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Making time
Mountain Khakis tough in time trial
By JOHN BASSETTI
ELLSWORTH
Pitting man against the clock is the purpose of a time trial.
But some of the faster cyclists, such as Joey Rosskopf of Athens, Ga., defied that definition by passing riders who started before them.
Either way, Rosskopf’s 18:40 over a 9.6-mile route in southeastern Mahoning County late Friday afternoon and evening was the top time to open the second Tour of the Valley stage race.
In fact, Rosskopf and Mountain Kahkis teammates Matt Cooke and Oscar Clarke gave the North Carolina-based team such a first-day lead that their team truck’s license plate motto of “First in Flight” could also apply to their cycling strength.
“I feel confident with this team,” said Cooke, a first-year Khakis member. “I think we’ll be able to pull it off. Everyone on this team is strong.”
Of his winning time, Rosskopf said: “I was surprised and I think everyone on my team was surprised that I went that fast. I felt really good about it,” the 20-year-old said of mostly flat course.
“I was worried about it being wet, but there was only one turn and then the turnaround. You have to take the corners slow when the ground’s wet.”
Riders shoved off in 30-second intervals starting in front of the Mastropietro Winery on Ellsworth Rd. After about 1.7 miles, the course takes an acute turn on south Duck Creek Rd.
“All time trials are different,” Rosskopf said of the sharp cutback. “It was the only corner, so it could have been more technical.”
Rosskopf has felt strong for the past few weeks, but was especially sharp for nationals in Oregon a few couple weeks ago.
“I seem to have held some of the form since then.”
Cooke was riding in his first TOTV.
“It was hard and painful and you suffer a lot while you’re out there,” said the 30-year-old who lives in Boulder, Colo. “I think maybe I went too hard on the way out, so I used all my juice up on the way out.”
Most of the rain that covered the roads when the first riders started at 5 p.m., was gone, which may have been advantageous to those scheduled at 7 p.m.
After making a 12-hour trek from Georgia, the Mountain Khakis riders stayed in Painesville for a few days at the home of a patron.
Today’s road race will be critical, Cooke said of the 66-mile course for Pro 1-2 men that will include several bonuses.
Cooke hit the road several minutes before third-place finisher Paul Martin, so their paths didn’t cross.
“Paul is a very fast guy and he’s been around for a long time, but we [Mountain Khakis] came out to win.”
Martin, who started third-from-last and 30 seconds ahead of Rosskopf, may have pushed too much out of the block.
“I thought I was making good progress on the way out because I caught three guys and made up a minute and a half on those guys three places ahead of me by the [halfway] turnaround.
“But I think I went out a little bit too hard. At the turnaround, there’s a false-flat hill and I didn’t have enough gas in the tank on the way back. Then, when Rosskopf came past me with maybe 2 miles to go, that was pretty demoralizing. So I kind of knew at that point that I wasn’t going to make up 30 seconds on him, so I just tried to stay relatively close.”
Martin thought he’d have a tailwind, but it died down from the time of his warm-up ride when it was still raining.