Capital Stage Race 2011

Last Saturday I volunteered at the (new this year) Capital Stage Race in Olympia. It covered 4 stages in 3 days Friday through Sunday:

1. A road race over a 10-mile circuit with 300 feet of climbing per lap near Capital Forest.
2. A short time trial on Deschutes Parkway in downtown Olympia.
3. The Capital Criterium held on the State Capital Campus.
4. A final “queen stage” road race.

The time trial was on an out-and-back course and I was at the turnaround point with several other SCCA/Starbucks teammates. While manning the turnaround mostly consists of making sure the riders turn after (not before) the cone, I had the camera running and caught these interesting pics of a racer who used a bit of cyclocross technique to get around the hairpin:

The race official who was with us, Al Kronig (sp ?), mentioned that he thought this technique was brought to the area by Dan Harm, though if you scroll through the other time trial pictures, no one else did it at this race. What caught our attention was the sound of the racer clipping back in to his pedals after passing the turnaround cone. At first we thought he was having trouble, then realized it was all part of his plan.

Following the morning time trial, racers competed in a criterium at the WA State Capital area. The juniors got a motorcycle escort during their race:

More junior criterium pictures.

And the men’s category 4 racers beat up on one another through the technically challenging course that included a long slightly-steeper-than false flat on the home stretch:

More men’s category 4 criterium pictures.

General category results.

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