Difficult courses at Seven Springs challenged the riders at USA Cycling Road Festival

Somerset County, located in southwestern Pennsylvania, is better known for coal than gold. But for six days in early July, Somerset County was also a hard-worked gold mine. The gold in this case was the medals won by Masters cyclists at the USA Cycling Road Festival, which was held at Seven Springs Resort. Approximately 1,000 Masters cyclists competed.

Somerset County is also known for steep hills, which helped define the difficult courses that challenged Masters cyclists during the festival. The time-trial course, which involved several technical turns in addition to the hills, was informally called "the Death March."

Although many cyclists had their trepidations about the course, in the end it was widely regarded as a fair challenge. Even the tandems negotiated the tight turns on the 30-kilometer course. "These things turn like the Queen Mary," said competitor Ken Stamm, who with his stoker, Fran Scannell, had problems on the course. Blowing a tire, the pair rode a flat to the support truck and got back in to the race, placing third in the men's 110-plus tandem division.

Elizabeth Tyrell, a 56-year-old from Annandale, N.J., fared better than Stamm and Scannell in the time trial, winning the women's 55-59 division. With her victory, Tyrell, a past champion, added to her collection of Stars and Stripes jerseys which are awarded to the winners. "We had a very, very tough field," she said, "I was against B.J. Samuel (who took second in the time trial) and several past world champs."

Tyrell faced many of the same riders in the criterium, which was held at the Somerset Industrial Park on a flat, fast course that favored the sprinters. Tyrell went wheel-to-wheel with Kay Tsui of Falls Church, Va. Tyrell set a fast pace on the course, with Tsui right on her wheel. In one of the most exciting races of the Masters event, Tsui edged Tyrell at the line by a scant few inches. (The pair went after each other in all three disciplines: In the road race, Tyrell outrode Tsui to take the gold medal).

The Masters men's 45-49 criterium race also yielded a dramatic finish. Skip Foley, of Wayland, Mass., described his winning approach this way: "My strategy was to cover all the dangerous moves, so I raced from the front for the entire race."

The race had two strong teams, Discovery and Sonnis-Specialized, so Foley stayed with them. "Because I didn't have a team, I had to key off of the strong teams," he explained. When the strategy worked, Foley crossed the finish line with a whoop of pure joy. (He also placed third in the time trial).

The "lollipop" course, as the road race layout was called, was anything but a lollipop. The difficult course was a new addition to the lineup of pain to be inflicted on the athletes this year at Seven Springs.

Chris DeMarchi and Dan Vinson in the men's 70-plus tandem division took home Stars and Stripes jerseys, but they put in a lot of effort on the tough course for the win. "At the 30-kilometer mark, we were a minute, 40 seconds from the chasing tandems -- when we had a flat tire," DeMarchi said.

"We rode on a f lat for 2 or 3 miles," Vinson added. "The support truck was back with the rest of the pack, but we didn't panic. We were passed by the rest of the field by the time we got the tire changed." Charging up the course's steep hills, DeMarchi and Vinson caught and then passed the field a second time. "We just cruised in," said Vinson. "We enjoyed the last 200 meters."

Team Simple Green, out of southern California, had a good showing at the Masters event. Terrie Clouse and teammate Ruth Clemence both took home gold. Clouse won the road race in the women's 40-44; Clemence won the time trial and the road race in the women's 45-49 age group. In the road race, Clemence raced in a combined field, with the women's 40-44 and the women's 45-49 age brackets pedaling in a joined peloton. "To come up on the younger women was a good feeling," Clemence said.

After the Masters rode the Seven Springs courses for six days, the elite, junior and U-23 riders took over the same courses for another week of racing. Tying up a town for two weeks may not be how USA Cycling approaches its Road Festival in the future. Decisions are in the works to change to a smaller event, which will split off the Masters to their own courses as a separate competition. "By splitting the events, we can tailor the courses to the age groups and competitors," said USA Cycling's communications director Andy Lee. "… To have us take over a community for two weeks is a big undertaking."