obliged to let others expend energy chasing back Arguello and his changing cast of breakaway comrades.

“He was gone the whole race,” Rathe said. “Every time a group went he was with them.”

When the main bunch caught the last serious escape attempt on the closing lap, Arguello saved his final move to ignite the free-for-all to the finish line.

“I went on the bridge,” He said. “Marcel moved on my wheel and Jacob went though a little gap and won.”

Rathe said the final dash was chaotic.

“I was just trying to work my way up the right,” he said. “There were a lot of people moving around and doing stuff. I just kind of poked through a few holes and all of a sudden I was out in front. That’s a good feeling.”

Cyclepath’s Aaron Sanders, who fought his way back to the front of the field after getting gapped off on Lee Hill nearing the finish, crossed the line in fourth.

The Hammer/CMG Racing Team will collect its laurels and head to Rochester, Washington, for the Independence Valley Road Race on Saturday, March 28, and the Piece of Cake Road Race the next day in Woodland, Washington.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

Men pro/1/2/3
1. Jacob Rathe (Hammer/CMG)
2. Marcel deLisser (Hammer/CMG)
3. Austin Arguello (Hammer/CMG)
4. Aaron Sander (CyclePath)
5. David Root (Therapeutic Associates Inc.)

Women pro/1/2/3
1. Alice Pennington (Veloforma)
2. Jen Akeroyd (Team group Health)
3. Jill Howe (Therapeutic Associates Inc.)
4. Joanna Mensher (Gentle Lovers)
5. Heather Gunderson (Veloforma)

Elken, Secrist Split Banana Belt Wins

Sheets of rain and howling winds greeted riders for the second installment of the 2009 Banana Belt Series after last weekend’s snow-induced cancellation. Evan Elken (Land Rover/Orbea) won the soggy Men's Pro/1/2 event while Veloforma's Robin Secrist of Kirkland, Wash., won the Women's Pro/1/2/3 race in a field that included cyclocross World Cup star and pro mountain biker Sue Butler (Monavie/Cannondale).

MEN PRO/1/2

While his Land Rover/Orbea teammates animated the front of the race, eventual men’s winner Evan Elken (pictured) bided his time in the bunch and waited for the right time to strike. He found it as the group tackled the hills and rollers approaching the start/finish line.

“We were going up that little steep hill at the 2K marker,” Elken said of his winning move with just more than two laps remaining. “I kind of sat back and watched as there was a group split off and then maybe another and a strung-out pack. I hopped across to the first group on the downhill, and then on the next little riser I went across to the front group and went straight by ‘em.”

Only Paul Bourcier (Hutch’s) was able to match Elken’s acceleration and grab his wheel. Elken powered the two-man break, which built a lead that hovered just over two minutes until the last lap, when he opened a small gap on Bourcier with about 2k to go. The Land Rover/Orbea rider finished about 10 second ahead of Bourcier. Two chasers finished about 2:15 later, and the rest rolled in about 3:48 down, with Wes Stephens (Paul's Bicycles) leading the bunch across the line.

Elken said he's looking forward to getting the full Land Rover/Orbea squad together for a two-week stint in California, where the team will tackle San Dimas and Redlands Bicycle Classic March 26-29.

“It’s the first big trip of the year,” he said. “We’ve got like nine riders but some are in Tucson and various places. We’re all going to be together down there for two weeks, and then we’re gonna come up here. It’ll be nice to have more than four guys next time we do one of these races.”

WOMEN PRO/1/2/3

Secrist (pictured) escaped from the women’s field near the end of the first lap and steadily built an advantage of more than three minutes over a six-rider chase group that included Butler, Jen Akeroyd (Team Group Health), Libby Evans (Sorella Forte), Beth Burns (Veloce/Felt), Lisa Turnbull (Therapeutic Associates Inc.) and one of Secrist’s Veloforma teammates. Although the group appeared to work well together, the chasers weren’t able to muster the horsepower to pull back a determined Secrist, who finished well ahead of the chasers.

“I got away on one of the hills after the bridge,” Secrist said of her early move. “There were two of them, and I got away on the second one. I didn’t expect to stay away that long, but I just put my head down and kept looking back and kept at it.”

Akeroyd led the chase across the line for second, beating Evans and Butler in a three-up sprint.

Secrist said she plans on racing next weekend in Washington, and then she'll head to California for the Redlands Bicycle Classic with her Veloforma teammates.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

MEN PRO/1/2
1. Evan Elken (Land Rover/Orbea)
2. Paul Bourcier (Hutch's)
3. Matt Ritzow (Paul's Bicycles)

WOMEN PRO/1/2/3
1. Robin Secrist (Veloforma)
2. Jen Akeroyd (Team Group Health)
3. Sue Butler (Monavie/Cannondale)

Find complete OBRA results HERE.

