Sheppard, Butler start 2010 Crusades with week 1 wins

Oct 4, 2010 by editor

Check VeloNews.com for more photos from Sunday, and be sure to check back Tuesday for a collaborative “greatest Hits” gallery from the entire day.

PORTLAND — Two pro riders with international resumes were duly impressed Sunday after witnessing the spectacle created when 1,762 racers and their associated friends, family and fans converged on Alpenrose Dairy for the Cross Crusade kick-off Sunday. (Paying participants technically only numbered a record 1,506, but it would be a shame not to count the 256 riders in the A and B “Kiddie Kilo” races that split the day).

Women’s A winner Sue Butler, who has four top-five finishes at national events so far this year, skipped the UCI events in San Dimas, California and Gloucester, Massachusetts, choosing to race one of her favorite events in her own backyard instead.

“I know we have this little battle going with the East Coast, and Gloucester thinks that they are all that,” said Butler, a Portland resident. “But this is out of control. And the race before us, seeing how many women were on the line. I’m like, ‘Wow!’ So impressive. So inspiring. Pretty cool.”

Standing in the middle of the velodrome surveying the disassembling crowd and the remnants of the 165-rider field that had just shared the course for the Men’s A, Masters Men’s A and Women’s A races, Chris Sheppard (Rocky Mountain Bicycles) said simply, “Look at this, this is spectacular.”

Sheppard, of Bend, had raced his way to a seventh-place finish the day before at the UCI-ranked Kross-tober Fest in California and then hopped a plane back to Oregon to catch the first Crusade of the season. He didn’t seem to mind missing out on a chance for more UCI points in SoCal on Sunday, and he showed the local riders just how much high-end he’d put on his form.

“Yesterday I decided to do the middle half of the race off the front, and it was really stupid,” he said. “So today I was willing to sit back and watch a little bit.”

Fellow Bend rider Damian Schmitt (Sunnyside Sports) powered off the front of the race from the starting gun and built a small lead on the 67-rider Men’s A field. Sheppard waited and then powered up to Schmitt about 20 minutes into the 60-minute race, finally catching him on the small up and down on the backside of the velodrome.

“He kind of screwed up the climb, and I went up pretty quick,” Sheppard said. “So I was able to bridge, and I just kept going.”

From there, he set about the business of staying upright and maintaining his advantage.

With teammates Donald Reeb and Ben Thompson positioned in the first chase group along with Shannon Skerritt (Corsa Concepts), Erik Tonkin (Kona), Brett Luelling (BuyLocal.com) and Schmitt, Sheppard was able to benefit from some team dynamics despite not feeling smooth on the bike.

“I just kept steady, but really inefficient, like 70 rpm,” he said. “It seemed like I was humping my bike today.”

Sheppard fought his bike all the way to the line to win by 18 seconds over Skerritt, who won a two-up sprint for second over Reeb. Tonkin crossed the line about six seconds later for fourth. Thompson finished fifth, putting Rocky Mountain riders in three of the top-five spots.

WOMEN

Butler (Hudz-Subaru) started building her advantage almost immediately and was quickly catching the tail end of the Masters A field that had started the course minutes before the women.

“I was just picking my way through traffic,” Butler said of her early effort. “I saw Alice (Pennington) back there in every corner, and then finally I didn’t see her so I figured I was good.”

Like Sheppard, once Butler was on the front alone she focused on being steady and careful.

“I saw plenty of wipe outs on the back part of the course,” she said. “Guys were doing head plants because they went too fast into the bumpy stuff.”

Butler sailed over the course and by the finish had built a lead of several minutes over Team S&M’s Pennington, who scratched out a second-place finish ahead of last year’s overall winner Wendy Williams (River City Bicycles). Williams’ teammate Brigette Brown crossed the line fourth, with Sunnyside Sports’ Serena Bishop grabbing fifth.

The win and the series lead went to Butler, who probably won’t be around enough this year to contest the overall series battle. Butler said she’s currently in the middle of a training block for the upcoming UCI races in Ohio and then a planned trip to Europe for the World Cups.

“I didn’t know how I’d feel today,” she said. “But I felt really good, so that’s encouraging.”

The Cross Crusade continues next Sunday, October 10, at Rainier High School.

RESULTS
Cross Crusade #1
Sunday, Oct. 3
Alpenrose Dairy

Men A
1. Chris Sheppard (Rocky Mountain Bicycles) 9
2. Shannon Skerritt (Cora Concepts) 9
3. Donald Reeb (Rocky Mountain Bicycles) 9
4. Erik Tonkin (Kona-FSA) 9
5. Ben Thompson (Rocky Mountain Bicycles) 9
Women A
1. Sue Butler (HUDZ-Subaru) 8
2. Alice Pennington (Team S&M) 8
3. Wendy Williams (River City Bicycles) 8
4. Brigette Brown (River City Bicycles) 8
5. Serena Bishop (Sunnyside Sports) 8
Masters Men 35+ A
1. Chris Snyder (bicycleattorney.com) 9
2. Joe Martin (Veloce Racing) 9
3. Tim Butler (Specialized River City Bicycles) 9
4. Tim Jones (WebCyclery.com) 9
5. Joel Wilson (Slocum-Rebound) 9

Complete OBRA results are HERE.