The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Team Brick Oven/Crested Butte Builders hits the pavement
Perhaps fueled by the excitement of the Tour de France, or just looking for a little road racing fun, six members of the Brick Oven/Crested Butte Builders (BO/CBB) team headed over Monarch Pass to compete in the Salida Omnium Friday through Sunday, July 25-27.
In the end, the team proved that they could easily slip off the knobbies and onto some slicks and still compete, even without shaving their legs, as a couple of riders posted top three results, and one brought home a Colorado State title.
The Omnium is a three-day stage race that opened with an eight-mile time trial event on Friday. Team rider Ethan Passant took 13th place in the time trial among Cat 3 riders, an extremely competitive category consisting of seasoned road racers.
Missy Ochs made her first foray into the time trial format in Salida and barely missed a beat riding to a fourth place finish among Cat 4 riders.
Dave Ochs struggled in his time trial, but not for a lack of effort, coming in 13th place in the Cat 4 class. While Ochs posted an actual riding time worthy of first or second place in his category, mass confusion at the start caused Dave to miss his start time, adding two minutes to his overall finish time.
The team peaked on Saturday as Dawn French, Aaron Huckstep and Fred Sandusky joined the team for the road race portion of the Omnium.
The road race consisted of seven laps on a 12-mile course with a total of more than 9,000 feet of climbing.
French led the Crested Butte charge on the day, posting the top result of all the riders, taking first place in Cat 4 and second place among Cat 3 riders. She was named the Colorado State Champion in her class.
Passant looked to defend his state title from last year in Cat 3 but came up a couple places shy of a repeat, to finish in third place.
Huckstep led all BO/CBB riders in the Cat 4 road race with a second-place finish, Sandusky came in ninth place and Dave couldn’t quite shake off the previous day and night’s activities and came in 12th.
Missy looked to build alliances out on the road among other Cat 4 riders in her road race to reel in the lead group but found everyone to be more foe than friend. Left to her own devices, Missy battled through the mix to end up in sixth place that day.
The Omnium ended with a downtown criterium on Sunday with a one-mile track laid out in town in a figure eight format making for some intense cornering. Throw in a serious downpour and the game was on for all riders in all categories.
Passant was the lone BO/CBB rider all weekend in Cat 3 and closed the Omnium with a seventh-place finish in the criterium to take third place in the overall Omnium standings in his class.
French continued her assault on the Cat 4 women to take second place in the criterium. Her efforts in two of the three days were solid enough to put her in third place overall, despite missing the first day time trial event.
Missy took fifth place racing for the first time in a criterium to finish in fourth place overall among Cat 4 women.
Sandusky took fifth place in the criterium on Sunday and Dave put it all together on the final day to dust his Cat 4 opponents, attacking on the last lap to hold off the peloton for a first-place finish in the criterium and end the weekend in fourth place overall for the Omnium Cat 4 riders.
