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2009 Low-Key Hillclimbs
Week 4 Results: Soda Springs
24 Oct 2009

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Ron Brunner continues his remarkable series, 3 for 3 over 110 points (Luke Burton photo)

The Action

We have Christine's photos, Luke's mid-climb shots, Josh's photos approaching the finish, Rich's finish line photos and Illumix posted!!

Another week of spectacular weather awaited Low-Keyers as we revisted a climb from 1997 and 1998, Soda Springs Road. Yours truly wasn't in the Bay area during those years, so got to only watch results from far-off Austin, Texas. I finally rode the climb last year, confirming that it is indeed a challenge up to the standards of even the most seasoned low-keyer. However, I admit that trial ride failed to fully prepare me for what lay ahead, and today approaching the summit I died what seemed a thousand deaths as what I thought was the summit proved to be just another turn, another transition, on what may be the longest single-road continuous climb in the Bay area (Diablo being two separate roads).

The standard setters so far: Tracy Colwell with 30:03 in 1997, and Laura Stern's 37:25 in 1998. Some thought this week's climbers would crack the half-hour, perhaps with both records getting shattered.

And it was close, oh so close. Chris Phipps, perhaps wishing he'd removed that extra bottle cage (among other things) came within a single second of Tracy's precision-timed effort to finish in an official time of 30:04. So Tracy's record stands. To be fair, Tracy likely wasn't any more careful to strip mass prior to his 1997 climb.

Eric Balfus and yours truly finished off the top 3.

Janet Martinez's time may not have been good enough to crack Laura's 11-year-old record, but was still strong enough to make it an impressive three-for-three for her this year. However, due to Mei Wei's well-timed volunteer credit (for week 3, Tunitas Creek Road, where scores were relatively low due to drafting and a turnout of strong riders), she retains her overall lead by a microscopic margin of 0.1 points. Things will change next week when we begin counting three scores for the first time this year. Recent US master's national champion in the pursuit, Mary Ellen Allen, is next, leading the women's 55+ category.

The men's standings go relatively unchanged. Chris cemented his position at the top for awhile with his excellent result, while second place Justin Lucke wasn't there today, and third place Eric Balfus discarded his score in favor his scores from the first two weeks.

In the junior rankings, for the third week out of three Andre Swart scored between 99 and 100 points to take a strong lead there. Each week he edges slowly, so slowly towards that 100 point barrier! Solid riding by Andre! He's getting close to Menso De Jong's junior scoring record of 369.85 points from 2006, the year we changed the scoring system to median-based.

In the team rankings, again scores were discarded by the big two and Western Wheelers holds a pathologically narrow lead over second-place LGBRC. As already noted, things will change @ Montevina when another score kicks in. And with their climb-leading team effort today Western Wheels has the strongest throwaway score, so LGBRC is going to have to produce an impressive result to take the lead next week. Bike Trip and Metrigear were second and third this week ahead of LGBRC and Sisters and Misters, although sharp-eyed observers will note LGBRC's score contributing to the overall rankings would have put them in a near-tie with Bike Trip for second this week (this latter score including Rich Hill's volunteer points).

So an exciting week this week, as usual!

Thanks to coordinator Gary Griffin, with help from Luke Burton, Cara Coburn, Rune Dahl, Sharlene Gee, Josh Hadley, Rich Hill, Christine Holmes, Chris Phipps, and Rikke Preisler for making today's climb possible!

