April 14, 2005 - Hamblen Wins and Huseby Takes a 2nd

Huseby 2nd at Tufts Criterium - Somerville, MA – April 10th

I had returned from Colorado late on Saturday night and wasn't planning to race on Sunday as I wanted to sleep in and recover a little from the long training rides I had just completed over the last few days. Diane and I went to breakfast and had a leisurely morning and then realized the Tufts Criterium was happening - a stone's throw away from where we were eating. We went up to watch and found out the 1-2-3 race wasn't until 4:30, so I decided I'd do it.

There were probably only 20 racers in our field, if that - and Matt White had made the drive from East Longmeadow to do it too. Mike Cody had raced the collegiate race earlier that afternoon, so he was already on his way back to VT. It was great to see Whitey. We knew the race would be between us and Nerac (they had four riders). It would be difficult anyway we sliced it as Adam Myerson was once again in the race and if it came to a break - he wouldn't do a bit of work.

The start was fast and people were trying to split the race apart from the gun. I didn't want to initiate anything because I wanted to make sure I'd be there at the end. Shortly thereafter, Whitey made a sharp attack and immediately strung it out. Several of the Nerac riders followed and it caused the race to split. I followed Adam and soon we had a small move - unfortunately Whitey wasn't there - it was me, one other guy and two Nerac riders. Soon we dropped the lone soldier and it was down to me and the two Nerac riders - we still had thirty laps to go.

We took turns pulling through and Adam tried several times to shed me. It wasn't going to happen. As soon as I would catch back on to him, he'd sit up. We would gap his other rider and then he would catch us as we were playing cat and mouse. I was not feeling like I could ride away from Adam as he was marking me with every move I made. I would come to a stop just about in some of the corners and so would he. I had no problem if a few guys behind caught us as I knew I felt good. Soon - Adam's teammate caught us again and was instructed to go off the front. I would allow this and slowly reeled him in so he'd get tired out in the wind. This happened a few times and then Adam tried attacking again to no avail. Then we had our gap and 8 laps to go and I just went steady knowing it would come down to the two of us.

Adam never came through. It came down to the last lap and I led up the final climb punching it briefly, then backing off. I then went slow approaching the finish and then once again went for it, but came up short and Adam came by for the win. Ugh. Whitey was in the group behind and took 4th.

Hamblen Wins The Knobscorcher, Tsali Trails MTB Race, April 10th

Nantahala National Forest is located next to the Cherokee Reservation in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, it was the location of the second stop on the Cane Creek MTB Series and the third stop of the South Eastern Regional Series (SERC), also an AMBC event. With the plethora of acronyms at the race, you'd think there would be no need for Fiordifrutta's Jon Hamblen to bring his own. He did not bring a NORBA PRO license with him to the race and was forced to register with the Expert category. Jon had just asked USA Cycling to upgrade him to Semi-Pro, hoping to avoid a situation like this, where the Pro and Expert categories race separately.

Hamblen started his race 5 minutes behind the Jr Expert riders who started 5 minutes behind the Pro-Semi Pro riders. This left Jon with a lot of people in front of him for two laps on a 15mi singletrack loop and one 5mi loop, that's 35mi total (a lot of singletrack). When the Expert race began, there was little time to move up before the entrance to the tight singletrack, Jon went into the woods about 8th and was reasonably happy with that. It took about 5 miles to make his way to the front four of the lead group, as riders fell or slowed on hills. Jon put in his first effort up a steep rocky climb when he jumped off of his borrowed bike (big thanks to Grace Fleury) and ran past the stunned MTBers cyclocross style, to take the lead.

Hamblen then confused the MTBers by slowing down a lot for the tight turns, then accelerating out of them. He was more trying to stay upright on two wheels than drop them. When they reached the halfway point Jon put in an attack on a long hill and began his solo effort. Well, solo, except for the 20 juniors and 25 Pro's in front of him. Slowly, one by one, Jon moved up through the Jr's, who were super nice and more than willing to move over when there was a little space to pass and sometimes when there wasn't (several of the little guys just rode into the woods to let him by). Then, through the Pro's, who also let Jon by as space on the trail permitted.

Hamblen rode the 35 miles at a 14.7 mph pace, fast enough to win the Experts and slow enough to have been 8th in the Pro race, also slow enough to run out of water with 8mi to go. Two days after the race, Jon received word from USA Cycling, he was now a Semi-Pro. With this new status Hamblen is looking to up his attitude, appearance, and personality, he will take on MTB racing with his new Semi-Pro style. Gone are the races where Jon borrows just any bike, now he will only borrow MTB's with XTR and the Semi-latest suspension fork. No more warming up for 10 minutes, now it would be a Semi-30 minute warm up. Jon will also purchase and wear Semi-Expensive clothes and shoes, just a level below the likes of which Mike Jones, Pro, would wear. And, no more joking before races, he will now be Semi-Serious.