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Sunday, July 21, 2002 -- Kanawha State Forest - Charleston, WV
Black Bear Mountain Bike Race - WVMBA Pts. #8
(iPO Event Id#: 4793)
Story and photos by Don Parks
[Details]
[Coverage]
[Overall Results]
[Results by Class]
Pictures:
[Set 1]
[Set 2]
[Set 3]
[Set 4]
[Set 5]
[Set 6]
[Set 7]
Past Black Bear Coverage:
[1998]
[1999]
[2000]
[2001]
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Fat tires take on the Black Bear
West Virginia's Kanawha State Forest was at its best for the 2002
version of the Black Bear mountain bike race. The conditions were
excellent, even if the heat was seasonal for mid-July, and it
included a full helping of nasty singletrack downhills (the kind the
hardcore mountain bikers love) with everything else thrown in.
The expert classes got the early start and a little extra prologue
added to their course. Hammering off the front early was Huntington's
Mike Carpenter, but Pennsylvania's TJ Platt and local
rider Clay Evans were keeping him in sight.
Carpenter couldn't keep up his early intensity on the long course and
soon it was Evans leading with Platt in close pursuit. But the
problems for the new leader would not come just from the competition.
Racing on a new set of tubeless tires, Evans day would end with the
misfortune of an irreparable flat tire. After the race the Worldwide
Chiropractic rider admitted, "I had problems testing these tires out
the other day and I should have known not to race them today."
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Jason Means fights the Bear with a cross bike
Taking full advantage of the situation, Dirty Harry's Platt cruised on
to a big win with the only sub two-hour time at 1:55:44. "I trained
recently with three centuries in one week, and it all came together
for me today," he revealed after his second win on the 2002 WVMBA
Points Series. He's certainly starting to like this course having now
one the race two years in a row.
Also putting in an impressive ride was the Fairmont phenom,
Johnathan Martin. He only seemed to get stronger as the race
went on and used the final hike-a-bike to shed Carpenter and take
second overall at 2:03:25. Carpenter did manage to hold on for third
at 2:06:20 with Ben Klimas closing fast for fourth at 2:06:57.
On the expert women's side, Sarah Crandall-Fletcher flexed her
muscles and cruised to another win at 2:27:07, while her competition was
fighting it out for second. Melissa Showman hung with Mandi
Riddle for most of the race, but was also dropped on the final
hike-a-bike. Riddle took second at 2:37:36 followed by Showman at
2:41:32 for third.
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Sweating down the gnarly singletrack
Even though they raced shorter courses, the sport and beginner classes
couldn't escape the heat. Handling the challenging course and energy
zapping weather the best was Sport Men's Rick Bowman who
completed the intermediate course in 1:46:42. Not far back in second
was Clay Jarrett at 1:47:37.
At the beginner distance, and having the good fortune of skirting the
final hike-a-bike, Brian Hilbert took the win at 1:43:36 with
no one close behind. It was almost ten minutes later that second place
finisher Jeff Spradling (1:53:13) found the line followed
closely by third place Daniel Toney (1:54:18). Then almost
another 15 minutes later came fourth overall on the short course,
Under 14 Junior class winner Cale DeVall who finished at
2:07:41.
It would still be over another two hours before the final weary riders
made it to the finish in the hot afternoon sun. Luckily there was
plenty of shade lining the finish area as well as tents with plenty of
cool refreshments (and lots of free pizza at the awards!) While they
don't recommend this race for riders under 14, more experienced riders
were all talking about how great it is to ride the Black Bear.
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