MABRA Gila Monster Ascends New Mexico Podium

NCVC's Blair Berbert had a good reason to miss his club's famed Poolesville race over the weekend - it was too flat. While teammates were sucking down dust, he was out in New Mexico racing the Tour of the Gila stage race, famed for its vertical gain and beloved by climbers across the country. Teammate Paul Lengermann writes in,

The 5-stage race is comprised of a TT, a downtown crit, and three extremely mountainous road races of 94, 78, and 103 miles in length respectively.  The final stage has 9,000 feet of climbing with several climbs topping out at between seven and eight thousand feet in elevation.

Blair had a fantastic race, proving he's not only one of the best Cat 2 climbers in the MABRA region but also nationwide.  Blair came in second in the overall GC, behind only Velonews cover boy Danny Summerhill.

Blair secured his podium position in the first stage by making the final break of about 10 riders with 30 miles to go and then dropping all but Summerhill and Bill Demong (a 3 time nordic combined olympian), who nipped him at the line by just a few seconds on the famous 7 mile climb up the Mogollon.  He then held his own in stage 2, before moving into second on the stage 3 time trial and then keeping it for the final two stages.

For full results and course descriptions have a look at TouroftheGila.com.

Comments

[JDAWG]

A slew of peeps seem to have been victims of "Poison Ivy" at Poolseville. I,personally, am immune to that bastard of a weed. In almost all reports, the victims complain of IMMEDIATE PAIN AND STING.
This is NOT Poison Ivy. It's a Stinging Nettle Plant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle They leave the "needles" of the plant lodged into your skin, causing pain and suffereing. ESPECIALLY if you sweat. Ivy takes time for the oils to do damage. If you're sweating, it's even harder to acquire topical reaction. Breathe it in through a fire and yer screwed. So I think lots of the victims were trying to cure themselves the wrong way.
Mah Buck Fitty.
JDawg.