The singlespeed men delivered the thriller of the week so far.
Kerry Werner (Kona Adventure Team) and Tobin Ortenblad (Santa Cruz Bicycles) converted bikes to one gear and added to the star power of the final race of the day. Lining up with them were former singlespeed champs Ben Frederick (The Small Monsters Project pb Ornot-Ritchey) and Jake Wells (Alpha Bicycle Co. – Groove Silverthorne), along with pros Cody Kaiser (Kinetic Cycles – Specialized – SRAM – Zipp) and Max Judelson (Rock Lobster International). Teacher Casey Hildebrandt made his return to racing with his students cheering him on.
The singlespeed title race has come along away since 2015 in Austin, when it was mostly a singlespeed purist’s race, with a few cyclocross pros jumping in and upsetting those dedicated to one-gear .
Now it’s anyone’s race, and a good opener for the pros.
Werner and Ortenblad quickly made it a two-man race, and it came down to each turn. USA Cycling offered its take on the race:
The biggest field of the weekend was the Men’s Singlespeed race with 101 registrants [Ed. note: 92 starters], and it lived up to the hype. In one of the closest races of the day, Kerry Werner (Vinton, Va.; Kona Adventure Team) and Tobin Ortenblad (Santa Cruz, Calif.; Santa Cruz Bicycles ) stayed wheel to wheel for the entire race.
It came down to the final stretch, where Werner was able to create a small gap as they went onto the pavement, not even having a moment to post-up […]
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