It’s a warm, bright Sunday morning. Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred traffic has slowed to a lull, and the Multipurpose Event Center parking lot isn’t overflowing with cars anymore. The third day of the triple threat weekend was the most relaxed, but there was still work to do for MSU cyclists Jason Perkins, mechanical engineering junior, Brissia Montalvo, exercise physiology graduate student, Amy Floyd, accounting senior, and Pablo Cruz, exercise physiology senior.
“[Hotter ‘N Hell] is a soft requirement. If they’re hurt or if they have other races that they are competing in, we will allow that because the style of race that we are doing here at Hotter N’ Hell is not super compatible with what we are doing in two weeks at the National Championships,” Charlie Zamastil, head cycling coach and Hotter ‘N Hell director, said. “While Hotter ‘N Hell is a big local deal for us, on the collegiate racing scene, collegiate track nationals in Indianapolis is the higher target.”
Perkins, who has competed in Hotter ‘N Hell two other times, said he accomplished what he came to do at the race.
“My intention was to initiate an early break and stay away the whole day, which we did,” Perkins said. “I attacked on a prime lap where everybody thought, ‘He was going to go for the prime, and stood up and waited on the field,’ but then I just kept going. So it was a bit of tom foolery.”
Zamastil predicted that Perkins would finish in the top five of the men’s cat 3-4 criterium and he predicted correctly — Perkins finished fourth.
Floyd and Montalvo competed in the women’s pro 1-2-3 criterium following Perkins’ race. With the highest temperature reaching 87 degrees, Floyd said she enjoyed the cooler temperatures — cooler than normal Hotter ‘N Hell temperatures, at least.
“I think it feels awesome, especially the weather. Even last week going into this week, I was like, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ but this is perfect,” Floyd said. “You can’t ask for better racing weather.”
Montalvo, who has also competed in Hotter ‘N Hell two times before, said she didn’t have any certain expectations for the race.
“I don’t think I had many expectations, I just wanted to come out and see what would happen,” Montalvo said. “I wanted to have fun and work with Amy. It turned out a little better than I expected for how we were feeling.”
Cruz competed in the men’s pro 1-2 criterium, but Zamastil said this crit race does not play to Cruz’s strengths.
“This discipline is flat course, but Pablo is a climber,” Zamastil said. “This is not a course for climbers, so if he’s even in the top 20, that will be an impressive result in this style of racing.”
Cruz agreed with Zamastil.
“In the 100-mile race I managed to get 11th, so for field sprint I feel that’s pretty good for me not being a sprinter,” Cruz said.
Results
Friday
Women’s Open | Amy Floyd | 7th | 40:57
Men Pro/1/2/3 | Pablo Cruz | 23rd | 1:07:27
Saturday Road Race
Men Pro/1/2 | Pablo Cruz | 11th | 3:41:18
Men Cat 3/4 | Jason Perkins | 9th | 4:09:36
Sunday Crit
Men Category 3-4 | Jason Perkins | 4th | 39:13
Women Pro/1/2/3 | Amy Floyd | 6th | 38:48
Men Pro/1/2 | Pablo Cruz | 37th | 1:01:55
Sunday Omnium
Men Cat 3/4 | Jason Perkins | 5th | 50
Women Pro/1/2/3 | Amy Floyd | 41
