Well, its been quite a while since I posted. I guess I just got bored with it for a bit. The past Labor Day weekend was the US 10k and US 100k Sponsored by Publix and G.(Does anyone thing that new name for Gatorade is stupid/precocious besides me?) This one of the largest events in the nation with 10k events for runners, inline speedskaters, wheelchair athletes, female cyclists, and a 100k for Pro Men’s cycling.
If you’ve never seen the course, it is a straight 10k shot down a major thoroughfare of Atlanta: Cobb Parkway; which also happens to be extremely hilly. Speedskaters hit between 45-55mph several times including the finish.
This was probably the best year in a long time for the inline speedskaters as they had doubled the participation from the previous year. As usual Charlie Bennett; an incredible speedksater in his own right, did his usual outstanding job as MC getting the crowd revved up for the inline speedskaters. An huge feat given the state of the economy and the cost of the sport. A big thanks to the Blair family for lobbying Joe Cotter to hold NIRA Inline Speedskating Nationals in Atlanta over the weekend. With the 10k being on Monday it would be quite foolish not to stay just one more day for easily the most fun outdoor race of year for inline speedskaters. The entries for the men this year hosted a monstrous field including Harry Vogel: a multiple world champion gold medalist, Jorge Botero: a multiple world champion from Columbia, and Jonathon Blair: a former and current Jr World team member. 2009 was also a great race with Eddie Metzger(winner for something like the past 6 years) getting handily beat(finally) by Harry Vogel, Jorge Botero, Jonathon Blair, and Francisco Ramirez. See the full results here. To be PC about it; Eddie is inline speedskating’s version of Alexander Vinokourov. He’s good, but he’s not well liked amongst the ranks of speedskaters.
A big thanks to Dan Heid and Charlie Craven of CCN/Danger Racing for designing and donating the jerseys given out the winners of each event. Both of them have many years of international speedskating experience; so they have first hand knowledge of what athletes want in a uniform/team kit. The jerseys looked awesome. Make sure you to keep an eye out for this up-and-comping custom apparel retailer. They are putting out awesome designs in quality material at prices that the other manufacturers simply cannot match. They were selected by USA Rollerskating to supply the World Team with full apparel and uniforms the 2009 World Championships in China later this month.
I own several of their team kits, one of which I was wearing when I hit the deck going between 25-30mph and only had a couple of scuffs on it, but I definitely could not say the same about my skin.
On the cycling side of things. Chad Andrews did a tremendous job keeping the crowd entertained , hyped, and informed for the women’s sprint to the line while the men were out doing their 100k. Follow him on Twitter @TotalCyclist. The full results aren’t up at the moment, so I can’t remember what the placements were other than the winner: Frank Travieso of Champion Porsche Cycling.
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