That’s right.  Not one, not two, but FOUR 2010 state road racing championships for the Hagerty Cycling Team, won by Lauri Brockmiller, Melissa Fritz, Craig Webb, and Lars Welton.  That, and so many other podium finishes, you’re going to want to grab a cup of coffee, sit in a comfy chair and spend a little time on this one. 

 

As the loyal readers of these postings (all four of you) will have noticed by now, for the vast majority of our races the Hagerty Cycling Team has to head to points south.  But from June 26 through 28, we all turned north for Marquette, Michigan’s Superior Bike Fest.

 

The Superior Bike Fest is one of the team’s favorite events.  It involves three days of road racing: Friday night’s twilight criterium, Saturday’s road race, and Sunday’s circuit race.  The road race serves as the state road championships.  Mind you, getting to Marquette is not altogether easy: besides the Mackinaw Bridge you have a lot of swamp territory to cover, not to mention the infamous Seney Stretch.  And, the sun almost never shines up there.  Okay, never.  If there wasn’t so much swamp and the winters weren’t so long the place would probably qualify as a rain forest.  (Your correspondent can say that because he’s from da UP, and the first time he came down state and saw blue sky, he freaked out a little).  But every year we still look forward to bike racing in da UP, for several reasons:

 

1.  After crossing the wilds of the UP Marquette rises up like some kind of oasis.  Set on a hillside overlooking Lake Superior, this is a seriously beautiful town, and features some great amenities.  It is a gorgeous place to visit, even when its raining.

 

2.  The good people of Marquette are incredibly enthusiastic about bike racing.  The twilight criterium is right down town and reliably draws bigger crowds than any other criterium we attend, except our very own Cherry Roubaix here in Traverse City at the end of August.  And these people love to cheer the racers on.  That was true again this year, despite some heavy rain.

 

3.  The racing is awesome, and challenging.  The organizers do a fantastic job juggling several different events.  The state championship road race is held on a course which takes us up and over Marquette Mountain and around the old air base.  The entire town turns out to volunteer.  Over 500 racers participate.

 

So how, you may ask, did Hagerty Cycling end up with FOUR state champions?  Well, in bike racing, racers are organized into categories and (for men) age groups.  The idea is that you race people who are similar to you in ability.  That makes for more exciting  and safer racing.

So against that backdrop, here’s the story on our four state road champions:

 

 Lauri Brockmiller: there are two words that explain Lauri’s victory: “hard work.”  Hagerty is blessed with a lot of great women riders but none of them work harder, more diligently, or more consistently than Lauri.  As a result every year she just gets stronger and stronger, and now all that effort has really paid off.  She stayed up toward the front during the entire race, marked her opponents, bided her time, and came in first in her classification at the field sprint to claim the 2010 Women’s Cat 3 state road championship.

 

Melissa Fritz: our very own “Freeway” Fritz was scoring some impressive podium finishes all season, so we knew she might be cooking up something special for the state road championship and she did not disappoint.  Essentially saying “enough of this second place business,” she blistered in at the end to take the 2010 Women’s Cat 4 state road championship.  Oh, and for an appetizer and dessert, she also claimed first place finishes in the criterium and the circuit races.  

 

Craig Webb: normally we don’t reveal race planning or strategy in these pages, but this must be said: Craig had said he was going to win this race.  He had said he would win by attacking the field at the start of the race, on the toughest hill climb – straight up Marquette Mountain.  Everyone said that wouldn’t work.  Well, “Mission Accomplished” on both.  Craig and another rider attacked the field on Marquette Mountain with a fury that couldn’t be matched by anyone else.  They got away, and never looked back.  52 miles of hard work later, Craig was the 2010 Masters 50+ state road champion.

 

Lars Welton: the Masters 45+, 50+, and 55+ fields all raced together.  When Craig Webb attacked the field on the first climb up Marquette Mountain, it set up an incredible acceleration up the mountain which just blew apart the field.  Guys were being dropped off the back left and right.  At the end of the climb, the entire men’s 55+ field had been shed – save one, and that was Lars, who stayed away to claim the 2010 Masters 55+ state road championship.  It was an awesome display of physical ability, and racing smarts.  And Lars also won the criterium the day before, and the circuit race the following day.

 

In addition to the state championships, Hagerty posted several podium finishes in the various races.  So many, we were getting whiplash trying to keep up with them all.  Here they are:

 

Twilight Criterium:  

 

1. Maggie Coco came in first place in the Girls 10-12 race.  Go, Maggie!

 

2. In the Cat 4 women’s race, Team Hagerty swept the podium.  In addition to Melissa Fritz’s first place finish, Bridgette Widrig came in 2nd and Barb Beauregard came in 3rd.

