(Photo: Pat Malach)
Local racing standout Jacob Rathe has picked up an impressive stage win at the Rutas de America race in Uruguay. Rathe, 20, won the 143km stage in a time of 2:55:26.
Pat Malach of Oregon Cycling Action says Rathe’s win at Rutas de America came against some of the top U23 talent in the world. The race included a field of racers from Italy, Spain, Netherlands, the USA, Switzerland, Belarus, Australia, Slovenia, and others.
We profiled Rathe back in 2008 when, as a 17-year old he was picked to represent Team USA in the Junior World Championships. Rathe rode with the Jelly Belly Pro Team last year and Malach reports that he signed with Team Chipotle — the development squad for the ProTour Garmin-Cervelo team of World Champion Thor Hushovd — in the off-season.
Next up for Rathe is a trip back to the states where he’ll compete at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in California.
Update, 3/17: Thanks to a commenter below, we have video footage of Rathe’s thrilling sprint victory!
Congratulations, Jacob Rathe!
Am I reading those results right? Four riders across the line in the first second, 20 riders finishing in the next four seconds? Wow! That’s some tight racing.
@Alan 1.0
In cycling, each rider that “maintains contact” with a group as it crosses the line is given the same time as the first rider in that group. The posted results I saw only go to the top 20, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire field of 100+ riders finished “four seconds” behind the leaders, at least in the scoring books.
If you look at the course profile, they had a 20 km downhill run to the finish. They must have been flying, so getting a four-second gap at the finish is quite an accomplishment.
By the way, they covered the 86-mile course in just under three hours, averaging nearly 30 mph.
Thanks for the explanation, Pat, I’ve just been picking up more details on your website, and was wondering about the course profile, too. It’s all the more impressive for Jacob to pull away from that tight a pack. I’d love to see some video of that last 20km!
Yes, that was a good explanation of the rule: I think the official rule is supposed to be as long as one rider is within one second of the previous rider. The rule was implemented to prevent all kinds of finish crashes as EVERY rider would be worried about exact finish times. This makes for a safer finish as each “group” gets the same time, so as long as you are in the group, you’re not losing time overall.
Nice follow up by Jacob to fellow Northwest rider Tyler Farrar’s win at Tirreno-Adriatico day before. Tyler rides for Team Chipotle’s parent team, Garmin-Cervelo. Also, Ian Boswell of Bend is riding for the Trek-Livestrong development team this year. He was the VeloNews “breakout rider” of the year for 2010 after finishing third overall at the Tour of Utah behind Radioshack’s Levi Leipheimer and former Spanish National Champ Francisco Mancebo. Northwest riders on the move!
AWESOME!
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Way to go Jake!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGJwhDUpvrE