Race Coverage

More Milestones For Matt...

Tuesday, 21 July 2015 00:10

30th HEART OF THE LAKES - THE MEN - Riding at least a mile-per-hour faster than anybody else means that you will catch those that outswam you and power into T2 all by your lonesome. You probably won't have to bust your hump too much on the run, but that's no reason not to. Especially when you want to win the National Championships three weeks hence.

That's how Matt Payne picked up his second consecutive win at Heart of the Lakes last Sunday, which was his 7th victory in as many starts this year. More impressively, it was the 40th W of his career. So you know, his first win was at the original Graniteman in Rockville back in 2008. The dude's come a long way in a relatively short period of time.

Though unsurprising, Matt's win was exciting to watch. Similarly unsurprising, yet concommitantly thrilling, were the performances turned in by Matt's podiummates, Josh Blankenheim and Kevin O'Connor. For Blank, it was his 3rd 2nd-place effort of the season and his time on the HOLT...

course was a PR by exactly one minute. Yes, like Matt, we believe that Josh will turn some heads in Milwaukee next month.

O'Connor's 3rd place time (1:33:24) was the fastest by a master here since Brian Bich's 1:33:11 in 2010.

Now for the pleasantly surprising performances. They started with Larry Hosch's 4th place finish. No, on paper he wasn't supposed to go that fast (1:34:10) or place that high. Or was he? Looking back at his season, it's possible that this effort was clearly portended. His 7th at Apple was impressive. His first career win at ZTri was similarly impressive. His close 2nd behind Most Improved frontrunner Bennett Isabella at Graniteman was even impressiver. That he beat Bennett by 13 seconds at HOLT is further instantiation of his career trajectory.

So, maybe it wasn't so surprising after all. And it certainly puts Larry, a Rookie of the Year nominee in 2013, into the Most Improved discussion. We're anxious to see how the next mano-a-mano between Isabella and Hosch turns out.

Why are we, or anyone else, surprised when 58-year-old Tony Schiller proves, as he did at HOLT, that the age-grading formulas do not apply to him, not even close. HOLT featured a Whos Who of regional open class talent, still Schiller cracked the overall Top 10. In fact, he just missed finishing in the Top 5. He was 6th. That's insane, isn't it?

Then we recall his history at this race. Ten outright wins, eight sub-1:30s, and four AG course records (actually more than that, but our record keeping doesn't include open class - ages 20-39--AG records because winners in those categories place at or near the top in the overall standings).

Time to monologue (verb) about HOLT's Sprint race, the 3rd event in the inaugural Metro Sprint Series (Series Standings will be posted soon - LINK). For the 2nd year, local pro David Thompson blasted to a wide-margin win, doing so the day after winning the Outland Challenge in South Dakota. His time, though not as ridiculous (41:21) as in 2014 (40:04), was ridiculous enough. Second place, the amateur winner, went to Matt Radniecki (45:08, which was WAY FASTER than W. Harvey Skees' winning time here in 2012), who also was victorious at Trinona Sprint and had placed 2nd recently at Minneapolis Sprint. Matt will go into next Saturday's Walker Tri as the men's favorite.

Andy Zabel rounded out the men's podium in 45:19, which was a full minute faster than his winning time here in 2013.

FYI, former South Dakota Governor Frank Farrar, 86, won the newly added 80-89 category, and our beloved Bob Powers, 91, won the 90-&-over category. How freakin' cool is that!

The final two events in the Metro Sprint Series are Hopkins Royals on September 5, and Blaine on September 12. HOLT SC RESULTS

Photos - Right: Two guys that raced well at HOLT: Tony Schiller and Bob Powers. Below - Josh Blankenheim doing a little nose-mining as Larissa spectates.