BACON BUFFET RACE REPORT

Provided by BikeAlberta

May 20, 2009

The May Long Weekend snowfall held off just long enough so that 200 racers could complete the 2009 Buffet of All You Can Eat Bacon, Pain, & Suffering and the inaugural edition of the Trans Stony Superhero Challenge 6 Hr Enduro MTB Race.

On Saturday, the third annual edition of the Bacon Buffet when off with a bang.  In the Elite Men’s race, fans were treated to a close battle between newcomer Manuel Felmann (Balance Point Racing) and Deadgoat’s own Devin Erfle.  From the gun, Mike Blennerhasset shot off like a rocket and gained the holeshot as they elite field blasted off into the race.  "Blender" lead for ½ a lap until young hot shot Cody Canning (ERTC) took up the pace-making and quickly gained a 20 second advantage.  But it wasn’t Cody’s day as he was forced to pull out while leading the race 2 laps in.  From there, Manuel took over and maintained a slight advantage over the chasing group that was as little as 15 seconds and as much as 25.  Devin was chasing hard but just could not close it to Manuel completely.  Rounding out the podium was Jeff Neilson in 3rd place.

The Elite Women’s had an equally epic battle as Pepper Harlton (Junventus), who took on Xterra Pro Danelle Kabush (Luna Pro Team) and the rest of the Elite Women’s field.   Pepper went to the front and never looked back.   Also adding the the challenge, Danelle had to contend with no front brake for the final laps.  Behind Pepper and Danelle, Kate Aardal (Hardcore) steadied her way to a third place finish.

Hardcore Racing took both Expert wins as the husband and wife duo of David Roberts and Bridget Linder won their respective races.  Kelly Hall (Juventus) and Nicole Muzechka (Terrascape) continued their way to Elite by finishing 2nd & 3rd on the day while Peter Yez was the middle of a Hardcore Racing sandwich by finished 2nd in Expert behind Roberts and in front of Jon Benskin (Hardcore Racing).

The sport category was owned by Felix Wilberg who needed to where goggles ’cause he was racing so fast - even while pre-riding the day before.

And check out Lungsnots photoset [here]

The next race on the Alberta Cup is the Perogy XC on May 24.