 

3. Sean Brownell was 2nd in the Junior Men 14 & Under race.

 

4. Johanna Schmidt was 2nd in the Women Cat 1,2 race.

 

5. Craig Webb was 2nd in the Masters 45+ race.

 

6. Lars Welton was 1st in the Masters 55+ race.

 

Road Race:

 

1. Ty Schmidt was 2nd in the Men’s Cat 3 race.

 

2. Dan Hofstra was 3rd in the Men’s Masters 45+ race.

 

3. Susan Vigland was 2nd in the Women’s Cat 1,2 race.

 

4. Barb Beauregard was 3rd in the Women’s Cat 4 race.

 

5. Sean Brownell was 3rd in the Junior Men 14 & Under race. 

 

6. Rachel Decker was 3rd in the Women’s Cat 3 race.

 

Circuit Race:

 

Okay this could take awhile:

 

1. Brian Hofstra put in a thrilling effort at the sprint to claim 2nd place in the Men’s Cat 3 race.

 

2. Steve Andriese basically blew the doors off the field and rode away to a 1st place finish in the Men Masters 45+.

 

3. Dan Hofstra got 3rd in the Men Masters 45+.  

 

4. Johanna Schmidt got 1st in the Women’s Cat 1,2 race.

 

5. Melissa Fritz got 1st in the Women’s Cat 4 race.

 

6. Bridgette Widrig got 2nd in the Women’s Cat 4 race.

 

7. Sean Brownell got 1st in the Junior Men’s 14 & Under.  (That’s three races, three podium finishes, in three days for Sean.  Don’t spend all that money in one place, Sean!).

 

8. Lars Welton got 1st in the Men Masters 45+. 

 

9. Lauri Brockmiller got 2nd in the Women’s Cat 3 race.

 

10. Marci Coco-Bultemeier got 3rd in the Women’s Cat 3 race.

 

Finally (and your thinking “what, isn’t that enough?”) there is the omnium competition  to mention.  Racers are scored points for each race, the better you do the more points you get; at the end the points are added up, and the riders with the most points win the omnium competition in their divisions.  The idea is to award the most consistent riders over all the races.

 

We’re pleased to announce the following omnium champions from Team Hagerty:

 

1.  Melissa Fritz: Women Cat 4

 

2.  Craig Webb: Men Masters 45+

 

3.  Lars Welton: Men Masters 55+

 

4.  Sean Brownell: (this kid again!) Junior Men 14 & Under

 

Several other Hagerty racers were high up in their ominium competitions, including Dan Hofstra, Johanna Schmidt, Susan Vigland, Lauri Brockmiller, Marci Coco-Bultemeier, and Bridgette Widrig.  Mention should also be made of Steve Andriese; lady luck did not exactly smile on Steve in the criterium and road races, but he so dominated his circuit race he still came in 8th overall in his division’s omnium competition.

 

Mention should also be made of some other accomplishments by some Hagerty folks: 

 

> Myles Weitzman: the weekend before, rode over 300 miles in a 24 hour bike race.  After that effort wonders if he should even come to Superior Bike Fest.  Shows up and rides two criteriums, the road race, and the circuit race.

 

> Laura Webb: first place in the mountain bike race!

> Scott Diment 2nd place in mens 40-46 mountain bike race!

 

> Doug Spence: Hagerty isn’t just for the racers; the racers’ spouses get to have fun too!  Doug came in 4th in the Men’s Citizens Road Race.

 

>  Fern Spence: riding strong and getting stronger!  You gotta cheer for anyone who sports a classic celeste Bianchi Veloce.

 

>  Bridgette Widrig: if they handed out awards for bike handling, Bridgette would have won hands down for her performance at the end of the Women’s Cat 4 road race.  The Cat 4 women were engulfed by the Men’s Pro Cat 1,2 field within the last 1000 meters of the race, making for a very fast, dangerous finish.  Suddenly two women crashed and Bridgette, going at full tilt, was engulfed in the carnage. Bridgette was shoved sideways, actually ending up perpendicular to the road, but never went down; using her superior bike handling skills honed from her mountain bike racing, she somehow managed to ride it out without ever touching the pavement.  The crash clearly robbed Bridgette of a higher placed finish, and that’s bike racing, but still cudos to her for managing to save herself in a tricky situation.