Results

Men

median time = 38:45

pl  #   rider                     team                     category             time       mph  fph score
1   66  Christopher Phipps        Western Wheelers         35+                  30:04    10.67 4724 128.88  
2   49  Eric Balfus               LGBRC                                         31:44    10.11 4477 122.12  
3   1   Dan Connelly              Low-Key                  40+                  32:06    10.00 4425 120.71  
4   28  Ciaran Byrne                                                            32:12     9.97 4412 120.37  
5   129 Ammon Skidmore            Team Roaring Mouse       30+                  32:14     9.95 4406 120.19  
6   101 Mark Edwards              Bike Trip                45+                  32:15     9.95 4405 120.16  
7   58  Clark Foy                 Metrigear                45+                  32:17     9.94 4401 120.05  
8   18  Tim Clark                 Metrigear                40+                  32:23     9.91 4387 119.66  
9   196 Dominic Pezzoni                                    20-24                32:30     9.87 4370 119.20  
10  283 Geoff Drake               Bike Trip                50+                  32:44     9.81 4340 118.40  
11  315 Tom Gardin                                         45+                  32:59     9.73 4307 117.48  
12  139 Laurent Pfertzel                                   45+                  33:20     9.63 4262 116.27  
13  144 Andy Brisnehan            Western Wheelers         50+                  33:27     9.60 4248 115.87  
14  80  Bill Davis                Google                   25-29                33:36     9.55 4227 115.30  
15  151 Doug Philippone           Palantir                 35+                  33:36     9.55 4227 115.30  
16  32  Nils Tikkanen             Bike Trip                3                    33:42     9.52 4214 114.97  
17  7   James Porter              Western Wheelers         3                    33:44     9.51 4211 114.89  
18  93  Thomas Novikoff           Webcor/Alto Velo         2                    34:10     9.39 4157 113.41  
19  259 Matt Wocasek              Bike Trip                3                    34:22     9.34 4134 112.78  
20  23  Ron Brunner               Low-Key                  Commuter             34:42     9.25 4094 111.67  
21  410 John Walker               Google                   45+                  34:48     9.22 4082 111.36  
22  243 Jeff Farnsworth           San Jose Bike Club       50+                  35:06     9.14 4047 110.41  
23  192 Michael Simos             LGBRC                    35+                  35:10     9.13 4040 110.20  
24  291 Tim Sawyer                Bike Trip                45+                  35:29     9.05 4004 109.23  
25  44  Michael Chasse            Bike Dads                45+                  35:30     9.04 4002 109.17  
26  226 Brian Edwards             Rocky Mounts/Pearl Izumi 30+                  35:38     9.01 3986 108.74  
27  414 David Quincy              Sponge Bob                                    35:48     8.96 3968 108.25  
28  138 Carmelo Rios              Plus 3                   50+                  35:52     8.95 3960 108.03  
29  244 Michael Barnes                                                          35:57     8.93 3952 107.80  
30  276 Adam Brinkman                                      25-29                35:59     8.92 3947 107.67  
31  401 Jacob Berkman                                                           36:04     8.90 3938 107.44  
32  120 Peter Mehlitz                                      45+                  36:10     8.87 3928 107.14  
33  98  Bruce Gardner             Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  35+                  36:35     8.77 3883 105.92  
34  25  Carl Butler               Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  50+                  36:44     8.74 3866 105.47  
35  420 Dave Rossow               Webcor/Alto Velo         35+                  37:01     8.67 3838 104.70  
36  43  Joseph Sullivan                                    35+                  37:05     8.65 3830 104.49  
37  74  Benoit Pelczar            Bike Trip                35+                  37:12     8.63 3819 104.19  
38  94  Nathan Cauffman           UID                      30+                  37:15     8.62 3814 104.05  
39  45  Sean Broeder              Silicon Valley Triathlon 45+                  37:25     8.58 3796 103.56  
40  323 Bart Johnson              SLACer                   40+                  37:33     8.55 3784 103.22  
41  33  Martin Hyland             Western Wheelers         50+                  37:41     8.52 3769 102.82  
42  316 Christian Paquet          Doogie                   50+                  38:02     8.44 3735 101.90  
43  87  Chuck Spiteri             Pen Velo/Pomodoro        50+                  38:13     8.40 3717 101.40  
44  161 Mike Salameh                                       55+                  38:14     8.39 3715 101.35  
45  413 John Richardson           Over The Hill            55+                  38:20     8.37 3706 101.10  
46  115 Martin Hampton            Pen Velo/Pomodoro        45+                  38:30     8.34 3689 100.65  
47  59  Scott Martin              Bike Trip                50+                  38:31     8.33 3688 100.62  
48  56  David Vrane               SLACer                   45+                  38:44     8.29 3668 100.07  
