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June 29, 2008

Riders storm hills at Bluff Riders Charge

Mount Kato bike race draws crowd

By Jim Rueda

MANKATO — Sara Brokaw of Minneapolis finished dead last in the Women’s Expert Class of Sunday’s Bluff Riders Charge mountain bike race, but there wasn’t a hint of disappointment in her demeanor or her voice.

Shortly after covering 18 rugged miles on the Mount Kato course, the 33-year-old resident of Minneapolis appeared satisfied with her performance. Afterall, she wasn’t in it to win — she was in it to learn.

“Really I’m just doing this to get better at Cyclo-cross which is something else I’ve gotten into,” Brokaw said afterward. “I’m just trying to get better at the technical aspects of racing.”

Brokaw got into road racing and criterium racing about five years ago. Then she discovered Cyclo-cross and veered over to mountain biking to help her improve more quickly.

She began racing in the Sport Class and finished second in a couple of races so she decided to move up to the Expert Class.

It’s not that she wanted to go against the big dogs, as much as she wanted to get that extra riding time.

“That’s one more lap of scenery when you move up from sport to expert,” she said. “It’s also one more lap of experience; one more lap of pushing yourself.”

In all, more than 260 people competed in Sunday’s event, a figure that was up about 10 percent from last year.

“We were pleasantly surprised by that,” said Gary Sjoquist of Apple Valley, the director of the Minnesota State Championship Series with which the Bluff Riders Charge is affiliated. “We were concerned that fuel costs might prevent people from wanting to drive down here from the Twin Cities, but that obviously was not the case.

Sjoquist, by the way, was also a competitor Sunday. He finished first in the men’s 55-59 division of the Comp Class with a time of 2 hours, 34 seconds.

“I was the only guy in that division so, yeah, I won,” he joked. “But I cut my time by about 22 minutes from last year so that was encouraging.”

Race director Mike Busch admitted he was panicking Saturday night because of all the rain but, as it turned out, the moisture proved to be great for the course.

“I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now, and I think I can honestly say this is the best shape the course has ever been in,” he said. “The traction was great, the tires were really gripping the course. Everybody was just sticking their laps.”

A number of riders fared well Sunday. Kevin Leiferman of Truman finished first in the men’s 16-18 age group of the nine-mile Citizen Class with a time of 44:07.94. Judd Kranz of Good Thunder was second at 49:17.64.

North Mankato’s Jake Lowe won the men’s 19-24 Citizen division in 42:00.39. John Romberg of North Mankato competed in the 15-mile Sport Class and came away with a third-place effort in the men’s 45-49 age division (1:13:00.28).

In the Sport Clydesdale 35-over bracket, Mankato dominated as Matt Busch was the winner (1:06:20.96), Jeff Hokness was second (1:06:36.65) and Mike Busch was third (1:07:39.81).

Lake Crystal’s Aaron Deutchman took second in the men’s 19-24 age group of the 18-mile Comp Class (1:34:33.12) and veteran racer Justin Rinehart of Mankato was sixth overall and third in the men’s 19-29 bracket of the 23-mile Expert Class (1:45:22.9).

Sunday’s overall men’s winners included Marshal Winget of Minneapolis (Kid’s Comp Race, 24:29.57), Zach Stilwell of Hudson, Wis. (Citizen Class, 41:46.18), Luke Baker of Granite Falls (Sport, 1:01:25.16), Ben Shockey of Decorah, Iowa (Comp, 1:28:30.31) and Sam Oftedahl of Shoreview (Expert, 1:40:41.3)

The overall women’s winners were Taylor Horner of Savage (Kids Comp, 43:52.87), Darcy Busse of Stillwater (Citizen, 50:52.34), Margaret Montgomery of Minneapolis (Sport, 1:15:34.34) and Jennifer Fisher of Inver Grove Heights (Expert, 1:46:35.7).

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