Bax Defends Highway to Heaven Title; 5 of 6 riders in 4-minute club are Cat 4

Nick Bax (Hot Tubes Development) successfully defended his title at the 2nd annual Highway to Heaven Hill Climb, produced by the Chesapeake Wheelmen. Nick's time of 3:24 was the fastest on the day, though nine seconds shy of his winning time in 2007. He explained, "I didn't expect to beat my time from last year. I was just coming off from Junior Worlds last year, and had form from racing at altitude."

In addition to Nick, 5 other riders broke the 4-minute barrier, all of whom were Cat 4s:

Nick Bax, Hot Tubes Development (Junior, Cat 1): 3:24.0
Adam Driscoll, Adventures for the Cure (Cat 4): 3:38.0
Tom Mackay, ABRT/Latitude (Junior, Cat 4): 3:47.0
Matt Tebbe, Route 1 Velo / Capitol Hill Bikes (Cat 4): 3:48.0
Alex Driscoll, Adventures for the Cure (Cat 4): 3:50.0
Paul Rades, Artemis (Cat 4): 3:51.0
Adam Driscoll, Adventures for the Cure (Single Speed): 3:59.0

You'll count 7 there because Adam Driscoll is in the 4-minute club twice, the 2nd time on a Single Speed. Seems like sponsoring the event was a sound investment for Adventures for the Cure, as they won back most of the prize money they put up.

Top women's finisher was Leslie Jennings (Team CycleLife), whose time of 4:41.0 was just 5 seconds shy of the course record set last year by Sonja Evers.

Full results are here.

Photographer David Martin of Original Fotografie was at the event. The following pictures are from his gallery here:

Squadra Coppi's David Wolfel rocked the hill, with wins in the Men's 50+ (4:05.0) and then in the Cat 3 (4:05.0).

Team ERA Cycling doubled up in the 60+, with Scott Haverstick winning (4:37.0!), followed by teammate Barry Free (5:00.0) in 2nd. (I'm not sure which one this is - anyone know?)

Smelling a Team BAR title, Artemis was out in force. 22 of the 129 starters were purple-clad, 3 of whom were Margaret Kilby, the only racer to triple up on the day. Pictured here is Sheila Gudiswitz,  who raced the Men's 30+ and Women's Cat 3 events.

Didn't race this time? ABRT/Latitude's Chris Harshman shows you what you missed.

Comments

[Tom Mackay]

Actually I'm a cat3 but its just a detail that wasn't updated.

Driscoll was the MAN, the day belonged to him.

Great Job to all who were there for a great (and short) event!

[Chris]

Yeah, I really enjoyed this event too. 'Twas my first competitive hill climb time trial (well, first time trial all around, actually), so I didn't quite know what to expect. My luck to be in the midst of all of the fast-moving Cat 4s, but I had a blast!

[adam]

That was an awesome race. Cant wait for next year!! Really cool website too, my friend Chris Nystrom told me about it.

Any other pictures from the race out there.

Thanks

Adam Driscoll

[adam]

Also check out this video made of the race:

http://www.adventuresforthecure.com/blog.php

[Mike May]

Thanks for the vid link, Adam. And yes, there may be more photos. David Martin (who took the ones above) has more that he hopes to post soon. I'll keep an eye open and let everyone know from here.

[YOyo]

Barry Free is in the Nat Champ jersey - Not Haverschtick

[Adam]

http://lesdoerfler.zenfolio.com/p573198649/

more photos

:)