Boyertown native Kline wins Mount Penn Hill Climb
Winning a second championship in two days at the Reading Radsport was a big accomplishment for Boyertown native Shane Kline.
But Sunday’s victory in the Mount Penn Hill Climb was especially sweet for Kline because he had come so close to pulling off the Radsport double two years ago.
“It was a bit of a bummer,” recalled Kline, who won the West Reading Criterium Men’s Pro Race Saturday for the second time in three years.
What made the 2017 Hill Climb loss hard to swallow for Kline was that he actually was the first pro rider to reach the finish line at the Mount Penn Fire Tower. But the race was a chiptimed event won by Stephen Hall, who started behind Kline and covered the race course two seconds faster than Kline.
On Sunday, it was a flatout race from the start to finish and Kline edged Curtis White by less than a second followed by Geno Villafano in third.
“It was a simple bike race,” Kline said. “I just had to go hard to get to the finish line first.”
Kline wasn’t the only one to pull off a Radsport double. Samantha Snukis of Stowe won the Women’s Citizen’s Race, then 20 minutes later was the women’s winner in the Uphill Dash to the Pagoda, a 1.66-mile foot race.
It was the second straight HIll Climb title for Snukis.
“It was hard,” said Snukis, who had about 20 minutes to rest between races. “But it’s fun.”
Stefanie Sydlik of Pittsburgh won the Women’s Pro Hill Climb and Timothy Patton of Pottsville won the Men’s Citizen’s Race.
Kline, a 2020 Olympic hopeful in track cycling, showed he can run on the street and hills as well.
Although Kline said he doesn’t consider himself a great mountain racer, he showed he can do more than hold his own on the 2.43mile course up Mount Penn.
“These shorter hills like this I can manage,” Kline said. “I can do OK on stuff like this.”
Sydlik, who grew up in Allentown, said she prefers the hill climbs to the criteriums. She raced in West Reading Saturday and was 24th out of 37 finishers. But for her, she said, finishing the race was a big accomplishment.
“My legs felt pretty good last night, so I thought I should go for the win today,” Sydlik said.
Sydlik finished 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Rachel Langdon of Louisville, Ky., and 11 seconds in front of third-place finisher Janelle Cole of Newaygo, Mich.
“I was really, really excited to come to this race because it is so close to my hometown and I’ve heard really good things about it,” Sydlik said. “It lived up to it. It’s been awesome.”
Patton won a close race in the Men’s Citizen’s Hill Climb, edging runner-up Kent Hartmoyer of West Lawn by 1.2 seconds. Bryan Betts of Blandon was a distant third, 55.3 seconds behind Patton.
With Eric Schippers of Wyomissing leading the way with a sixth-place finish, Penn National Gaming won the Citizen’s team championship for the third straight year. Jacob Stein (12th), Peter Blanchet (19th) and Geoff Dewire (20th), all of Wyomissing, were the other top finishers for Penn National Gaming.