Today was a beautiful day for a bike race in Colorado and the Ridge at 38 crit proved to be a great event again this year. There was a great staging area near the finish, plenty of music and entertainment for families (aka bounce house!) and obviously some killer bike racing.

The course is 1.5 miles with some sweeping corners, but nothing overly technical. The pack stayed together surprisingly well for both the MM4 and SM5 races which is a good indication that the course is nice and straightforward.

VR7 had members racing in SM5,MM5,MM4 and SM4 and I was on hand to watch the SM5/MM5 race at 9:10 AM. The racers had 20 minutes in store for them and basically perfect conditions to race in. VR7 had Chris Parsons in the SM5 field coming off a second place finish from City Park and Colin Rhinehart fresh off of 4th place at City Park. We also had Chris Hill in SM5 who has put in consistent results all year….we had a good feeling about this one.

MM5/SM5

The field stayed intact for the first few laps with an un named rider trying to get away solo off the front. He never gapped more than about 50 feet and the field soaked him up on lap 3. A few riders got spit out the back but the pack kept a steady manageable pace for the first 6 of 7 laps and stayed relatively together.   Colin and Chris were working together and Chris H was looking strong riding alongside them in the middle of the field.

The pace picked up hard on the last lap, and if you could hang on you had a shot at a top ten finish. Coming around the last corner Chris P was off the front with Colin 4 wheels back. Chris P had a lot of momentum coming into the last 200 m and he just cranked it out, not letting anyone come around him.  Chris put his arms up in the last 50 meters and claimed the victory for VR7.

Colin opened up his sprint and maintained his position in 4th, coming across the line in 3rd for the SM5 group.

Chris H. Held on for 5th place (SM5), another strong result for him, especially with riding sunshine hill climb yesterday. Our CAT5s are riding really well at the moment, keep your eyes on these guys!

MM4 and SM4

MM4 was next and Dave Altschuld was representing VR7. Dave is another strong rider for us and he was looking solid through 5 laps. The MM4 group was really hitting it hard, spitting guys put the back constantly. Dave looked comfortable though I didn’t see the finish. I will update later with his result and Mike’s result from SM4.

Another great day on the bikes for VR7 Colorado Cycling. Racing is always fun, but locking down two podiums feels really really good. Congrats again to Chris Parsons and Colin Rhinehart.

We had some racers at Sunshine on Saturday as well, will post a report soon!