IN State RR Champs

The results pigeon hasn't made it back from Fort Wayne yet but...

8am is early to start any bike race and especially for Cat1/2s who are used to lounging around in bed getting fanned and fed grapes before racing. Therefore less than 10 of these Elite riders showed up for the Indiana State Champ RR in Woodburn and were forced to race with the Cat3 for a joint $ race but with separate medals to be won. The race course was flat with a capital ‘F’ but the rain was falling which added the supposed Belgian-feel to the race. However there was little of a classic edge to the action as it took the character of a usual Cat3 race. For most of the event the trend was ‘attack, chase, catch, stop’ and repeat. However a couple of riders did slip away with about 20miles still to race and amazingly did not come back to the bunch. This is mostly due to the fact that teamwork was all but non-existent and that Naveen John (Sustainable Cycling- who had a teammate up the road) was single-handedly able to disrupt and frankly perplex any attempted chasers. All Naveen’s work was well worth it as his teammate eventually took the V. In a chaotic, ugly and messy bunch sprint it was race favorite Aaron Hubbell who emerged to win both the sprint and the Cat1/2 state title. However Aaron has been honest enough to admit that a ‘’ State Champ’ title shouldn’t count if 2guys from a higher/lower category beat you’. All in all it was a pretty damp frustrating day for most involved.
Aaron Hubbell takes the win with plenty to spare

It was also a small group that settled the overall Masters race with Bloomingtonite Chris Kroll working himself into the ground in order to stay away from the bunch and eventually win the sprint. That’s a big win for Chris who has been on good form recently, all apparently on less riding than in any other year! A small Womens group stuck together to the end of their race and in a final sprint it was an Alderfer Bergen lady who won ahead of Tortuga’s Chelsea Merta.
Kroll takes the title back to Bloomington- both photos by Kaleb Naegeli
Sadly there were a few nasty crashes in both Masters and Cat4/5 races so BVN hopes everyone recovers well. The next State Champs is up on August 14th in what will be an awesome evening of crit racing at Mass Ave.