Nye Yackle, 13,of Reno, wins the junior division of the Capitol 50 on Saturday.
The Yackles came, they saw and they conquered.
Jake Yackle, 15, and younger brother, 13-year-old Nye, captured 50-mile amateur championships on Saturday at the Carson City Off-Road event.
Jake Yackle won the open and overall championship, covering the course in 3-hours 45-minutes and 26-seconds. Nye was timed in 4:16.08, beating Incline’s Nelson Bedient by nearly 32 minutes to the junior boys crown.
Simply put, the Reno brothers made it look easy,
“Riders came from hundreds of miles and a Reno kid kicked their butt,” said Kurt Meyer, retired Carson City recreation manager and event manager.
And, Jake Yackle thinks he could have gone faster had it not been for the wind.
“It was pretty exciting,” he said in a phone interview several hours after his win. “There were a lot of riders in it (estimated 600 amateurs) I think. We rode in a big group at the start.”
Yackle said he didn’t have a plan going into the race.
“Not really,” he said. “I just wanted to size things up, and attack where they (other riders) are the weakest. You see if somebody is a strong climber or not... Right at the top of Marlette seemed like a good place (to go).”
He won by nearly four minutes which is an eternity in a long-distance race.
“I was chasing all day; I think at the top of the climb I was maybe sitting fifth,” said Chris Jackson. “I had little hope to catch the guys ahead of me. Turned out the descent was a little gnarlier than I thought, I chased back and was able to work back to second. It was a good day for me, I am happy with it.”
“I never saw him (Jackson) him until the end,” Yackle said. “He must have been picking people off (down the stretch).”
The 50-miler was the first for the youngest Yackle.
“It was a fun day,” Nye said. “It was my first time riding (this far) and I loved it. I pretty much led wire to wire. I got there (to the start) about 30 minutes early to get a better (starting) spot. I just hopped on the field and set a pretty good pace.
“The highest elevation (around 8,000 feet) we hit around 9 a.m. and the wind was really strong. There were two small fields of snow we had to ride across.”
The brothers have some big races coming up, including one at Mammoth. They like to stay busy, and they often race 3-4 times a month, sometimes doing back-to-back events over a weekend.
And, watching it all was their father, Kevin. He moved his family from Colorado to Nevada three years ago.
“Absolutely, yes I’m proud,” said the elder Yackle. “I’m definitely an emotional person, and something like this gets you choked up; brings tears to your eyes.
“I expected them to do well. They have put a lot of extremely hard work getting ready for this.”
Jake Yackle is a three-time national mountain bike racer, and he’s no stranger to success.
The elder Yackle said there was discussion about getting his son into the professional race instead of the open race, but he said Epic Rides personnel urged him to wait.
“Jake had been doing very well,” said the elder Yackle. “There was a Geiger Grade time trial, and he finished second to a racer who has been in the Tour de France. After Jake won the race, they offered Jake a chance to race Sunday (today) if he wanted. We declined. Two races (in two days) is tough for anybody let alone a 15-year-old.”
Jake Yackle felt he could have been in the top 10 or 15 if he was fresh, and after Saturday’s race, there’s no reason to believe he couldn’t do it.
Jake and Nye admit they have bigger items on their list. They would like to make the Olympic team and/or ride in the Tour de France.
“Yeah, that’s always been one of my goals,” Jake Yackle said.
“The Olympics has always been my dream.”