Four Riders Inside Nineteen Seconds in the 50+

Eighty-six names on Saturday’s masters sheets at Roanoke, four of whom did not start and seventy-eight of whom finished, across five men’s fields and three women’s. Four of the eight masters winners came from Ohio or North Carolina. The closest race of the day was also the biggest.

Results are the Saturday stage lists from the race’s own timing feed, read at 7:38 p.m. Eastern, and are unofficial until USA Cycling posts them. No ratings or ranking positions appear below: the model does not see this weekend until Monday, so nothing here has moved anybody yet. Four masters finishers have no birth year on record and are named without an age.

The 50+ was the race. Twenty-three on the start sheet, twenty to the finish, and the first four inside nineteen seconds of each other. Dan Larino, 54, of Neshanic Station, New Jersey, riding for The Valley Om, took it in 42:01. Brian Marchionini, 53, of Silver Spring was 14 seconds back, Ophir Sefiha, 53, of Asheville at 17 and Scott Frederick, 53, of Raleigh at 19 — and Nathan Sibly and Francisco Covas were still only 40 and 42 seconds down in fifth and sixth. Six riders covered by three-quarters of a minute in a forty-five-minute race.

The 40+ was the opposite. Thirteen started and only three finished on the lead lap. Robert Marion, 45, of Mount Airy, North Carolina, won it in 49:50 from Brent Sturlaugson, 43, of Baltimore at 13 seconds and Steven Shive, 46, of Greenwich, Connecticut, at 25. Everybody from fourth down was a lap adrift, Luke Principe, 44, of Rochester among them in fifth.

Ohio took both of the older men’s races. Tom Weaver, 60, of Macedonia won the 60+ in 45:51, with Carl Reglar, 65, of Bethel, Connecticut, 11 seconds behind him and Robert Dietrick, 60, of Farmington, New York, third at 2:40 — then a gap, and eleven of the eighteen finishers a lap down. In the 70+ Ron Kubala, 72, of Sagamore Hills won by 1:26, and the two riders who followed him home were both 76: Kim Butler of Wheeling and Fred Wittwer of Nellysford. Chuck Gillis, fifth, is 76 as well — three of the six finishers in that race are the same age.

Popple and Gordon went elite, as billed, and both finished. Ryan Popple, 44, rode the UCI Elite Men C1 and came thirteenth of twenty-four finishers, 5:37 down on Tofik Beshir. Erin Gordon, 44, took sixteenth in the Elite Women, two laps off Manon Bakker. Neither started a masters race.

Greenwich had a good day. Darcy Ramsey Johnson, 65, of Old Greenwich won the women’s 60+ by 2:41 from Alison Weidner. Shive Coaching put Steven Shive on the 40+ podium and Carl Reglar on the 60+ podium in the same afternoon, and a second Van Dessel/Pactimo rider from the same town, Jeffrey Johnson, 68, came sixteenth in the men’s 60+, a lap down. In the other women’s races Evie Edwards, 51, of Asheville won the 40+ and Amy Phillips, 54, of Chattanooga the 50+.

Three masters rode two races. Phillips backed up her 50+ win with fifth in the open Women Cat 2. Jim Molnar, 55, went seventeenth in the 50+ and eighth in the singlespeed. Anthony Tunnero, 40, of New York rode the Cat 3/4/5 masters field and sat out the singlespeed he was also entered in.

The singlespeed race was a masters race in all but name. Gordon Wadsworth, 40, of Shawsville won it in 43:17, with 39-year-old Thomas Gibson at 50 seconds and 42-year-old Grant Fanning at 54. The fourth rider home, Spencer Johnston, is 28, and he was 1:50 down.

Sunday runs the same course, and BikeReg has all eight masters fields entered for it. Twenty-three riders were on Friday’s Sunday 50+ start list, as many as lined up on Saturday, so Larino can expect company.