Multiple winners emerge at bike race

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — The biggest name at the Porcupine Hill Climb might have belonged to Saul Raisin.

The biggest legs, though, were firmly attached to the pedals of Jeff Louder's Cannondale bicycle.

Louder, a Salt Lake native and professional cyclist riding for Health Net/Maxxis, blew away the field to defend his title of king of the mountain.

"You always want to do well at home," Louder said after the win. "And this is kind of my home race."

Raisin, competing in his first race since an accident in France nearly took his life barely 15 months earlier, wasn't as concerned with his time as he was with simply lining up with the 500 or so other cyclists who turned out for the race.

"Just racing a bike again," Raisin said, "makes this probably the biggest victory of my life."

Though he finished in the middle of the pack among the Cat 1/2 cyclists, Raisin's participation in the race was a milestone. In April of 2006, he was in a coma after having part of his right temporal lobe removed in an emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. The accident and subsequent surgery left him with a long road to recovery.

Riding a bike again was not a given, and rejoining his Credit Agricole teammates in France for some of the biggest bike races in the world was more than in doubt. Now, however, Raisin — who has relocated his base of training to Salt Lake City from his native Georgia — is on that road with a load of emotional momentum behind him.

"I just basically rode my own pace and did the best I could," Raisin said. "That was really all I wanted out of myself today."

Louder, on the other hand, wanted victory.

After settling in with a nice pace for the first few miles, Louder broke away from the pack near the Storm Mountain area and never looked back. Though other Cat 1 cyclists like Norm Bryner and a couple other hung with him for a few more miles, Louder was alone for the last half of the race.

"I sat back and waited until Storm Mountain because everybody else was setting a pretty good pace," he said. "I kept telling Norm that it was too early to take off and attack. We finally fell into a rhythm and from there I just let it go."

Louder admitted to being motivated to beat Raisin up the mountain, but was mostly just happy to see his fellow pro biker on the saddle.

"It's a victory just to be able to pin a number on him," Louder said. "I've raced with him a lot and remember when he was just some young kid in Georgia. I'm really happy to see him racing again."

Louder's next challenge will be the Cascade Cycling Classic in Oregon next week.

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E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com