Lone cyclist fares well in short Colo. weekend races
Due to school, work and other commitments, team president Ira Tibbitts was the only USU cyclist who made the trip to the Colorado School of Mines for this weekend’s race.
Tibbitts placed 10th in the second of the two races, the circuit race, which is a 60-minute time trial on a 3-kilometer loop.
Tibbitts said he was actually in the lead in the circuit race until the very end.
“A lot of the race, I was able to lead and it came down to the last hill climb. It was an uphill finish for a quarter of a mile and I was ahead by 100 yards or so at the bottom of the hill, and then about halfway up about 10 riders caught me. For the last three quarters of the hill there was one guy from Fort Lewis College that just took off. It was impressive how much power he had,” Tibbitts said.
Tibbitts completed 25 laps on the loop.
The other event was a hill climb time trial – 4 1/2 miles up an 8 percent grade.
“For the hill climb, I was disappointed in the gusts of wind. I didn’t prepare enough for that,” said Tibbitts, who competed in the men’s A category in both races.
To improve on his performance, Tibbitts said he will focus more on specific situational training, such as sprint finishes and hill climbs. Tibbitts said the margin dividing winners and losers in these races is so slight, many riders are known to dump out their water bottles before the final sprint to save weight.
Tibbitts reported a good turnout for the meet in Golden, Colo.
“It would’ve been cool to have a few more teammates here, but a lot of people really like the long road races and all they were doing was the short hill climb and the circuit race,” Tibbitts said.
Now the focus for USU cycling turns to next weekend’s race in Salt Lake City. Tibbitts is hoping to bring a full complement of riders down to University of Utah because “the more riders we get down there, the more points we can score.”
Anyone interested in racing next weekend can go to www.utahcycling.org for details or to USU cycling’s Web site at www.usu.edu/cycling for more information.
Tibbitts summed the roadtrip up by saying, “I was very happy with the circuit race. I was really satisfied. Overall it was worthwhile.”
-graham@cc.usu.edu