Written by: Admin
2009 was a great year for the Powerade/IF racing team. We raced 293 times with 80 of them culminating on 3-step podiums. We had 33 victories, (23) 2nd's, (24) 3rd's and 162 Top 10's overall.
The top three most frequent race starters were Marc Walter (41), tie: Bob Greigg and Jeff Kluck (27) and Clark Priebe (26). Marc likely would've raced more had he not been hit by a car while warming up in St. Louis on Labor Day weekend. The accident ended his season.
Cody McCullough, Jeff Kluck and Buddy Houts tied for the most victories with 6 apiece. Clark Priebe had 5 wins and Jay Chesterman won 3 races. Cody (Cat.1) was our most consistent placer with 16 Top 3's and 22 Top 10's overall. Ten team members had at least one win in 2009.
Besides Iowa and all our bordering states, we raced as far west as New Mexico and as far east as France.
Notable results:
We have two Iowa State Champions this year. Jon Nelson (Cat. 2) won the Masters 40+ criterium in July. He also won the Masters 40+ at the Iowa City road race in April and was the leader of the Masters 40+ standings in the Iowa Cup all season until the last race of the series.
In August, Junior racer Buddy Houts was Iowa State RR champion in the 13-14 age group. He won the Iowa City criterium in the same category in April. He has upgraded to Cat. 4 for 2010.
Iowan Clark Priebe (Cat. 1) swept the South Dakota State road race, criterium and time trial. He also won at the Tulsa Tough criterium weekend in May as a 40+.
Jeff Kluck (Cat 3.) won three cyclocross races in a row in October and has upgraded to Cat. 2 for CX.
In July, Jay Chesterman placed 410th of 1,829 in Category B at the L'Etape Du Tour in France. It finished atop the legendary Mt. Ventoux which is considered one of the toughest summit finishes when the Tour de France includes it.
Other highlights:
We staged the USAC sanctioned "Twin Bing Classic" road race in March. The A and B category format attracted 98 racers. The 2010 race is scheduled for April.
In June, we hosted the Psycowpath Series "Ponca’s Revenge" MTB race for the 4th consecutive year. We will not continue with this race in 2010.
We again staged our USAC sanctioned 3-race 20k time trial series in June-August for the 3rd consecutive year. We plan to continue the series in 2010.
Six riders will not continue with the team in 2010. Five have quit racing- only one will continue elsewhere. As of now, we have not added any new members.
-Posted 12/16/2009
