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DOUGLAS — Rolling in to the beat of a mariachi band, Dr. Dan McGehee won yet again.
At the 19th Diamond Ventures Cochise County Cycling Classic on Saturday, the 44-year-old optometrist from Mesa won the 252-mile event for the third time in a row. His sixth title in an unofficial time of 12 hours, 36 minutes and 18 seconds ties the all-time record set by Dwight Nelson from 1990-1995.
With a course record of 10 minutes, 26 seconds set in 1996, that makes McGehee the Lance Armstrong of the Cochise County Cycling Classic.
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The official times will not come out until later this week. The mariachi band played as part of the Two Flags Festival of the Arts.
For approximately 160 miles, McGehee and the other 282 cyclists faced a heavy headwind near Texas Canyon between Benson and Willcox.
“I’d have to say that was the hardest Cochise race I’ve done,” McGehee said. “The last 160 miles was pure headwind. I felt like it was going right into my face.”
The 252-mile, 157-, 92-, and 45-mile events all began and finished on 10th Street and D Avenue on Raul H. Castro Park.
Beginning at 2 a.m. and finishing anywhere from the 2:36 p.m. time that McGehee came in to the 2 a.m. time today that was the 24-hour limit.
“We got six miles outside of town (Douglas),” McGehee said. “Tommy Bowden and I, we drifted out front. We traded off one-mile poles, he’d take a turn, then I’d take a turn.”
Right after the two racers got two miles west of Benson, the separation began and ended for good. Bowden finished second (15:25.20).
“As soon as we made the right turn up I-10, he was way back,” McGehee said. “I felt bad leaving him. I’d never done it before where I was all alone. There was nobody to share the work with.”
McGehee and several cyclists dealt with rain for five to six miles along the course, which circumvented the county. From Douglas, it went up Bisbee, down to Tombstone and Benson, then up the Interstate 10 freeway. From there, it went past Willcox and past the towns of Bowie and San Simon.
McGehee can break the record as early as next year.
“One year at a time,” McGehee said. “It depends on you ask, me or my wife.”
The 252-milers exited at Road Forks, N.M., five miles east of the Arizona state line. Heading south down Highway 80, they rode down Rodeo, N.M., then past the Patagonia Mountains before finishing up in Douglas.
The race was dedicated to Bisbee artist Toni Sodersten, a cancer survivor and resident of Bisbee for more than 30 years. She is the one who designed the trophy named “El Tour Conquistador” for Perimeter Cycling every year since 1983. Early this year, Sodersten underwent treatment for cancer.
The Cochise County Cycling Classic, otherwise known as the Four C’s, was sponsored by Diamond Ventures, a developer from Tucson that proposed the 4,900 home Smith Rance Community in Benson.
Officials expected to raise more than $6,000 the Douglas Association for Retarded Citizens, the most that the Classic has raised for a beneficiary.
The 283 cyclists was the third-highest in the 19 years the event has been around.
One of them was Joe Susco, who won the 157-mile race that went around the perimeter of the Dragoon Mountains in 8 hours, 5 minutes and 56 seconds.
He won the most competitive race of the day, barely pushing his legs fast enough to edge fellow Mesa native Bryce Cook (8:05.58).
“I think I got lucky because the truck got in the way,” Susco said. “We both split the truck. We were going to ride in together, but we said ‘Ah, what the truck.’ ”
Susco received some cycling scars, after he crashed during the race and had a cut just below his left knee.
“There was a headwind at the Dragoon Mountains on Highway 191,” Susco said.
Several cyclists seemed to enjoy the race, although plenty were understandably tired and resting on their backs. One of the more upbeat ones was Mark Goldentyer, a physical therapist from Northwest Hospital in Tucson. Goldentyer has been in the Tour de Tucson cycling race and he has run in the Boston Marathon.
“This is more fun because it’s a more doable pace,” Goldentyer said. “At Tucson, it’s a maniacal kind of a pace. It’s a testosterone-filled thing. Here it’s more relaxed.”
Peter Brown won the 92-mile race with an unofficial time of 4:06.56. David Stratton finished second (4:08.42), followed by Stephan Miquet (4:08.43), Michael Hast (4:08.44) and Peter Fry (4:08.45), who came in fifth. Bill Harman (4:08.46), Matt Konyn (4:09.11), John Fischer (4:11.10), Peter Michard (4:11.14) and Morten Anderson (4:12.52) rounded out the top 10.
Craig Lining won the 45-mile race with an unofficial time of 1:54.11. James Buttke made it a close race (1:54.12), followed by Terry Stager (1:56.10), Dale Mcrockatt (1:56.12) and Jimmie Hunter (1:56.13).
Chris Cooper finished sixth (1:56.15), followed by Dennis Schmidt (2:04.28), Glenn Harris, M.D. (2:04.29), Mark Unis (2:12.03) and Robert Crotty (2:12.03).
Wiillie wrote on Mar 2, 2009 7:42 PM: