Trek-Volkwagen’s endurance duo of Travis Brown and Chris Eatough dominated Thursday’s sweaty marathon national championships race, held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. After disposing of Jay Henry (3D-Hillenbrand) on the third of eight laps, the two Trek riders spent the rest of the day riding together at the front. Brown was able to separate himself from cramping 24-hour champion Eatough midway through the final lap, and held his narrow 13-second advantage to the finish line.

"The race was pretty conservative, but I felt totally dehydrated during the race, I drank 12 bottles throughout the race and never had to pee," Brown said. "I was just going to wait for the sprint at the end. I was content for that and then [Chris] pulled over to let me around. I forced the pace there and then it was just a drag race to the finish."

Fog and cool temperatures greeted racers who took to the start line at 7 a.m., but by 9 a.m. the emerging sun had transformed the racecourse into a hotplate. Temperatures soared into the 90 s, and many racers finished covered in goosebumps from heat exhaustion.

"I couldn’t pedal for two minutes, and I thought I could get away with it," said Eatough, who suffered on the last lap through the heat. "My body isn’t aching as much as it is at the end of a 24-hour race. But my heart rate was at its maximum for the entire last lap. That effort came at the end of a five-hour race, so it’s basically like a short-track intense burn."

Henry, who finished third, admitted that he had simply been outgunned by the Trek-Volkswagen duo.

"It was like battling the Trek army out there," he said.

Trek-Volkswagen regional rider Michael Lee from Mission Vallejo, California, finished fourth.

Brown, a former Olympian and cross-country national champion, said the win came after a year of testing product for Trek and part-time racing.

"Winning last year made this year an automatic priority," Brown said. "I have high hopes for the marathon discipline to evolve. There is potential for it to grow like it has in European countries. But we need single-lap and point-to-point courses and we need to have amateurs doing the same lap number as us. I get as excited or more excited than the races back in the day because I’m not so worn out trying to do everything. For me, I do maybe three or four races a year so it gives me an advantage."

Taking the women’s race was Coloradan Melissa Thomas, who beat Monique Sawicki (Team Mata) by close to half an hour. Thomas, an Xterra triathlete and cyclo-cross racer, said the marathon was the first event of a long national championship weekend.

"I think I’m going to do the cross-country, but definitely the Super D and short-track. I’m here, so I might as well do the Sonoma omnium," she said. "I still have seven Xterras left and cyclo-cross, but there was a lag in the schedule so I did the Park City [NMBS] and this race for fun."

Noticeably absent from the women’s race was defending marathon champ Gretchen Reeves. Reeves retired at the onset of 2006 to compete in adventure races.

"Gretchen’s not here, so it’s kind of like winning the Tour without Lance," said Thomas. "I just tried to get it done as quick as possible."

Marathon
Men
1. Travis Brown, Trek-Volkswagen, 4:38:55
2. Chris Eatough, Trek-Volkswagen, 4:39:08
3. Jay Henry, 3D-Hillenbrand, 4:46:10
4. Michael Lee, Trek-Volkswagen, 4:52:52
5. Michael Janelle, Tokyo Joe’s-GoLite, 4:55:25
6. Nat Ross, Subaru-Gary Fisher, 5:08:03
7. Troy Barry, Cal Giant, 5:16:6
8. Yuri Hauswald, Soulcraft, 5:45:54
9. Karl Etzel, Rde24USA, 6:02:36
10. AJ Ataie, Sportsman, 6:12:51

Women
1. Melissa Thomas, Tokyo Joe's-GoLite
2. Monique Sawicki, Team Mata