49  79  Gino Cetani               Western Wheelers         35+                  38:44     8.29 3667 100.05  
50  96  Phil Dubach               Western Wheelers         35+                  38:46     8.28 3664  99.95  
51  109 Shance Ordell             Western Wheelers         35+                  38:50     8.26 3657  99.77  
52  230 Pete Dunten               SLACer                   45+                  38:51     8.26 3656  99.74  
53  114 Andre Swart               Ryro                     Junior               38:52     8.26 3655  99.71  
54  100 Eric Murray               Webcor/Alto Velo         45+                  38:55     8.25 3650  99.57  
55  140 Gary Shockey                                       35+                  39:11     8.19 3625  98.90  
56  402 Bill Preucel              Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  45+                  39:42     8.08 3578  97.61  
57  136 Fred Egley                Dos Egley's              45+                  40:00     8.02 3552  96.89  
58  137 Neal Herman               Spike the Wonder Dog     50+                  40:14     7.98 3531  96.33  
59  421 Patrick Keller                                     40+                  40:14     7.98 3531  96.31  
60  75  Dan Cervelli              Palantir                                      40:15     7.98 3530  96.30  
61  269 Jeff Shute                Google                   30+                  40:17     7.97 3526  96.18  
62  29  Thomas Rabedeau           SLACer                   50+                  40:40     7.89 3493  95.30  
63  268 Vince Valvano                                                           40:46     7.87 3485  95.07  
64  85  John Carrino              Palantir                 25-29                40:49     7.86 3481  94.95  
65  132 George Junour             Santa Cruz                                    41:05     7.81 3457  94.31  
66  422 Craig Sander                                       45+                  41:07     7.81 3456  94.27  
67  35  Stephen Fong              San Jose Bike Club       40+                  41:18     7.77 3439  93.82  
68  324 Paul Melville             Doogie                   55+                  41:31     7.73 3422  93.36  
69  332 Jens Weber                Doogie                   30+                  41:34     7.72 3418  93.24  
70  103 Christopher Pistor                                                      41:53     7.66 3392  92.53  
71  146 William Von Kaenel        LGBRC                    50+                  41:56     7.65 3387  92.40  
72  69  Nic Brummell              Atlas                    45+                  42:21     7.58 3355  91.51  
73  54  Barry Burr                Two legs to stand on     50+                  42:37     7.53 3334  90.95  
74  303 Larry Berg                                         50+                  42:38     7.53 3332  90.91  
75  407 Mark LaForge              SS/L Cycling Club        50+                  42:47     7.50 3321  90.59  
76  400 Chris Toshok              RAMROD                   5                    43:13     7.43 3287  89.68  
77  171 Scott Barry                                        40+                  43:30     7.38 3265  89.07  
78  70  Garry Chinn               Silicon Valley Triathlon                      43:47     7.33 3244  88.50  
79  64  Han Wen                                            40+                  43:55     7.31 3234  88.23  
80  247 Keijiro Ikebe             Livestrong               Livestrong           44:18     7.25 3207  87.49  
81  91  Patrick Callahan          Western Wheelers         40+                  44:18     7.25 3207  87.49  
82  38  Thomas Preisler           LGBRC                    50+                  44:33     7.21 3189  87.00  
83  423 Ed Cesar                  Team Roaring Mouse                            44:48     7.16 3171  86.51  
84  125 Jerrick McCullough                                 40+                  46:02     6.97 3086  84.18  
85  405 Pascal Bruyere                                     40+                  46:21     6.92 3064  83.60  
86  363 James Dudley                                                            46:35     6.89 3049  83.18  
87  406 Bernhard Hiller           Jelly Belly              50+                  46:40     6.88 3044  83.05  
88  122 Mark Powers               Pen Velo/Pomodoro        50+                  47:39     6.73 2981  81.32  
89  107 Richard Allen             Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  60+                  47:48     6.71 2972  81.06  
90  251 Christopher Olson         Google                   5                    48:00     6.69 2959  80.73  
91  21  Kley Cardona              ACTC                     45+                  48:46     6.58 2913  79.47  
92  418 Tommy Abdal                                        5                    49:42     6.46 2858  77.98  
93  89  Bob Gumaer                UID                      50+                  49:59     6.42 2842  77.52  
94  117 Bob Corman                Spike the Wonder Dog     50+                  50:23     6.37 2819  76.91  
95  409 Mike Ahern                LGBRC                    40+                  51:00     6.29 2785  75.98  
96  415 Steve Youtsey             Dolce Vita Cycling       4/45+                52:04     6.16 2728  74.42  
97  126 John Conklin                                       40+                  52:33     6.11 2703  73.74  
98  253 Chris Chang               Old & slow               45+                  53:20     6.02 2664  72.66  

