Strong local hard man, 50+, super nice guy and amazing graphic artist (I mean come-on, who do you think helped design this sweet site?) found his way onto the podium already this year in what sounded like a wild and woolly sprint finish on Sunday.

In his own words…

“Ah, race day! Well, there were ominous signs of bad weather as Brad (yes, Brad Ross of Cross-Crusade and Endurofit Blog fame) and I rolled up to the race. Snow… lots of it… in the hills probably not more than 100 feet higher than where we were. Clouds and wind, too! Nice! It was hard to warm up but fortunately I brought lots of clothing to wear. I used it all and still had a hard time warming up. By race time, I decided to transfer my numbers to my wind vest. Good call. Sorin Suditu was kind enough to give my legs a rub down with hot cream.

I followed your plan exactly. Just sat in for the first 40 miles. The weather kept the field together: strong cross wind and heavy showers punctuated with periods of sun. With about 20k to go I started to move up. It was not easy because the field choked the narrow roads. But by about 5k to go I was up in the front 15-20, and was able to hold position on the right. By now it is SLEETING SNOW pretty hard. Wet and nasty. Ick!

I heard Kenji Sugahara say that the outside right was good coming into the hard left-hand turn about 500 meters from the finish. I was able to hold speed and pass a few guys who took the inside line. Tempo was high… maybe 25mph… and a couple of guys were looking at each other, so I hit it super hard down the right side at about 250 meters and got WAY clear and… ALMOST made it to the line before I started to sag a bit. One guy got about a bike length, another just pipped me, so it looks like third but I have not seen official results yet.

So… I guess I went just a touch early. So, good result. While I was feeling kind of cold at the end, I felt totally comfortable and do not feel like it was a stress at all. Race time was about 2:30 for 51 miles. I’m happy.”

And we are too! Hugh’s a good friend, supporter and supportee of Endurofit and this is just the first of many strong finishes to come from this guy this season. I’ll bet me winter gut on it!

My hat’s off to all ye hard men and women who are out there racing in weather that I am not likely inclined to go out and get my mail in.

CHECK OUT THE RESULTS at OBRA.

-JS