Levis / Trow 100

Team Vesrah Brakes arrived the race venue Saturday morning to Gods beautiful lightning display. With that lightning was rain and some question to how the race was going to unfold. The Levis Trow race course had miles of fun fast sandy singletrack connected by rolling (mostly uphill) doubletrack. Instead of the twelve hour format this race was complete with the accomplishment of one hundred miles. The race course was twenty-five miles long, meaning on a four man team each rider would lap once. Team Vesrah Brakes Ken Melville shot out into the rainy conditions with the blast of a musket. Ken won the running race to the bikes and rode with the overall leaders for the first twenty or so miles. Ken dug deep on the final few miles which consisted of some very technical uphill climbs to finish the first 25 miles strong. As the rain started to subside and the sun began to shine Mark McCrimmon was up for the second twenty-five mile lap. Mark put in a great performance reeling in the overall leaders and keeping Vesrah in the hunt for the class win. Michael Peet was up for lap three and ready for some redemption. He has been coming up to speed quickly logging many training miles in the saddle. He felt good the first half lap, then the rains came back followed by the hot sun and the harder half of the course. The hills hit him late in his lap but Mike pushed to detonation to hand over the outcome to Mike Laney. Team Vesrah was hammering good laps, but despite that fact Vesrah was down in class seventeen minutes to first place Chainsmokers. Team Vesrah Brakes Mike Laney with Twenty-five miles to go needed to reel in a seventeen minute deficit to class leader Chainsmokers. Mike pushed hard from the beginning and was able to cut the lead to eleven minutes by the half way point. The rest of the Vesrah team was on course in many locations relaying time gap information to Mike. This was very helpful and kept hope alive. At the twenty mile mark Mike Laney cut the lead to approx 6 minutes. The five remaining miles again consisted of technical uphill climbs, terrible for lactic acid threshold, perfect for gaining huge blocks of time. Starting to lose hope nearing the end, Mike heard the encouraging words from his team that he was just 1 minute and 10 seconds back, and that the leader was fading. Once again inspired Mike pushed what seemed to be an impossible gear to the top of each climb. With a mile or so to go Mike was able to catch and pass Chainsmokers. After the pass Mike continued to push a big gear stretching more than a five minute gap by the finish line. With this dramatic win for Vesrah it is evident you can not count this Team out, EVER. This win gives Team Vesrah Brakes their fifth win this year in five attempts. Four wins in the WEMS Series and a win at the 24-9 mile National Championships 35+ category. Team Vesrah Completed 4 laps in 9 hours 43 minutes, logging 100 miles, with a total elevation gain of 7,344 feet, averaging over 10 mph.