Greg Levien Memorial 04/10/05

Greg Levien Memorial 10/50k
San Mateo, CA - April 10, 2005

The opening race in the Dan Burger Series took place along Canada Road by the Crystal Springs reservoir in San Mateo on Sunday, April 10, 2005. This race was held in memory of Greg Levien, a Bay Area skater who died in a climbing accident. Around 50 skaters line up for the combined 10 and 50k start at 9:15am. The weather can be unpredictable in the Bay Area, but the day's weather was sunny and nice, with temperatures in the 60s and a light wind.

Canada Road is closed every Sunday and is popular among cyclists. It is a smooth two-lane road with moderately rolling hills. Today's race was held on the "long" course, an out-and-back on a portion of this road. One lap is around 10k. Five laps is 50k.

The mass start was safe and at a moderate pace. The moderate pace continued for a while which kept the lead pack large. Gradually, skaters dropped off one by one until there were six skaters left in the lead pack by the end of the second lap.

At that point, Eddy Matzger initiated his traditional race strategy of attacking on every uphill. After the crest, he'd see who has chased and then gradually slow down to re-group with the pack. Sometimes Bryan MacKay or Howard Yeh would give chase, other times the pack would be content in letting Eddy go.

On the uphill towards the end of the fourth lap, Eddy upped the ante and formed a very large gap. Nobody chased and none in the lead pack had the energy to organize the group. Eddy successfully maintained his lead, even increasing the gap, in order to finish uncontested for the victory in 1:30:56. The chase pack finished in a sprint around 40 seconds later, with Louis Beaudoin taking second and Grant Foster placing third. I finished fourth overall.

Kimberly Perkins was the women's winner in 1:37:39. She dropped the other men in her pack to finished by herself. Earlier in the race, one of her wheels had become loose. She managed to tighten the axel while cruising on a downhill without losing position.

From SDSE, Linus Harth also made the long trek from San Diego to the Bay Area for this race. He finished third in his age group in an awesome time of 1:38:23. Congratulations!

Thanks to D. Miles of CORA for producing the only inline road racing events in the Bay Area. The next event in the Dan Burger Series will be Sunday, May 22, 2005. It will also be held on Canada Road in San Mateo.

Howard
SDSE-IR