Fort Collins’ George Simpson, Jim Dickerson and Mike Williams came home with wins after this past weekend’s Paula Higgins Memorial Record Challenge in Moriarty New Mexico with Simpson and Dickerson setting US records.
George destroyed the 31-year-old 40km time trial record of 47:35.37 set by John Frey in Moriarty way back on 09/02/1990. The new record is now 45:31.66. Tyrel Fuchs, who also spends time in Fort Collins, also beat the record and finished just behind George with a time of 46:45.80.
Jim Dickerson won the 20km race and set a new masters men 65-69 age group record with a time of 25:43.85. The old record was is 26:45.94. Jim’s 30-second man beat the record and was instantly dethroned by Jim.
Mike Williams won the 40k masters men 55-59 age group with a time of 49:41.61 and would have set a new age group record but his skinsuit and bike were not UCI legal. This means qualified to win on the day but not set a new USAC record. It’s worth pointing out that he was also 4th overall on the 40k course.
Earlier this summer, Dickerson won the 65-69 National Championship and Williams was second in the 55-59s. Simpson, a former collegiate national time trial champion, multi-time Colorado state tt champion, and us pro tt nationals podium finisher, was 17th in 2021.
The certified 20k and 40k time trial courses are notoriously fast with roughly 100 feet of elevation change (half that for the 20km), reasonably good chip seal, and are at an elevation of 6200 feet. Almost all US road time trial records have been set at Moriarty. Although the race is generally held over Labor Day weekend, racers had little time to prepare as the official announcement that the races would indeed take place only came out a few weeks ago.
