THE ALASKA CLUB TOUR OF FAIRBANKS ROAD STAGE RACE Tour of Fairbanks Road Stage Race -- June 5, 2003 -- 5 stages The Alaska Club Tour of Fairbanks was an excellent success, thanks to the efforts of organizers Dan Harris and Ed Buoncore and their hardworking crew of volunteers. Six of the participants were from the Yukon, testimony to the appeal of a well organized event. Stage one was a criterium held in the parking lot of the North Pole High School. One lap was about 3/10 of a mile, taking riders a little less than a minute to complete. Expert men rode forty minutes, plus two laps. Everyone else rode thirty minutes, plus two laps. If a rider got lapped, the rider was out, and received a time equal to the slowest time of the heat, plus a minute. This helped keep the course clear, and also helped more people qualify for general class standings. Various primes were available at ten-minute intervals as well. Tommy Lokken and Brandon Acheson both crashed, and though both were scraped up, no serious injuries were sustained. Tyson Flaharty started the competition in the Junior class and switched to Expert Men when he discovered that, "wow, I'm good at this". Stage two was a hypothermic hill climb, held in 45 degree rain with strong winds. Riders started at the intersection of Skyridge and Old Steese, and raced to the top, a mere 1.3 miles away, gaining around 1000 feet elevation. There was a short course ending at about a mile as well. Two or three riders rode the short course. Stage three, Saturday morning, was a basic road race, also held in the rain. The race started at the Chena Pump campground and rode entirely around Chena Ridge. Expert men rode two laps. There were several flats that morning, but none quite as good as Rocky Reifenstuhl's. Starting his second lap, his rear tire blew, and being close to the wayside area, he collected his spare wheel, swapped out, and took off. Partway out the ridge, his derailleur caught the spokes and blew up, leaving him without a functioning drivetrain. Not one to admit defeat, he started running up the hills, but the bike shoes got in the way, so he took them off and left them with the pace vehicle, running about 10K in bare feet on the road. Finally, wondering where he was, Gail drove the car and found him. He grabbed a pair of running shoes, got the chain-tool from the car and shortened his chain to be a single speed and rode to the finish. A crowd of admiring onlookers cheered him when he pulled in. Like all the other finishers, he was coated with grit from spray from the wet road. Stage four, Saturday evening, was a time-trial event. Riders started from Hilltop Truckstop on the Elliot highway, at thirty second intervals, and raced to Hagelbarger road, atop Engineer Hill on the Steese Expressway. The distance was just under ten miles, but included a fair amount of elevation gain, plus a lot of brutal headwind. Flats were the bane of the evening... Canadian Paul Christiensen proved that he could outright win two races in one day, and in the process took the lead in the expert men class. Stage five, Sunday morning, had perfect weather. The roads were dry and clean, and the sun peeked out every so often, but not enough to get hot. Racers assembled at the senic outlook at Hagelbarger and Steese Expressway. Expert men took off, and a minute later, so did everyone else. The course took riders down Hagelbarger and out the Old Steese to Goldstream Road. Racers went the short distance to the Steese Expressway, and then up Engineer Hill to Hagelbarger. Expert men rode ten (!) laps, sport men, expert women (Jillian) and junior men rode seven laps, and sport women rode four laps. The pace lines were a little messy, but they worked. There were, of course, flats, and Brandon Acheson (who had seen more than his share of trouble in this race), was using an air cartridge to fill a tire, when the tire blew up. Ears ringing, he waited for the pace vehicle to show. He grabbed a friends wheel out of the truck, put it on and rode to a very respectable finish. Many more stories abounded in almost all the events, except for perhaps the soggy but straight-forward hill-climb. Jillian Chown was an amazingly strong competitor, finishing ahead of sport women and men in the general class. Tyson Flaharty is a person that we hope we see more of. This is his first competition, and if he keeps up, he will be thrashing the expert men quite soundly. Crit = North Pole High School Criterium HC = Skyridge Hill Climb RR = Chena Ridge / Chena Pump Road Race TT = Hilltop to Hilltop Time Trial CKT = Engineer Hill Circuit Race Crit HC RR TT CKT Expert Men: Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 FINAL PLACE ============================================================================= Paul Christiensen 0:41:50 0:07:57 1:13:31 0:24:20 3:33:27 6:00:55 1 Doug Stewart 0:41:55 0:08:43 1:17:18 0:26:08 3:33:54 6:08:08 2 Rocky Reifenstuhl 0:42:05 0:07:36 1:51:13 0:25:41 3:33:33 6:39:08 3 Dave Cerny 0:42:25 0:08:59 1:20:20 - - Dave Dohnal 0:41:25 0:08:38 - 0:25:22 3:57:42 Tyson Flaharty 0:31:30 0:07:43 - 0:24:55 3:33:33 Dan Harrington - 0:08:40 1:15:31 0:25:24 3:34:19 Fred Harbison 0:42:05 0:09:10 1:20:17 0:27:34 - Mike McCann - 0:08:10 1:15:33 0:24:33 - Kevin Petrone - 0:07:31 - - - Clint Ragan - - - - - Expert Women: ============= Jillian Chown 0:31:10 0:09:28 0:40:24 0:28:14 2:35:17 4:24:30 1 Sport Women: ============ Erin Shirley 0:31:40 0:07:26 0:48:26 0:32:57 1:34:04 3:38:38 1 Davya Baker - - - 0:33:39 - Gail Koepf - 0:10:16 0:42:57 0:31:10 1:33:57 Heidi Rader - 0:10:02 0:55:06 - - Carol Stewart 0:31:45 0:10:17 - 0:30:47 1:30:34 Sue Stewart 0:31:45 0:10:14 0:41:57 0:30:12 1:30:34 Karen Taylor - - 0:44:26 - - Sport Men: ========== Chuck Jeffries 0:31:35 0:09:19 0:40:21 0:28:07 2:39:18 4:28:30 1 Peter Fix 0:31:30 0:10:39 0:41:53 0:28:51 2:35:40 4:28:33 2 Brandon Acheson 0:32:45 0:08:43 0:40:21 0:26:17 2:43:26 4:31:41 3 Mike Quinn 0:31:35 0:10:44 0:42:01 0:29:25 2:43:53 4:37:38 4 Paul Gregory 0:32:45 0:10:11 0:41:57 0:29:50 2:45:28 4:40:10 5 Dave Lokken 0:32:45 0:11:01 0:55:05 0:32:21 3:03:58 5:15:10 6 Tom Clark 0:32:45 - 0:40:23 0:26:19 2:34:22 Chris Conn 0:31:20 0:10:41 0:42:56 - 2:56:16 Bill Curtis - - 0:42:54 - 2:44:19 Don Lokken - - - 0:33:33 - Liam Ortega - 0:09:36 - - - Matias Saari - 0:09:02 - - - Shawn Servoss - - - 0:27:19 2:35:43 TG Taylor - 0:08:30 - 0:30:19 - Pete Wilda 0:31:20 0:09:25 - 0:26:27 - Bob Wilkinson - 0:06:57 - - - Junior Men: =========== Tommy Lokken 0:32:45 0:08:42 0:40:23 - 2:35:17 Noah Mery 0:31:35 - - - 2:41:44