Farnham’s victory was one of three wins for Team Kaos in the opening event of the Monumental Memorial Race Weekend. Morgan Chaffin captured the women’s 1-2-3 category and David Rogers won the Masters 45+ division.

Saturday’s races were run under mostly cloudy skies that threatened rain. Strong thunderstorms moved through the area prior to the event getting underway, but torrential rainfall let up and the skies cleared somewhat for the duration of the races that were held on a 10-mile circuit near Odell, Neb.

Farnham (seen at right) waited until the halfway point of his 60-mile race before venturing off on his own.

“I was actually trying to bait some of the Cat. III racers out so we could set up Tommy (Ralston) for the sprint in the end,” Farnham said. “I guess a couple of people tried to bridge up but they never made it up to me.”

Omahans Chris Spence (Pro-I-II), Matt Landen (Cat. III), Mark Brackenbury (Masters 35+) and Matt Pavlovich (Cat. IV) won their respective divisions in the 25-mile race that was dubbed “The Highway to Hell presented by Monster Energy.”

Spence (pictured at left with teammate Mark Merritt on the lower step) clocked the fastest time of the day, 56 minutes and 58 seconds - an average speed of 26.3 mph - on the rolling, out-and-back course. The 47 riders who competed Saturday enjoyed a strong cross tailwind out of the south over the first 12.5 miles.

“My goal was to get under an hour,” Spence said. “At the turnaround, I had passed Jon (Nelson) and Mark (Merritt) so my goal was just to try and catch everybody I else coming back.”

Gray started the four-stage, three-day race strongly, finishing fourth in Friday’s opening stage, a 110-mile road race. He broke away with three others halfway up the 11-mile ascent of Mount Galor, which comes 35 miles from the finish. The four held off the chasing efforts of the 70-rider strong peloton.

Following a 28th place in Saturday morning’s 93-mile road race in which Gray remained in fourth overall, he lost a spot on the overall classification with a 12th-place finish in the 2.5-mile uphill time trial that afternoon.

But on the final stage, a 55-minutes-plus-three-laps criterium run under a blazing afternoon sun, Gray regained the fourth spot in the overall standings with a 15th place finish.