From: warsa@carina.unm.edu (j warsa)
Subject: RESULTS: Hotter 'n Hell Hundred USCF Pro/1-2
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 15:49:03 GMT
Organization: Universidad de Nuevo Mexico, Alburquerque
Followup-To: rec.bicycles.racing

I'm posting this before Paul Sery does, hopefully.

Hotter 'n Hell attracts over 10,000 riders to Wichita Falls, TX, every August
for tours ranging from 6 to 100 miles. Held in conjuction with this bicycling
spectacle are the USCF Road Races and Criteriums. I rode in the Pro/1-2 races;
following is a brief report of our race, held on August 22-23, 1992.

The 7:00 a.m. start of the 100 mile Men's road race began with an attack
from the gun by Roberto Gaggioli (Coors Light), who had 6 teammates in the
field. On this cool (for summer time in Wichita Falls) and windy day, noone
chased right away, as Gag jumped behind the lead vehicles. I jumped
across with the assistance of the cars, with someone on my wheel. We caught
him quickly and went by him as he yelled something. I think we went by too 
fast for him to get on. The other guy and I exchanged two pulls each, and soon
the pack was back up to us. My legs were already burning and the race was only
about five minutes old. A couple attacks followed quickly, but nothing
got away for very long, although, since the course was flat, the riders were 
very anxious to get something going. Also, there were alot of teams in 
attendance, including Coors Light, Shaklee with 5 riders, 3 riding for Saturn, 
Evian, Team Duckhead, Team Turin, Compex (composed of several Morgul-Bismark 
riders), TCBY, L.A. Sherriff's and Spago, so everyone knew that a successful 
break would have to include riders from the big teams, especially Shaklee 
and Coors Light. The wind was at our backs for the first portion of the 
race and, in conjunction with the numerous attacks, kept the speed high. 

As the course turned east at the ten mile point, Rod Bush of Team Shaklee, 
Gabriel Aragon of B.R. Gordon Construction (my team), and Dave Mann (Coors
Light) made a short-lived move off the front, that was countered by Roy 
Knickman (Coors Light), with Rich McClung (Shaklee) on his wheel, followed
by Schmear (TCBY) and Andy Lawson (Compex). I saw the gap was at about
25 meters, as I was near the front while my teammate was away, and I jumped
around on the right side of the group. I made it across quickly, and
everyone started working to establish the gap. Knickman was the strong man
in the break, with Rich matching him pull for pull, although he wasn't
accelerating like Roy. The hot spot sprint at mile 20 (there were five sprints,
each paying three places deep: $200, $150, and $100), was very fast, and
Knickman exploded away from McClung, with Schmear taking third. A small
gap opened on me and the Compex rider, but they briefly waited for him and 
then me. We started pulling again, and Knickman had control. I had to sit out
pulls every now and again, as did Lawson, and occasionally Schmear. But,
the course turned west, and the south-southwest wind started taking its toll.
Nobody really shirked pulls, and there was always at least four riders pulling.
The second hot spot sprint caused me to drop (Knickman won), and they didn't 
wait, but I closed it right away. I was in pain when I pulled the in the 
next few crosswind rotations, but when we turned into the wind, Roy slowed 
the pace, and pulling was easier. The third sprint was at about mile 50, and
again went to Knickman, but I didn't let a gap open that time since the sprint
was a little slower. At this point everything was a blur, but we kept going,
and I kept the hope that we would stay away, since the gap was over four 
minutes at some points. We were informed at about mile 60 that a chase group
of 15 riders had formed, bringing our gap down to 2 minutes. A crash in that
pack ended their hopes, however, but not before Roy just about caused my legs 
to break when he took a furious pull for about 2 minutes in a crosswind, and
that's where we could see how really strong he was.

The course then turned back south into the wind on the final leg to Wichita
Falls. As we headed to the fourth hot spot, Lawson began sitting on more,
and I tried to pull more to make up for it. The sprint was at mile 80, and
Knickman jumped on a small overpass, with McClung on his wheel. The rest of
us were gapped, and I said "Oh no. He's going to keep going." We got together
right away and began to chase, but the dynamic duo was steadily increasing 
their lead. Then, TCBY's Schmear attacked us (!) and we caught him just before
the feed hill. At the top, the leaders had at least a minute on us, while
we were still about minute and a half in front of the main field, which by
now had shredded in the crosswind to about thrity riders. Schmear, in his
infinite wisdom had decided that he should work with us, and we pulled into
the headwind for all we were worth. The effort was for nothing, as we turned
east again for a short time with a slight cross-tail wind. Here, after nearly
6 miles of working, we got caught on the last of several rollers, just shy of 
the final hot spot sprint. The pack was guttered on the left side of the 
rolling enclosure, and the three of us got dropped, finishing the last 12 miles
together.  Ahead of us, the remaining pack split, with eight riders going clear.
Knickman dropped McClung about 1 1/2 miles from the finish, and Bostick
won the sprint from the first group for third, ahead of two Coors Light. 
The rest of the top twenty money spots were filled by a few riders who got 
clear, including my teammate Aragon who got fifteenth, and a small sprint of
about six riders. I got nothing after a long day in the saddle, except 
sore legs.

The next day's criterium was moderately paced, with attacks and control by 
Coors Light. Gaggioli won from a three man break that included Roy Knickman
and another rider. The rest was a setup for a field sprint. I did some
work for our man Gabe, and nearly crashed on the last lap as some young rider
came up on the inside of me on a left turn. He was trying to take my position
or move up inside, and he hit my left elbow hard enough to cause my front
wheel to slide out to the right. I stood out of the saddle, and shifted my
weight to the outside, at the same time that I was pushing back hard on him.
I barely stayed up, and I noticed after the race that his skinsuit was 
all torn up. So I asked him if he had crashed in any criteriums, and
he told me he had gone down three times this year! I told him to take it
easy next time, especially when he's battling for 50th place on the last lap.
Yikes!

jim warsa
albuquerque
-- 
jim warsa
albuquerque
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.racing