Race Report: The Meltdown

Well the weather was not hot at the MST Meltdown this past Saturday, but the racing was.  We had perfect Spring weather for this, our first, "all course" XCO race at MST.

Saturday was a busy day in the Sauratown Mountains, in addition to our event there was the venerable 3 Mountain Madness traversing all the high roads of the area, a Marine Mud Run, a Poker Run on the Dan River and generally folks out for a good time all over the place.  All this activity kept our attendance to a (thankfully) manageable level, as we really needed to get our race administration down before we a ready for a big turnout.

 

That said, if we'd had the 300 racer turnout as rumored, the results would likely not have been much different.  The Meltdown brought out some of the heavy hitters of the regional MTB race scene, Tommy Rogers, Wes Richards, Chris Hylton and the returning Wake Fulp with a crew from EastCoasters all combined to create a true hard man field.  Even the Sport categories were hotly contested Eric and Betthney O'Connell from SWVA in attendance. These and others insured that any victory would be hard earned.

Sport and Jr's were in for 2 laps, Experts and SS's 3 laps of the complete South Side Trails.  After a brief rider's meeting we were ready to roll by 10:15.  The groups went out from the newly shorn starting area in two bunches 1 minute apart to insure for some great spectating and folks were not dissapointed. 

The start!

Several of the Elite leaders were putting in consistent sub :30 minute laps and the Sport leaders just over :30 min per lap.  After overnight showers,  the trails were in great shape, fast and grippy.

 

In the end, Gordon Wadsworth from East Coasters was fastest of the fast, punching out 3 laps in an amazing 1:26:02.  That's around :28 min per lap for 3 laps!  Tommy Rogers came in under 1:30:00 for his 3 laps, followed closely by Gabor Szilagyi for 3rd.  Wes Richards was also running very fast times at the front until a flat took him out of the running.

 

 Gordon Wadsworth

Tommy Rogers

Gabor Szilgayi

Eric and Betthney O'Connell did take out the wins in the Sport Categories.  These folks have 'Honorary Local' status due to their frequent trips to MST and their vocal and enthusiastic support for what we do.

Betthney

After the racing, we celebrated with free beer (!) from Foothills Brewery.  Yay!

It was a great day to hang around under the giant oak tree, sipping beer with friends old and new.

Prizes were handed out to the delight of all.  Winners received great components from Cane Creek (including their awesome 110 headset), and from local bike shops (thanks to Clemmon's Bike, Cycletherapy and MOB).   Junior Racers received gift bags and gift certificates from Great Outdoor Provisions in W-S.  Krankies Coffee rounded out the prizes for the podium and provided some super tasty treats to our raffle winners.  Forsyth Medical Orthopedic Center was on hand with free training advice and wellness screenings, you'll see more of them in our upcoming events.

Thanks to all the racers who made the trip to MST and spent their day with us.  We love to have you here.  Now come out for a Trail Build! :-)

Most of all a big thanks to all who worked so hard to make this event happen, MST has the greatest volunteers and supporters I have ever encountered.   

Stay tuned for our upcoming events, especially our big Fall event - The MST 6 Hour on Oct 6!

Full Results

 

Results EXPERT MEN 1 GORDON WADSWORTH 1:26:02 2 TOMMY ROGERS 1:29:19 3 GABOR SZILGAYI 1:36:18 4 WES RICHARDS DNF  MASTERS 40+ 1 WAKE FULP 1:30:18 2 CHRIS HYLTON 1:33:36 3 DAN ALLEN 1:33:56 4 JOSH MILLER 1:38:24 5 MIKE TENNYSON 1:41:07 6 SEAN WORKOWSKI DNF  7 GARY ROACH DNF  SINGLESPEED 1 KEVIN BREWER TIME UNDETERMINED SPORT MEN 1 ERIC O'CONNELL 1:01:38 2 KIRK CHAMPNEY 1:06:51 3 WALT SHARPLEY 1:14:31 4 BRETT RAY 1:26:40 SPORT WOMEN 1 BETTHNEY O'CONNELL 1:29:38 2 KATHIRINE LAYMAN 1:43:18 CLYDESDALE 1 MIKE MANOGUE 1:10:49 2 DARREN LAYMAN 1:25:26 JUNIOR 1 SAM ROACH 1:27:54 2 AARON WORKOWSKI 1:31:48 TEAM EAST COASTERS
Photo Credits: Johannah Stern, Petr Masny, Shelley Carter, Barry Stevenson