The 7th Annual Pork Chop Challenge in St. Cloud was won in dominating fashion by Duane Dickey (Flanders) and Jenna Zander (Specialized.com). This was Dickey’s second consecutive win at the race and Zander returned to the top step of the podium after taking last seasons race off. Zander is known throughout the nation as one of the best mountain bikers and just recently came off a second place finish at the 2008 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival after winning that event in 2007.
The men’s field was abuzz prior to the start with the revelation of Dickey’s transfer to the Flanders/MBRC team for the 2008 CX season. The move seemed to payoff for the Lyndale Ave. shop when Dickey was able to pull away from U-23 National Champion Bjorn Selander (Ridley) and 2008 Chequamegon runner-up Jeff Hall (Salsa) with 3.5 laps to go.
The race wasn’t always cat and mouse as the first lap saw a strong group of four pull away from the field as Aric Hareland (Synergy) was able to make the lead group. As the laps continued Hareland started to show the effects of his horrid crash at last weeks Chequamegon and he began to gap off from the leading trio. When the lead group whittled down to three it became obvious that this was Hall’s first cross race as he was having some difficulties remounting next to the smooth transitions of Selander and Dickey, but Hall continued to grunt it out and proved to all that he will be a force on the cyclocross calendar in 2008/09.
With 9 laps left Dickey launched the first decisive attack on the backside of the course at the two barriers at the end of the bike path. With Hall and Selander sharing the workload to bring the Flanders rider back it became evident that the gap would not last and perhaps the race would be over for Dickey. With the catch Selander quickly dropped Dickey and Hall struggled to maintain pace through the double barriers conveniently placed on the hills near the end of the lap. Yet with 5 laps to go Dickey still was within striking distance and a hard effort on the newly added cyclepath the gap was diminished.
The rest of the Men’s field was paced by Hareland, Pat Lemiuex (Bianchi/GP), Paul Ellis (Bianchi/GP), Matt Williams (Grandstay), and last season’s revelation, David Hackworthy (Ridley).
Jenna Zander quickly took control of the Women’s race in St. Cloud with two quick opening laps that quickly seperated her from last season’s winner Linda Cooper (Great Plains). Although the women’s field only had 6 racers they were all among the fastest in the state in the discipline last year. The other women in the field were Maria Stewart (Velo Bella), Casey Ellis (Bianchi/GP), Corey Coogan (Ritchey), and Margot Herman (Ritchey). The most notable absence was Linda Sone (Ritchey) who proved to be quite the competition to Cooper during last season’s races.
With a start only 30seconds behind the Cat3 and 45+ Men the women had the unfortunate task of working their way through the slower mens field before having the opportunity to see an open course. As Zander caught the slower men it became clear that she was able to work through the field on the flatter sections while Cooper was caught out on a few sections. With these two riders moving clear for the top two steps on the podium the race for third became an interesting one to watch.Stewart was solidly in third with eight laps to go, but was reeled in by Ellis and Herman and the trio began to battle for the last spot. A few strong finishing laps by Ellis proved to be enough as she took the points for her new Bianchi/GP team. As it was proven last year the elite women’s field is surely one of the best in the country as their are quite a few women who will be battling it out all season for the top spot in the CRY competition.
With next weeks UCI race in Madison it may be a few more weeks till we will be able to witness the 2008 battle of the Linda’s at the Orono CX race. We can only hope that the women will be able to receive the preferred start that they deserve.*bikethrow has yet to see or hear of the results for the Moorehead Cross race held on Saturday. If you know of anything please feel free to post the news in the comment section.
Full Results here.
photos by Frye
Porkwood “Looking Good”
Super Rookie grabbed Duane Dickey after the race for an interview.
Comments 15
St. Cloud had there best corse EVER in my eyes .
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 7:44 am ¶Thanx Frye fer lett’n me get some photo time! (I’s a lil’ beat up from the mtb race)
Mtb coverage comin soon. Mnscs results fer Team comp, andindividuals.
Um…it looks like Duane was in the 35+category, not the the 1,2 race.
I know people will get fired up, but it’s always a little bittersweet to see someone who doped in the past win a race…Maybe lifetime bans would be more of effective.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 9:57 am ¶Dewey won the overall, but registered in the 35+ category. This has no bearing on outcome of the race (only in the CRY competition which has zero monetary payout).
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 11:42 am ¶“In the past” are the key words. Let it go.
PS: It’s “Ridley” not “Ritchey” that Linda and co. race for.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 11:44 am ¶Yip Soupy Foster = Lame and is not faster then the fast.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 11:52 am ¶Hell Dewey’s still punishing him self by riding bikes too small fer him:) what a guy, skinny guy though.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 1:03 pm ¶And correect “Y.S.F.” is a totally lame, even when I spouted about the past, I still put my real name.
In the past?
Great seeing you out there at the party Hollywood.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 1:05 pm ¶alright i’ll give in, win at all costs. and if you get caught, race wisport for a while…
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 1:16 pm ¶…and if you don’t get caught, ride on!
ok, i’ll apologize for bringing up the past. but it’s still hard for me to watch amazing performances and not question them. when i raced a number of years ago (started in the Cs, won the series, raced Bs, won the state championships, won the B WI series, and now i just ride to enjoy the scenery) i remember watching and cheering for Adam Bergman as he destroyed, no decimated, a field at a cross race in Wisconsin. of course, that was the year he got caught. i was very disappointed and still feel that people who knowingly dope are being pretty disrespectful to the cycling community. do i have anything against them? no. they may be fine individuals that just made some mistakes. do they deserve another chance? probably…but what bugs me the most about it is that any landis-like performance is called into question. this isn’t fair to the sport, which i still love!
cheers,
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 1:37 pm ¶finn
ps-will bikethrow be covering the UCI race in Wisconsin this weekend?
Hope so…
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 2:37 pm ¶Yes.
I will be there with my recorder and pen.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 2:38 pm ¶…nice write-up about the men’s and women’s races.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 10:26 am ¶Speaking of women’s races, is “Casey Ellis” of SPBRC formerly known as Casey Cessna of IS Corp. in Wisconsin?
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 12:41 pm ¶correctamoondo, steven.
and yes thats a flipp’n real good race recap, like two in a row. the state roads was another.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 1:23 pm ¶Here is the “Fat” on this past weekend:
Posted 24 Sep 2008 at 4:19 pm ¶http://www.skinnyski.com/racing/display.asp?Id=13151
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