Phelan, CA - May 22, 1999
| Phelan Scorcher (NIMS #1) Phelan, CA - May 22, 1999
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At the end of the first lap, we passed Hernan as he slowed. Then Tom
Ashton went by Eads, and as he did, Eads jumped on, only to pass Tom and
gap the entire field by about 30 yards at the start of the second lap.
Any one could see that Eads was setting up to wear out the sprinters
early, in order to have a better shot at the top 5. Eads led the entire
second lap, and kept the pace furious as a 4 man pack (Stan, Jay, Hernan
and Dana Bergman) hung on to the pacer, trying to set up for some kind
of a sprint. The end result was that Stan led out the sprint about 50
yards from the line, followed closely and later passed by Jay at the
finish. Hernan Diaz sat on Jay and followed to the line, but Stan held
up well and hung on for 2nd, Hernan third, followed closely by Dana
Bergman (4th) and Dana Eads fifth.
In the 15k event, Stan Bunn led out the pack off the line, and it was a
slow start as skaters were jockeying for position. At the first turn,
Jay and Hernan came around the outside and split Dana Eads from Stan.
Dana Eads watched from 4th position as Dana Bergman went by the pack,
about 200 yards into the lap, just before the slight uphill started.
As Jay came out to cover, Dana Eads went with him. When they got to
Bergman, he slowed, so Jay went right on by -- as did Eads, joined by
Stan. By now they were up on the high point of the course, and headed
down the faster backside. Jay pulled, then moved over to let Eads work.
As Eads moved to pull, he hesitated to pull hard, as it was early in the
race. But Etheredge reassured him -- "c'mon -- we're away -- let's go!!"
Sure enough, when Eads looked, the main field was already back by 40 yards.
So the race seemed to be set, with Etheredge, Bunn, and Eads off on an
early flyer, and willing to work together, they slowly opened the gap.
At one point Jay pulled over, hands on knees, saying -- "that's it -- let's
rest, they're here." But when Eads looked back, all he saw was Hernan
Diaz had bridged to join, no others. So Eads quickly jumped out and led
off the pulling again, anxious to enlarge the gap. Trading off at an even
pace, they did so -- with some help from Stan's relentless attacks to try
to break from the pack some 5 times, and Eads bridging and covering him
every time.
On Lap 2 of 6, Jay fell on the faster backside of the course, because
his edge caught too much of the sand shoulder on the side of the road. In
other words, he almost skated off the road. He went into a perfect 10
shoulder roll, and immediately came back up. When the dust cleared, he
had jumped back into the road, and the chase pack hadn't caught him yet.
On the 3rd lap, for some reason, Stan went back and helped pull Jay back
into the original group. It's not like Hernan and Eads weren't trying to
stay away -- they made them work to catch up, and eventually they did.
So with two laps to go, there was Jay with an injured back but still
strong, Stan as strong as ever, and Hernan and Eads hanging on and
frustrated that they hadn't gotten away from Stan and Jay earlier.
During the fourth lap, Stan finally figured out that Eads was the only
one in the group capable (at that point) of covering him. He waited
until Eads had taken his pull and was slightly winded, as he pulled off
and decelerated to the back -- Stan went. It was a good jump, but by the
time Jay had said -- "let's go!!", Eads' reaction time was just late
enough and Stan was just strong enough to open a gap of 30 yards, and
after numerous attempts at closing by Eads, with absoluteley no
assistance from the other two (in spite of Ead's prodding), Stan
eventually opened up a 50 yard gap.
At the end of lap 5, Jay took a power gel. Eads began trying to break
from the non working skaters.In the process, he got the group to within
30 yards of Bunn, early on lap 6, but when he tried to give the pull to
Jay or Hernan, no dice. Just as Bunn was about to give up to be caught,
he looked back and saw the disorganization of the chase group, and
realized he had it. He then dug deep and hammered all the way to the
finish.
Amazingly, Hernan and Jay were able to find enough energy to hang on for
the draft and cover the breaks, but not to pull towards Stan. Eads
realized at this point that he was being set up for the final sprint by
two of the best masters sprinters in the U.S., and decided to try one
last ditch effort. Halfway through the final lap he attacked with
everything, including the kitchen sink. At the top of the backside, he
hammered all the way down, forcing Jay and Hernan to work to stay in. As
the three came to the finish, Jay led out the sprint past Eads, sealing
up 2nd, while Hernan finished on his heels, 3rd. Eads fourth, about 5
yards back. Stan had finished in first about a minute earlier.
After the race, Hernan told Eads that he was about broken several times
during the chase after Bunn, and if they had been sustained a little
longer, he would have dropped.
Dana
SDSE-IR
It was a great day for racing at Gordon Hall's outdoor track in
Phelan 5/22. Temperatures were in the 50s in the morning and only
rose into the 60s. Winds were unusually light, and shifted directions
late in the morning. This fun track had many turns and was gradually
sloped.
Unfortunately, attendance was very dismal for the Open races. This
was the inaugural race for the National Inline Masters Series. You
would think that people would go to see the nation's top Masters
skaters and have the opportunity race in several events themselves.
Nonetheless, the series organizers handed out all awards as promised,
despite the low turnout.
In the Open races, the 15k was 6 laps along the long course. Half way
into the race, the lead pack was reduced to Anthony Weiner, Matthew
Berk (Empire), and me. It was a slow race since we were all sick. My
shoelace came undone on one lap. Anthony crashed off the course in a
huge dust cloud when he wasn't paying attention to where he was
going on another lap. In the final stretch, Anthony had more energy
than I did and edged me at the line. Matthew came in 3rd.
The Open 5k was 5 laps along the short course to make it more
exciting to spectate. A prem was offered on lap 2. Knowing my
competitors now, I didn't fool around with this one. Right from the
start I took off, creating a gap which I eventually held for the
entire race.
The last event of the day was the Last Wo/Man Out competition with
the Masters and Open skaters combined. This is an exciting race for
both the skaters and the spectators. There weren't enough women for
a separate race, so Helle Carlsen (Kryptonics) joined the men. The
race was run on the short course.
One by one skaters were eliminated until there were 4 left: Hernan
Diaz, Stan Bunn, Dana Eads (SDSE), and me. At this point it was just
1 lap to the final placements. Having raced the entire morning, Dana
and I knew were wouldn't be able to break away from Hernan and Stan.
So we mostly kept together until the final sprint. Stan outsprinted
me with his explosive power. Hernan and Dana finished 3rd and 4th,
respectively.
I helped officiate the Masters races, so I can't provide a summary
of those races.
This was the inaugural NIMS race, a new series founded by skaters
for skaters. Based off the cash awarded, it will prove to be a great
series. Don't forget that all NIMS events will have both Masters and
Open races. SDSE had the most skaters of any team at Phelan. Hope to
see you at #2 in St. Louis 6/13.
Howard
SDSE-IR