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Results and Reports for May 18-24, 2002

USA

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Mt Palomar Pummel

California, May 19, 2002

Southern California's finest showed up for the first inaugural Palomar Mountain Pummel this weekend. Palomar Mountain is a legendary climb in the world cycling community with cycling greats like Andy Hampsten and Tony Rominger having graced its slopes. At just under 12 miles from the general store in Rincon Valley to the top it climbs an amazing 4,240 feet, which includes a quarter-mile gradual descent into the "Y" after four miles of stiff climbing. After the "Y" it is an all-out assault up the twisty, tree-lined road originally designed to transport the 200 inch lens for the telescope atop this picturesque mountain range outside San Diego, California.

Reigning California cyclo-cross champion Brent Prenzlow (Celo Pacific.org) and Expert NORBA National champion Emilio Cervantes (Simply Fit) were on hand and their wheels would be followed by all those that we up to the challenge. After a five mile neutral start to the Rincon General store the gun went off and the mass start began. The field contained all ages and categories. At 60+ Dan Wulbert knew he wouldn't challenge for the top of the podium but he did know he'd make many younger men suffer.

Racing began in earnest from the gun blast as Emilio attacked. This early tempo immediately shattered the peloton. After two miles the front group was down to five. Then it was SDBC's 55+ year old Herb Johnson's turn to up the tempo. As he stood on a large gear and maintaining only about 65-70 rpm, the group let him slowly get out to as much as 300 meters as they were certain he'd crack with over seven miles of climbing remaining.

As is often the case when climbing Palomar the first mile after the "Y" separated the pretenders from the contenders as Prenzlow and Greg (KB Homes) dropped Emilio and MS Larry (ExcelSports.com) in their pursuit of Herb. Emilio later said he felt "the long hours of training this week". While local 40+ climbing specialist MS Larry added "today wasn't my day".

With less than a mile to the 5,256ft finish line the amazing Herb Johnson was holding on, all the while out of the saddle, slowly hammering away and periodically checking over his shoulder. It was left to Prenzlow to challenge the SDBC rider over the last few kilometers and to everyone's astonishment Herb did not crack, finishing in a very quick time of 59:56 just sliding in under the prestigious one hour mark. Meanwhile a exhausted Prenzlow rolled across in one hour and eight seconds saying "He (Herb) deserved the win – he was amazing!"

A huge thank you to BikeReg.com and Red5Adventures.com for their help.

Results

1 Herb Johnson (SDBC)                59.56
2 Brent Prenzlow (Celo Pacific)       0.12
3 Greg (KB Homes)                     1.24
4 MS Larry (ExcelSports.com)          2.34
5 Emilio Cervantes (Simply Fit)       3.12
6 Mark Huffman (B&L Sports)           4.42
7 Craig Fenstermaker (Celo Pacific)  12.09
8 Dan Wulbert (B&L Sports)           13.23
9 Jeff Sullivan (Supergo.com)        16.02
10 Kurt Spindleman (Celo Pacific)    19.19
11 Doug Miller (Celo Pacific)        21.00

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