Minnesota State Championship Series
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Big rings, cold temps at Erik's Spring Cup
05/22/07
By Troy Melhus
A shot of the start from http://www.skinnyski.com.
Nearly 400 turn out for annual spring rite of passage
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS -- It was snowing in Duluth and raining in the western suburbs.But for the 13th annual Erik's Spring Cup bike race at Salem Hills Park this past Sunday, it was just plain cold.
November cold.
43 degrees cold.
Pretty much a wind chill out there.
Still, that didn't stop nearly 400 Minnesota bike racers turning out for what's become an Erik's Bike Shop tradition: The first MNSCS mountain bike race of the season.
This year's Spring Cup marked only its second appearance at Harmon Park (Salem Hills) after being held for more than a decade at Buck Hill in Burnsville.
For many riders, the move has been a welcome change.
"This is a great kick-off," said Penn Cycle racer Cory Gross, 33, of St. Paul, after the race. "First race of the season ... no big hills. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better venue."
Not that Sunday was easy for Gross. It marked his debut as an Expert.
"It was a rude awakening," Gross said. "This course is so fast. Everyone can just drop into the big ring and hammer."
Gross, by the way, wasn't the only one in his family to move up a class this year. Gross' dad -- 60-year-old Gary Gross -- jumped up to Comp class this year as well.
Cory Gross finished 33rd in his class, nearly 16 minutes behind Expert winner Paul Hanson of St. Peter, who just eeked out the win over Chris Fisher of Inver Grove Heights.
And when I say eeked out, I mean eeeked out: Hanson won by a tenth of a second, with third-place finisher Brendan Moore of Shakopee finishing just one second behind them.
These guys averaged 19.1 mph over the course of five laps -- 23 miles. (The course was 4.6 miles). That's significant compared to the average speed of Comp class winner Lonny Mahoney of Prior Lake, who averaged 18.8 mph -- over four laps. Mahoney beat Tim Brandvoid of Minneapolis by 9 seconds.
In Expert women, Jenna Zander of North Mankato beat Kyia Malenkovich of St. Cloud by 50 seconds.
"Last year we were going head-to-head and I was second to Jenna," Malenkovich said. "This year it was basically the same thing. It was intense."
Malenkovich, 31, has been racing since 1996. She said that while the overall race numbers were down (by about 100 participants this year), she saw more women out here than in previous years.
"Ten is pretty good," she said. "Sometimes you'll pull up to the line and see maybe two."
(Speaking of women, Malenkovich will also be presenting two skills clinics for women and juniors in June, at Maplelag resort in Callaway and Revolution Ski & Cycle in St. Cloud. More details can be found at Malenkovich's blog, www.kyiabikes.blogspot.com).
Meanwhile in Sport class, Ben Lemler of Forest Lake beat Single Speeder Owen Thoele of Minneapolis by 8 seconds for the overall Sport win. Christopher North of St. Paul won the Citizen class, and Nolan Heppner of St. Paul won the Kid's Comp.
Racer Dave Stoen, of Brooklyn Park, who won the Sport class' 50+ division (and placed 19th overall), said despite the cold morning temperatures, course conditions were optimal for the race this year.
"The course was better this year," Stoen said. "There was less gravel out there, which made it a faster course."
Malenkovich agreed.
"It's a great venue for MNSCS," Malenkovich said. "It's not a ski area and that brings out more people. It's a great, fast course, so a lot of people like it."
Course conditions, of course, didn't come that way by accident. Volunteers from the Minnesota Off Road Cyclists (MORC) were out preparing the course several weeks in advance, said Erik's Bike Shop Marketing Coordinator Libby Shea Hurley.
Those volunteers -- as well as volunteers who helped register racers and hand up water -- were key to Sunday's race, Shea Hurley said.
"Most people don't see the amount of work that goes into the course," Shea Hurley said. "It often feels like a thankless job, but it's critical."
The race is the single largest fund-raiser for MORC, as all of the race fees go directly to the mountain biking group. Erik's Bike Shop also covers a significant cost of preparing the race (permit fees, portions of the required insurance), while other sponsors, such as Chippewa Spring Water donate products, Shea Hurley said.
The true success of the race, though, was seeing the number of racers in both the Kids Comp race (21) and in the Shimano Youth Series race (20), Shea Hurley said.
"We had to send out two waves!"
"To me, the whole issue of all of this is trying to bring new blood into the sport," Shea Hurley said.
"So it was really neat to see that many new riders out there."
Troy Melhus is a Comp racer for the Peace Coffee Bike Team. He can be reached at tmelhus@mac.com.
