SM Cat 4
April 2006 | Cashin White
Deer Trail
The Senior Men's 4 team is off to the best start in years, with big turnouts to all races, and consistent top 10 and top 20 finishes. Most notable have been the results of Matt Segur, showing his strength in time trials by winning the SM 4 Rabbit Mountain Individual Time Trial, beating out 16 of the Pro 1-2 times. SEAR followed up with a solid 3rd place in the overall Team Time Trial, scoring major BAT points for the 4's. The team consisted of Matt Segur, Scott Sturdivant, and Jay Norejko.
Furthermore, the continued growth of some of the newer members, most notably Roger Phillips, Michael Hanna, and Scott Sturdivant, have shown that they are more than ready for the long season and continually post excellent results. Scott actually finished 5th at Deer Trail in the overflow group, but his time would have won in the 4's pack! Roger coupled that with a top 20 finish himself, while Brandon Cornejo continues to show consistent improvement while becoming a full on MD in the process. Cashin White was able to sneak in an 8th place finish at the Boulder Beer Race as well.
Cherry Creek Time Trial
It's not until you look at the CCTT results that you start to see how deep the 4's talent pool really is this year. Not only are new members Matt Segur, Scot Sturdivant, and Chad Burns consistently finishing in the top 20, but veterans to the club like Jay Norejko, Tom Cisek, and Dean Williams keep dropping time weekly as they start to flirt with top 20 finishes themselves.
Lookout Mountain
Lookout Mountain revealed the climbing prowess of some of our members as well, including Matt Segur (6th), Scott Sturdivant (32nd), and Tim Hurtgen (63rd), which will translate well into the later half of the season and Road Races with big hill climbs.
All in all, there is much to be excited about this year. We will definitely be a contender for SM 4 Best All Around Team!
SEAR SM4’s LAND LUCRATIVE SPONSOR
HOTWHEELS TO SUPPLY AERODYNAMIC TRAINING WHEELS AS PART OF THREE MONTH SPONSORSHIP!!!
In light of a ridiculous comedy of errors, HOTWHEELS has stepped to the plate to aid the SM 4's team as they attempt to offset the setbacks of continuous crashes in the last seconds of races. SEAR negotiated a short-term contract with HOTWHEELS in which the company will provide yellow and blue training wheels to all SM 4's. Each set will comply with all ACA training wheel regulations and will be aerodynamically designed to help decrease drag and simultaneously keep the SM 4's rubber side down. Conversely, any SM 4 member that finishes a race in the top 5 must make a formal statement that "HOTWHEELS are radical, and I couldn’t have done it without their support."
Examples of recent could-have-been-would-have-been's include last weekend's races at the RMO series. Matt Segur, who dedicated all 3-days of his Memorial Day weekend to the pursuit of glory, was robbed of a most certain 1st place finish by a haphazard accident on the last stretch of the last Crit in a 3-day stage race. He had to settle for 4th overall, clearly not acceptable.
Wheels of Thunder was a little bit different, in which the rider that crashed, Deano, actually was able to finish the race and place in the top 25 of a field that must have been 600+. Deano, who fell victim to the powers that be last year at WOT, was destined to finish the race on both wheels. However, despite his endless training and focus, racing with the 4's is like entering an eating contest on a full stomach . . . it's just not fair. With a resounding "NO!", he went down hard. Sure enough, one lap later, he's in the pack, leading the 4's on the way to a great race in which SEAR had seven 4's finish strong.
The captain apparently felt left out and decided that a climatic crash on the last lap of the City Park Crit, in contention for a top 30 finish out of 80+ crazyfolks, would elevate his game to the next level. As fate would have it, his plan worked out perfectly, allowing him to fall head over a** right in front of friends and family on the final sprint.
In fact, the only race the 4's have survived unscathed was the Cherry Creek Time Trial, in which we had Matt Segur (top 10), Chad Burns (top 10), Scott Sturdivant, and Jay Norjeko finish in the top 20. Cashin White, Dean William, and Tom Cisek also finished the series with PB's and top 20's on several occasions.
Will the training wheels help? Apparently, the only thing keeping us from winning BAT is actually finishing the race. If training wheels will help us do that, then so be it. When quoted, Matt Segur mentioned "I know I am the oldest on the team, but not only will I embrace the training wheels, but I am also installing a NERF dart gun on my handle bars to take out a certain team that will go unnamed, but their mascot is an herbivore with curly antlers that makes for nice road kill on I-70."