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FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas -- Team Kaos’ Chris Spence hammered into a second place finish in the Masters 40+ general classification at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The National Racing Calendar event brought together some of the best riders in the U.S. and the world for four days of road races, crits and time trials in the lush hills of northwest Arkansas.
Team Ouch Bahati’s Floyd Landis finished 24th in the overall pro classification and Team Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes took 2nd place.
Spence broke away in the Saturday road race and held a two-minute lead for a whopping 50 miles.
IS Corp Nova’s Todd Hancock fought to close the gap and approached Spence as the two neared the finish line. At that time, the pro peloton was sweeping in from behind. The race director’s vehicle warned Spence to make way. In the confusion that resulted when the pros overtook and neutralized the two, Hancock caught Spence and passed him. Hancock crossed the finsh line first with Spence in close pursuit.
Hancock held 24 seconds over Spence going into the Sunday crit. They both finished in the chase group 45 seconds behind the winner. Hancock kept his 24-second margin. The next racer was several minutes back.
Spence finished the uphill time trial, a 2.5-mile effort with an average gradient of 6 percent, 16 seconds back for sixth place.
In other Kaos action, Mark Walter competed in the Cat. 2 TT on Thursday and the 92-mile road race on Friday, but his injured knee flared and he was dropped from the
pack. He ended up riding most of the race on his own and had to drop out of the rest of the weekend.
Rich Pearson ended up 10th overall in Masters 50+. Racers got a spook when a horse got loose and ran alongside the peloton. Moments later, the horse veered toward the group for a few hundred meters. Racers veered and avoided a crash. The horse slipped and wiped out on the pavement. No racers were hurt.
Kaos’ Rebekah Dilley earned a 21st finish in her time trial. In the road race, Dilley was in the first chase group working with two other racers. The trio had no help from the pack and thus fell off the leaders by seven minutes.
Dilley flatted on her last lap during the Sunday crit. She was given the same time as the lead group of five, allowing for a respectable 12th out of 30 racers.
Kaos’ Kyle McClellan finished the time trial climb at 10 minutes, 25 seconds, earning a fourth-place finish. Hours later, McClellan’s Felt flatted out just 3 miles into the road race. With no back-up wheels on hand, he was out of the race and out of Sunday’s crit.
Other Nebraska riders: Rich Anderson competed in Cat. 4 and finished in 30th place. Joe Savoie raced Cat. 3 but he flatted in the road race and didn’t finish.
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