Women

median time = 47:22

pl  #   rider                     team                     category             time       mph  fph score
1   102 Janet Martinez            Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  40+                  39:47     8.07 3571 119.08  
2   77  Mary Ellen Allen          Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  55+                  42:53     7.48 3312 110.46  
3   416 Lisa Gordon               Palantir                 45+                  42:59     7.47 3305 110.20  
4   411 Leah Toeniskoetter        Turning Wheels for Kids                       43:00     7.46 3303 110.15  
5   39  Christy Cowley            Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  40+                  43:33     7.37 3262 108.77  
6   8   Lucia Mokres              LGBRC                                         43:46     7.33 3246 108.24  
7   417 Lyresa Pleskovitch        Western Wheelers         40+                  43:49     7.33 3242 108.13  
8   301 Laura Schuster            Silicon Valley Triathlon 40+                  45:47     7.01 3103 103.47  
9   404 Cathy Foy                 Metrigear                Beginner             45:50     7.00 3099 103.34  
10  37  Laura Hipp                Western Wheelers                              46:33     6.90 3052 101.78  
11  245 Laura Egley               Dos Egley's              45+                  48:12     6.66 2947  98.29  
12  60  Lori Fabris               Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy  50+                  49:03     6.54 2896  96.57  
13  412 Laura Jump                Spike the Wonder Dog     4                    50:25     6.37 2818  93.98  
14  403 Liz Dillon                Metrigear                Beginner             50:25     6.37 2818  93.97  
15  22  Kelly Kasik                                                             51:38     6.22 2751  91.74  
16  61  Lisa Emmerich             Team Rwanda              45+                  54:56     5.84 2586  86.24  
17  149 Ingrid McCarty            Western Wheelers         50+                  59:03     5.44 2406  80.24  
18  4   Pat Parseghian            Google                   50+                  62:42     5.12 2266  75.56  
19  118 Christine Holmes          Low-Key                  40+                  66:32     4.82 2135  71.21  
20  209 Christina Vaughn          Google                   50+                  69:04     4.65 2057  68.59  

Team Rankings

pl  team                        score scoring
1   Western Wheelers           359.63 (Christopher Phipps, Andy Brisnehan, James Porter)
2   Bike Trip                  353.53 (Mark Edwards, Geoff Drake, Nils Tikkanen)
3   Metrigear                  343.06 (Clark Foy, Tim Clark, Cathy Foy)
4   LGBRC                      340.56 (Eric Balfus, Michael Simos, Lucia Mokres)
5   Sr's & Mr's of No Mercy    338.32 (Janet Martinez, Mary Ellen Allen, Christy Cowley)
6   Google                     322.84 (Bill Davis, John Walker, Jeff Shute)
7   Palantir                   321.80 (Doug Philippone, Lisa Gordon, Dan Cervelli)
8   Webcor/Alto Velo           317.68 (Thomas Novikoff, Dave Rossow, Eric Murray)
9   Low-Key                    303.59 (Dan Connelly, Ron Brunner, Christine Holmes)
10  SLACer                     303.02 (Bart Johnson, David Vrane, Pete Dunten)
11  Silicon Valley Triathlon   295.54 (Sean Broeder, Laura Schuster, Garry Chinn)
12  Doogie                     288.49 (Christian Paquet, Paul Melville, Jens Weber)
13  Pen Velo/Pomodoro          283.36 (Chuck Spiteri, Martin Hampton, Mark Powers)
14  Spike the Wonder Dog       267.22 (Neal Herman, Laura Jump, Bob Corman)
15  Team Roaring Mouse         206.70 (Ammon Skidmore, Ed Cesar)
16  San Jose Bike Club         204.23 (Jeff Farnsworth, Stephen Fong)
17  Dos Egley's                195.18 (Laura Egley, Fred Egley)
18  UID                        181.57 (Nathan Cauffman, Bob Gumaer)
19  Turning Wheels for Kids    110.15 (Leah Toeniskoetter)
20  Bike Dads                  109.17 (Michael Chasse)
21  Rocky Mounts/Pearl Izumi   108.74 (Brian Edwards)
22  Sponge Bob                 108.25 (David Quincy)
23  Plus 3                     108.03 (Carmelo Rios)
24  Over The Hill              101.10 (John Richardson)
25  Ryro                        99.71 (Andre Swart)
26  Santa Cruz                  94.31 (George Junour)
27  Atlas                       91.51 (Nic Brummell)
28  Two legs to stand on        90.95 (Barry Burr)
29  SS/L Cycling Club           90.59 (Mark LaForge)
30  RAMROD                      89.68 (Chris Toshok)
31  Livestrong                  87.49 (Keijiro Ikebe)
32  Team Rwanda                 86.24 (Lisa Emmerich)
33  Jelly Belly                 83.05 (Bernhard Hiller)
34  ACTC                        79.47 (Kley Cardona)
35  Dolce Vita Cycling          74.42 (Steve Youtsey)
36  Old & slow                  72.66 (Chris Chang)

Dan Connelly