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2005 Tour de Tunnel
Port Townsend, WA, October 15, 2005
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Ragnarok Racing Team held the 2005 Tour de Tunnel on Saturday October 15th at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington. Fort Worden was one of four battlement filled military forts built along the Puget Sound to protect Washington from possible naval attacks. Fort Worden is known to many as the location where "An Officer & Gentleman" was filmed with Richard Gere, Louis Gossett Jr, and Debra Winger in 1982. Without any non commissioned officers present to serve as drill sergeants, racers only had DJ Nathan Keiger to provide moral encouragement from the beer garden.
After strong winds and rainy conditions the night before, the record number of participants were treated to blue skies and bright sunshine on race day. Ragnarok organizers developed a new course that still took advantage of Fort Worden 's historic battlements but didn't have the traditional ride through the long dark tunnel that gave this event its name. Instead, alterations to the course made it faster, smoother and made it substantially more spectator friendly. Beginning with a fast flat straight shot past the Fat Tire beer garden, riders hit a fast single track descent that became more root infested as racing progressed during the day. The descent opened onto a long false flat at the historic Chinese Gardens and then climbed up a short steep dirt rise to the first run up of the day up slick wooden steps next to one of Fort Worden 's historic gun battery battlements. After that short run-up, they descended down into the start finish where they were treated to another run-up, a descent back into Fort Worden into the start finish area just inside the beer garden.
In the Elite Men's Race, Josh Squier with Recycled Cycles established an early lead in the first lap and maintained a 30 second gap for the remaining 7 laps for the win. Chasing in second and third place were Rian Iddings with Redline and Eric Atwood with Benaroya Research Institute). As the race progressed, Squier extended his lead while Atwood and Iddings cased together. Evan Plews (Santial Bicycles) worked his way up from fifth place to pass James Birkenbull, and eventually bridged up to Iddings and Atwood, taking third place.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Hyun Lee
- The Beginner men start
- Phillip Glerun (Wines of Washington) leaps his way to a win in the Beginner’s race
- Ernie Powers (Broadmark Capital) eventually finished 4th in the Beginners’ race
- Brooks Werner got third place ahead of team-mate Powers
- Other new riders tackled the barriers
- The beginners kids in the 2005 Tour de Tunnel
- Phillip Glerun followed by second place Jason Frazier
- Brook Werner (third place) chugging up the run-up
- The kids tackling the run-up
- The Broadmark duo (Powers & Werner) chasing first and second
- And they’re off
- Josh Squier (Recycled Cycles) tackles the triple barriers
- Rian Iddings (Redline) chases through the barriers
- Steve Williams chases in 4th place, followed by James Birkenbull
- James Birkenbull (Alki Rubicon)
- Evan Plews chasing in 6th place
- Matt Hill (Gregg’s Greenlake) leads through the barriers in the Masters’ Race
- The Masters hit the triple barriers
- Team Ragnarok being represented well
- Eric Atwood chasing in third
- Josh Squier extending his lead
- Steve Williams (Recycled Cycles) chasing hard in 4th place
- Ryan Iddings and Eric Atwood chasing hard in 2nd and 3rd
- Steve Williams and James Birkenbull about to be caught by Evan Plews
- Matt Hill tackling the run-up
- Tom Phillips (Ragnarok) chasing hard
- Ragnarok riders representing roaring up the run-up
- Andy Dahlstrom planning the fun for the Fort Flagler weekend
- Josh Squier hits the wooden step run-up
- Matt Hill showing proper technique
Results
Elite Men 1 Josh Squier (Recycle dCycles) 2 Rian Iddings (Redline) 3 Evan Plews (Santiam Bicycles) 4 Eric Atwood (Benaroya Research Institute) 5 Steve Williams (Recycled Cycles) 6 James Birkenbull (Alki/Rubicon) Beginners 1 Phillip Glerun (Wines of Washington) 2 Jason Frazier 3 Brooks Werner (Broadmark Capital) 4 Ernie Powers (Broadmark Capital)
