MARCIA BURNSIDE MEMORIAL TIME TRIAL MBMTT -- May 8th, 2009 -- 12.5 miles (Reprinted from the Fairbanks Daily NewsMiner) http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/may/08/mcdonnell-makes-cycling-return-time-trial/ FAIRBANKS -- Long ago, Bill McDonnell raced bikes against Tyler Hamilton and Lance Armstrong, who would go on to win Olympic gold medals and Tour de France titles, respectively. McDonnell, while based in New England, raced professionally in the U.S. from 1994-99, but figured his competitive cycling days were over when he came to Fairbanks a decade ago. "I never thought I was going to do another (cycling) race again," said McDonnell, who arrived in Fairbanks to be the Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski coach. He relied mostly on running, but not biking or skiing, as his competitive outlet. McDonnell now coaches top local skiers on the FAST club team, and became inspired to get back in the saddle after watching pupils David Norris, Reese Hanneman and Tyson Flaharty compete last year in the Tour of Fairbanks cycling stage race. "I got the bug to start riding again," he said. On Thursday, McDonnell entered the Marcia Burnside Memorial Time Trial, the Fairbanks Cycle Club's season opener. While men's results were unavailable due to a timing glitch, McDonnell said he believes he placed runner-up to Flaharty, completing the 12.5-mile rolling course in less than 30 minutes. "In another month, I should be able to be competitive with (Flaharty)," McDonnell said, adding that a hard effort is not much different whether it comes at a small local race in Alaska or at the professional cycling championships in Philadelphia. "It's the first race I've done really in 10 years," he said. The route started on Cripple Creek Road near the Parks Highway, turned around at Potter Road and then headed up and down Isberg Road before returning to the start. "It's pretty much all out the whole way," Flaharty said. Flaharty competed at a high level for Nordic skiing all winter and said he hasn't trained too seriously for cycling because his job as a bike mechanic at Goldstream Sports is keeping him busy. Nonetheless, he was pleased with the effort. "It was hard, but I felt great," said Flaharty, whose top speed was 45 mph. "My bike legs are coming around." In the final few hundred meters, Flaharty passed a truck pulling a motor home, a motorcycle and several cyclists. He was last to leave in the interval-start race and overtook most of his potential competitors. "Tyson stomped the rest of us," veteran Eric Breitenberger said. A solid showing of 10 women and 37 men participated, with bikes ranging from high-tech aerodynamic time trial models worth thousands of dollars to old-school traditional frames. "I don't know if it was a record turnout, but it was close," Breitenberger said. The event was the first of eight races in the new Edward Jones Points Series. There will be cash prizes at the end of the season for the top performers, provided they do at least five races and volunteer for at least two FCC events. "It's a little bit different than what the club usually does with (giving out) water bottles," series organizer Christopher Knott said. For the women on Thursday, Heather Best recorded a time of 34 minutes, 3 seconds to edge Melissa Lewis by 22 seconds. Julie Rowland was third in 36:55. "I'm kind of surprised, because Melissa, if there are any hills involved, can usually beat me at will," said Best, who also won a 5-kilometer running race on Wednesday. "My legs, they burned early (Thursday), but once I got that loosened up, they felt pretty good." As for the majority of the results, they were inadvertently deleted from the timing machine, though participants seemed to take that news in stride. "That's OK. We all had fun. It's not about the numbers," Breitenberger told race director Lorien Nettleton as he mingled in the parking lot afterwards. Nettleton even had a humorous explanation for the gaffe. "All the men's contestants were disqualified for not conforming to the shaved leg rule," Nettleton said jokingly.