SLIDESHOW:

2009 Banana Belt #3

Banana Belt Series Moved Back One Week

UPDATE, Sunday, March 8, 10 p.m.: Next Sunday's Banana Belt (March 15) will be the first race of the 2009 Oregon Cup as previously scheduled, according to OBRA Executive Director Kenji Sugahara.

The 2009 Banana Belt will go on as a three-race series, promoter Jeff Mitchem said Sunday, despite having to cancel BB#2 because of snow on the course.

The series will take a step back one week, with the next race taking place Sunday, March 15, and the finale following one week later on March 22.

"We were lucky to have that weekend open," Micthem said. "We're doing the paperwork right now with permits and stuff. It looks like the park will be open. So we can do it."

Although the series remains at three races, the terminology to track the races has changed. Micthem explained it this way on the OBRA Chat list:

The "Three-race Banana Belt Series" will continue with an extension to March 22. For the sake of registration clarity please note:

*BB#2* died March 8, 2009
*BB#3* March 15, 2009
*BB#4* March 22, 2009

Link to Mitchem's entire update.

The Men 1/2 group wil race 66 miles in #3 and 77 miles in #4. The Cat 3 men will race 55 miles in #3 and 66 miles in #4.

Weather has never before prompted cancellation of the race, at least not since Mitchem began promoting the event eight years ago.

"It's snowed on race day before, and it's always melted by start time," Mitchem said. "But we've never had this kind of collection. I was out there at about 5 a.m., and I couldn't see across the parking lot."

It's necessary to make a decision early to catch as many people as possible before they begin traveling, Mitchem said, adding that snow still covered much of the course when he made the call.

Banana Belt #2 Canceled Because of Snow

A late-winter storm that dumped a layer of snow in and around the Portland area Sunday morning prompted promoter Jeff Mitchem to cancel the second race of the Banana Belt series scheduled for Henry Hagg Lake.

Instead, we have this classic video from the 1988 Giro's legendary Stage 14 slog over the snow-covered Gavia Pass.

Andy Hampsten, riding for the 7-Eleven squad, topped the pass with Dutchman Erik Breukink and survived the bone-chilling 25k descent that followed. Hampsten finished second on the stage behind Breukink, but his heroic effort pushed him to the top of the overall standings on his way to becoming the first (and only) American to win the Giro d' Italia.

Miles, Sander Scoop Wins At Banana Belt Opener

WOMEN 1/2/3

Karey Miles (Therapeutic Associates Inc) won the women's race in a bunch sprint ahead of Cat 3 Beth Burns (Veloce/Felt) after the field stayed mostly together during the four-lap 44-mile Banana Belt opener. (The women’s pro/1/2/3 raced together, but Cat 3s will be scored separately).

Burns said there were "a few possible" break away attempts, but the field kept coming back together until the final sprint, where Miles and Burns battled to a photo finish.

"I don’t know who Miranda Moon is," Burns said of the finishing scramble, "but I knew to jump on Veloforma’s wheel, which I did. And then I heard someone yell ‘go Karey,’ and she took off so I jumped on her wheel. And then it was just her and I at the end. She just outstretched me there."

MEN Pro/1/2

Cyclepath played the team game to perfection in the men’s race and launched Aaron Sander across the line for the team’s first win of the season.

With about two and a half laps to go Sander, Jacob Rathe (Hammer/CMG) and Paul Bourcier (Hutch’s/OIC) bridged up to a three-man break group containing Sander’s Cyclepath teammate John Browning, Seth Hosmer (HPChiro Racing) and Evan Elken (Landrover-Orbea).

"John was up front," Sander said. "Jacob and Paul attacked from the field. I got on their wheels and they pulled me up."

With two riders in a promising-looking break packed with riders from top teams, Sander’s Cyclepath teammates back in the bunch were obliged to make others do the work during the second half of the five-lap 55-mile race.

While the horsepower in the chase may not have reached maximum potential, cooperation in the break group helped the leaders build a lead of several minutes until their thoughts turned to the finish. That's when Sander took advantage of some cat-and-mouse games in the group.

"We worked together smoothly until half a lap to go when people started attacking, but we kept coming back together," he said. "On the final hill we stayed together. With about a kilometer to go Jacob and Evan seemed to be marking each other. I saw an opportunity with just under a kilometer to go, and I just went. They didn’t react right away and so I managed to stay away."

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

Men Pro/1/2
1. Aaron Sander (Cyclepath Racing)
2. Seth Hosmer (HPChiro/Hammer Nutrition)
3. Evan Elken (land Rover/Orbea)
4. Jacob Rathe (Hammer/CMG)

Hotspot points
1. Elken, Evan
2. Sander, Aaron
3. Bourcier, Paul

Women Pro/1/2/3 (3s will be scored separately)
1. Karey Miles (Therapeutic Associates Inc.)
2. Beth Burns (Veloce/Felt)
3. Jen Akeroyd (Team Group Health)

Slideshow: 2009 Banana Belt #1

Check OBRA results HERE.