Country roads take me home to the place I belong.
John Denver wrote that about West Virginia roads, but he was born in New Mexico and lived
in Colorado, so I'm not sure his romantic view of West Virginia roads is born out in
reality.
Unless, of course, the place you belong is, walling around in miles of speed scrubbing,
soul-destroying mud bogs.
The hilly-billy rebay starts gentle enough, on nicely paved roads, at least.
However, the sky started to open up as soon as riders hit the course proper on this day,
but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
That's J.R.
Petsko there at the staging area.
He's the man behind the race and the one who plans the course.
If you have any gripes about your beaten soul, he's the man to see.
The first hilly-billy rebay was in 2010.
J.R. and friends were riding the back roads of Morgantown the winter before, lamenting
that the conditions were just too extreme for a race.
Quickly realizing the absurdity of such a statement, the hilly-billy was born.
It's not really a road race, not really a cross race, and surely not a mountain bike
race, although more and more the mountain bike seems to be the weapon of choice.
What is it then?
Well, it's 72 miles of some of the nastiest roads in the area.
Or just roads, as the locals call them.
Part of the American Ultra Cross race series, the hilly-billy is one of those bucket list
races.
It's brutal, but you'll love it.
We're going to thank our sponsors, we're going to thank Canada, we're going to thank
Katharine, or West Virginia, Morgantown's TVB, Progol, thanks for Bruce for commenting,
it's always nice to have him here, to tune our ear off and talk to us.
And the tire, and if you're looking for something to eat tonight in your state of town, go to
Pies and Pines and Hers.
Any questions?
Comments?
Concerns?
I love you.
I love you too, Roy.
I enjoy the day.
Don't touch me too much, it's what we do, have a beer then, that's the best thing.
JR has a sister and that sister has a pig named Lulu.
Lulu is not only the life of the party, but this year she was given the high honor of
official race starter.
Thankfully, Lulu didn't start drinking until later in the day, or we may have been off
to a disastrous start.
Yep, that's her in the background, with the official starter's squeal.
One of the keys to the hilly-billy is tire choice.
Inevitably, you are going flat.
The question is how many times, two, three, four, five flat tires, none unreasonable or
unheard of number, especially if you are on a cross bike with the wrong tire.
To bring this point home, let's talk to the leaders and see how many stops they had to
make for flats.
Well, I guess the lesson here is, it's good to be lucky, but it's better to be lucky
and good.
The hilly-billy starts with a short prologue, the only time we will see the whole group
together.
And not to play spoiler, but here on the front row, you can see the guys will be at the front
of this race for the duration.
The dreadlocked fellow is Garth Prosser.
He's from Ohio, a place that even West Virginians look down on, but we aren't going to hold
that against him.
Garth is a hard man on a bike and holds his course record for the hilly-billy.
Next to Garth is Mike Simonson.
He is the current leader of the Ultra Cross series, but has never stood on the top step
of the hilly-billy.
Mike is known for his huge engine and his penchant for mechanicals.
My strategy was to wait for Simonson to mechanical or flat.
You'd heard he was going to break two chains and use flat wheels.
Yeah, two chains.
If it's a hundred milers, I would see his wife and be like, he's okay, he has a flat,
he's okay, he has a broken chain, he's okay, but his head is off his body.
Along with Prosser and Simonson are Jared Babic, loves crit racing, hates sleeves, and
Stevo Cummings, who was just working his way back into racing after dealing with injuries
for the past year.
But those aren't the only major players in this race.
Also at the hilly-billy is...
Yeah, Crystallanthony!
Yeah, I was getting there.
Yes, it's Crystallanthony, selected to race the World Cyclocross Championship for the
United States and accomplished road and mountain bike race or two.
As the group hits the course in earnest, they eased into the day on paved roads in almost
clear skies.
But Mother Nature soon gave everyone a taste of what she truly had in store for the day.
When the main group hit Little Indian Creek, one of those West Virginia state roads we
were talking about, that's when the real fun started.
At the front of the race, a lead group is formed that includes Prosser, Babic, Justin
Pogrifka, among others.
Just up the road, Ron Glozinski has attacked that group trying to bridge up to the leading
duo of Simonson and Cummings.
A little behind that lead group is Anthony, who is well ahead of the rest of the women
racers and riding in a strong chase group.
Drop back a couple more minutes and the rest of the field is less concerned with who wins
and more concerned with making it through the hilly-billy.
Then of course they're going to have some fun on the way.
Along with flat tires, broken chains, failing brakes and other bike issues commonplace during
the hilly-billy, it's not unheard of to spill some blood.
But if you have some fabric and a spare tube, superficial wounds shouldn't slow you down
too much.
Back up the road, Gunnar Shogren, a man who knows these roads better than anyone, has
joined the Anthony group.
Gunnar, like Babak, also hates sleeves and gears at the hilly-billy as he regularly
competes in the single-speed division.
As the leading duo pass aid station 2, Simonson starts to gain some ground on Cummings and
by the time they reach the top of this gravel climb, the gap is around 40 seconds.
The rain continued throughout the day, as did the fracking operations along the course.
And by the time Simonson hit the final climb, he was well out in front.
A final push for home, and Mike Simonson takes the win at the 2014 hilly-billy-roubaix.
Cummings held on for a second, not a bad result for a guy with almost no racing in his legs.
Proser and Babak were third and fourth, and Anthony finished in the top ten overall and
took the women's top prize with ease.
It was a little bit of everything out there, some downpours, some sun, kind of tried to
stay with the group for a while and then the leaders kind of got a gap at one point and
then we had a group of about four of us that were working together for most of the whole
race, so that was awesome.
The rest of the field worked their way over the finish line for the next several hours.
Each of them will go home with sore legs, a belly full of pizza and beer, and their
own special story to tell about the hilly-billy-roubaix.
So that about does it for the hilly-billy-roubaix 2014.
Why don't you come join us next year.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
I love the hilly-billy-roubaix.
