Bohart Bash Mountain Bike Race
The 2008 Race - 7th Place
Suprisinly I was one of the fastest runners in the Le Mans-style start which was not expected since I had an early season ankle injury. On the first lap I was settling in behind John C. when Frank G. bombed by and John took chase. I didn't panic and put forth an effort to keep them in sight until the battles simmered a bit. Suddenly with only 1/4 a lap in my chain broke.
I ran around lap one to the start finish area. I had to run to the parking lot to get a chain tool as the one I usually carry had been lost at the running start. It took me 3 minutes to fix once I got back from the tool box run then I was off in last place
I put in a hellish pace and caught everyone except 6 others ending up in 7th place. Very disappointing but then again, that is racing ... right?
| Place |
Name |
Time |
License |
Bib |
Team |
| 1 (1 - SM) | Frank Gonzalez | 1:54:35 | 201598 | 80 | |
| 2 (2 - SM) | John Curry | 1:54:36 | 230410 | 17 | |
| 3 (3 - SM) | Ben Parsons | 1:58:16 | 186195 | 77 | |
| 4 (4 - SM) | Alexandre Lussier | 1:59:56 | 224673 | 30 | |
| 5 (1 - EX) | Douglas Shryock | 2:04:01 | 235723 | 83 | |
| 6 (5 - SM) | Geoffrey Proctor | 2:09:47 | 48283 | 86 | |
| 7 (6 - SM) | William Martin | 2:10:33 | 22734 | 82 | |
| 8 | Alex Hassman | 2:10:48 | 76 | ||
| 9 (2 - EX) | Rich Chandler | 2:11:06 | 265919 | 28 | |
| 10 | Shaun Radley | 2:11:14 | 225798 | 84 | |
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The 2007 Race - 3rd Place (Masters State Champion)
This year I went to the event with friends and we stayed at a host in Bozeman. Compared to last year this year was the best. This year it was also the state championships. This year I worked hard to be fit for the race and did some specific hill training to be strong on the climbs.
From the beginning I played catch up and my usual strong start was not as strong as I felt I was capable of. After the run to the bikes I was in 3rd but lost a couple places by the time we reached the singletrack.
I felt I could climb up to the leader so I did not get to concerned. As John Curry powered away I could tell that today would be very hard if I were to hang at his pace. I passed everyone as they started to show signs of slowing down and tried to bridge to John.
I was strong on the climbs but did not feel the usual power that I normally had. I would experience a "flat" day. I lost sight of the two leaders as we started down the technical backside of the course. By now I was fearing that I would lose third place.
I kept up the pace as well as I could and in the end was only able to hang on to third. At one point was close to catching 2nd but just ran out of time. I posted my best time at 2:01:02 . My pace was around 24.206 minute laps.
| Place | Name | Time | License | Bib | Team |
| 1 (1 - SM) | John Curry | 1:57:03 | 230410 | 3 | GAS/Intrinsik Architecture |
| 2 (1 - EX) | Matt Butterfield | 1:59:53 | 225869 | 39 | Sportsman Ski Haus-Cannondale |
| 3 (2 - EX) | William Martin | 2:01:02 | 22734 | 6 | R.O.A.R. |
| 4 (3 - EX) | Phil Hess | 2:03:08 | 191762 | 13 | Great Divide |
| 5 (4 - EX) | Daniel Jenkins | 2:08:16 | 206626 | 12 | Team Gart |
| 6 | Alex Hassman | 2:14:11 | 164445 | 5 | GAS/Cloudveil |
| 7 (5 - EX) | Alan Adams | 2:17:03 | 198136 | 11 | Hagens Berman |
| 8 (6 - EX) | John Coulthard | 2:32:10 | 7926 | 19 | Rimrock United Racing |
| 9 (7 - EX) | William Grey | 2:36:39 | 14135 | 38 | Bozeman Master Velo |
| 10 (8 - EX) | Jim Simons | 3:10:16 | 174588 | 40 | Turner Bikes |
| DNF | Rafael Ruiz Lopez | 42 | |||
| DNF | Sten Hertsens | 147118 | 41 | ||
| Note: ()'s denote the rider's place in their license category | |||||
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The 2006 Race - 11th Place
I drove to the race this year and almost missed the start. This course featured hard little climbs and technical singletrack which is virtually unknown in most Montana mountain bike races. [click here for photos]
I had a bad start due to the lemans start but soon started to get used to the course and the speed needed to complete this course. The laps wore on and my back really started to ache. This was the last race I would use my camelback. Near the end the climbs became unbearable and the descents fast and bumpy. I felt I had a great race but was shocked to find myself with 11th place. My time was 2:17:25 which had me at a pace of 27.482 per lap.
| Place* | Name | City | Age | Age Group | Time |
| 1 | Alex Hessmer | 32 | 1 M 30-39 | 1:58:17.4 | |
| 2 | Shane Mundt | Helena MT | 25 | 1 M 19-29 | 2:00:37.1 |
| 3 | Rusty Squire | Bozeman MT | 48 | 1 M 40-99 | 2:05:02.5 |
| 4 | Aaron Johnson | Bozeman MT | 31 | 2 M 30-39 | 2:06:13.1 |
| 5 | John Lackey | Bozeman MT | 20 | 2 M 19-29 | 2:08:45.6 |
| 6 | Ryan Hamilton | Bozeman MT | 34 | 3 M 30-39 | 2:08:53.0 |
| 7 | Frank Gonzalez | Helena MT | 43 | 2 M 40-99 | 2:10:21.5 |
| 8 | Jeff Lefebvre | Bozeman MT | 25 | 3 M 19-29 | 2:10:59.3 |
| 9 | Randy Beckner | Helena MT | 53 | 3 M 40-99 | 2:11:45.5 |
| 10 | Alexandre Lussier | Bozeman MT | 35 | 4 M 30-39 | 2:13:15.1 |
| 11 | William Martin | 40 | 4 M 40-99 | 2:17:25.0 | |
| 12 | Shawn Barry | Bozeman MT | 31 | 5 M 30-39 | 2:26:37.0 |
| 13 | Mike Grant | Bozeman MT | 35 | 6 M 30-39 | 2:31:59.2 |
| 14 | David Peck | Bozeman MT | 50 | 5 M 40-99 | 2:33:53.5 |