Written by: Admin
Buddy Houts was the lone PIF competitor at the Papillion Twilight Criterium on July 10th. He finished 20th in the Cat 4 field.
Sunday was the Babcook Memorial Road Race starting from the Mt. Michael Abbey near Omaha. This was also the Nebraska State Championship event for 2010. Bob Greigg, Cody McCullough and Jon Nelson would join Buddy in representing the orange and black on this day.
This year's race loop was altered due to overnight thunderstorms that flooded a section on the lower part of the course. After a delay the race was ultimately run over the top part of the course with racers completing multiple laps over a 3.4 mile loop. Minus the climb and descent from the lower section, there was no natural obstacle besides the wind to break up most of the fields on the humid day.
Buddy still managed to finish 10th in the Cat 4 race despite being caught behind a large crash in the field. Zach Piatt (Bike Masters) was the victor.
The 40+/50+/60+ race would start out aggressively in the opening laps but momentum was lost after the early break and then the 1/2/3 field passed them on the short circuit. Later, the Cat 4 field also passed the Masters. After touring for a few laps the old guys started racing again, passed the 4's and kept the pace high in the last half of the race. Although two 50+ riders were allowed to go free fairly early and then another in the closing laps, no 40+ aggressors were allowed to stay away for more than short periods in the mixed field. In the resulting field sprint, Bob would come in 5th with Eric O'Brien (EVCC) taking the win.
In the Cat 1/2 plus 3 race, Jon and Cody would work to make the race hard as both were players in seperate breaks in the first half of the race. With about 10 laps to go a 4-man break featuring Jon, Chris Spence (Kaos-Alegent) and Cat 3's Kevin Limpach (Midwest) and Lucas Marshall would be the group that stayed away for good. Spence took 1st and Jon would place 2nd in the 1/2's. Cody would place 10th.
Clark Priebe went to Clear Lake, Iowa over the same weekend for their criterium and road race. He DNF the 1/2/3 criterium. On Sunday, Clark got into a breakaway 6 miles into the 82 mile race and would stay away until about 6 miles to go. However, for all his hard work, he would only come in 30th after the break was caught. -Posted 7/14/10
