This weekend brought the state road championship for masters. At the last minute the race was moved from Estes Park to Deer Trail, where an annual spring race is also held. The resulting change meant the race would favor more of an all around rider and that the boys would be in for some serious heat. When the team arrived it was 92 degrees, with light winds and no shade in sight. There was also another course change that day which made the race shorter and faster. It was going to be a good fight for the 35 plus and 45 plus State Championships.
The 35 plus team lined up with five riders: CJ, Pete, Matt Gates, Matt Segur, and Marc Holbert. They knew they needed to mark pro level rider Paul Espoti (Scion), who has been selectively doing some masters races recently, and current Best All Around Rider leader, Jeff Hartman (Big Shark). The team got on the offensive early and put Pete in the initial three man break. This meant they were in the prime position as they did not need to attack, and could simply cover the other team's moves. A few small moves went up to the break and by the first turn around it was nine guys. The way back was the fastest stretch of the race, due to a tailwind, and the attacks from the big hitters started for real. All the guys took turns covering moves to protect Pete up the road, but eventually the key counter attack went with Paul Espoti and Tom Roba (prerace.com). Matt Gates covered the move perfectly and was able to get up to the break.
Back in the field, the remaining three mix1 riders helped shut things down. Jeff Hartman was not happy to be back there and attacked constantly even though he had a team mate up the road. The boys covered him like a blanket with Matt Segur doing most of the work. You could tell it was frustrating him, but it was an effective strategy. As we already had two guys in the break (Pete and Matt Gates) it was the thing to do. The break started to split up on the much harder second circuit and as they rode into the final lap of that circuit there were only four riders left, our Matt Gates, P. Espoti, T Roba, and Forrest Newman (Rio Grande). Those four would fight out the final placings. Forrest was the first to get dropped and then P. Espoti attacked with four to go. Roba could not respond, so Matt Gates went after Espoti and dropped Roba. Matt could not close down on Espoti, but hung on for second place. Espoti is really more of a pro level rider then a master, so Matt had a great result. The team had a nice sense of really taking "1st" place amongst the guys that really race masters. The field broke up a little more on the way in and Matt Segur took 12th, Marc Holbert took 16th, and Pete managed to finish after a long day in the break. Pete gets extra credit as he was in the break from the get go and the masters break actually passed the pro/1/2/3 field.
It was a solid day for the mix1 boys with a great result for Matt Gates. More importantly - they had a plan, they executed and used great team work. Matt Gates was also on the podium for the state Hill Climb Championships, so that makes two nice results for him.
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