The car thermometer registered a blistering 103 degrees when Moses Mexia parked his car in the shade before Saturday's 20th annual Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium in Boise.
Bellevue bicycle racer Mexia, 28, was certainly ready for a hot ride in the Men's Category 3 race starting at 4 p.m. on a 1-kilometer rectangular loop with four left-hand turns in downtown Boise.
"It was super hot," said Mexia, a 1996 Wood River High School graduate who has been racing bikes since he was 15. He knew it was extremely important to hydrate. "I brought an extra water bottle and kept dumping it on myself," he said.
Mexia, riding a 15-pound Scott CRI—"the lightest carbon fiber road bike on the market," he said—went out with 40 other riders in his class. Everybody rode in a pack for the first 30 laps, with each lap taking about one minute and 20 seconds.
At the 30th lap there was a $100 preem sprint and Mexia accelerated from the pack—trying to retrieve his $25 entry fee. Mexia won the preem. He found one other rider on his wheel, Michael Gerhardt of Pedro's Boise. The rest of the pack was 15 to 20 seconds back.
"I wanted the group to catch us, so we could ride that way for the last 10 laps," said Mexia. "But they were about a block-and-a-half back." So Mexia and Gerhardt just went for it, working together and alternating as the leader until the final sprint.
Which Mexia won, giving the first employee of Scott USA's two-and-a-half year old bike division something special to brag about to wife Heidi and 16-month-old son Titus.
Mexia collected another $300 for winning the Men's Category 3 race in 55 minutes of hard riding. It was Mexia's third straight Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium. He won the Men's Category 4/5 race in 2004 and was eighth in Men's 3 last year.
His was the best Wood River Valley placing in the $23,500 event presented by PowerBar and organized by George's Cycles/Fitness of Boise. Men's Pro 1/2 winner, Jose Garcia of Toyota-United Pro Cycling, won $4,000 and Women's Pro 1/2 queen Kristin Armstrong of Team Lipton took home $1,600.
Sun Valley Road & Dirt's Billy Olson was 16th in Men's Pro 1/2 for $250 and his teammate Scott Robinson placed 24th for $100, according to race director Mike Cooley.
Another local, 18-year-old alpine skier Miles Fink-Debray, was in the lead break at the end of the Men's 4/5 race that started in the extreme heat of 3 p.m. He attacked and fainted from the heat and dehydration while on his bike. Fink-Debray crashed and got a "knot on his head," Cooley said.
Experience is a big factor in a criterium event that has attracted Olympians like time trial specialist Armstrong, national champions and even European bicycle racing pros. Thousands line the Boise streets and there is a ton of pressure on riders.
To Mexia, bikes and racing are his lifeblood.
"I've always really loved the sport. It's been a great outlet for me. When I got more serious about my racing after high school, I found that it kept me in good shape and challenged me at the same time," he said.
He has always enjoyed mountain bike racing and has become a frequent winner in hair-raising Idaho downhill races. Mexia said he likes to ride as hard as he can.
Criteriums on road bikes are a lot like mountain bike short track racing, he said, and he likes the strategy. "It's more of a sprint. It takes a little time to figure out how things work. You have to think a little harder," he said.
He was working in a local bike shop when Scott Montgomery of Scott USA started poking around for employee recommendations. That was when the company started its bike division nearly three years ago. Mexia's racing ability and enthusiasm got him the job as the first employee of Scott USA's bike division.
The sport of bicycling got his foot in the door on a career.
Now, he is Scott USA's Northwest regional sales manager, managing other reps and helping push the company's bikes—while trying to find enough time for training with all his family responsibilities.
There's never enough time to train, he acknowledges, but Mexia said he tries to build a foundation of training in May and June, then in July, "I try to get lunch rides in and squeeze in weekly races when I can.
"I've totally enjoyed everything about bikes. They've been good to me," said Mexia, who plans to compete in the Idaho state criterium championships in Boise this August.
Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium winner Moses Mexia shows off his quick 15-pound number called the Scott CRI outside the company?s Ketchum office Monday. Photo by Willy Cook
