March 2001 Race Reports
By Various Team Members
CRCA Club Race
A scheduled eight laps in the As was reduced to seven because of time constraints. But that's still a reasonable distance at this time of year. Dave Melchior from our team attacked at the gun with Renaissance's Kyoo Min, ReMax's Mihael Ginghina and another guy.
They were joined four laps later about by about four other guys, including Renaissance's Kevin Molloy and a Gap rider who a few minutes earlier threatened to knock one of our riders off his bike for "bothering" him for being in the joggers lane. Nice, huh? You supposed to expect to be yelled at, at a minimum, if you move up in the joggers lane. And the only proper response is to stop pedalling and say "sorry." Better still, just don't go into the joggers lane.
There was a lot of pressure on the break including, perhaps mistakenly, some from our team as we tried to catch Molloy's group before they made it across. Some guys from the break came back to the field, others started dicking around, and Molloy went ahead alone.
In the end a late chase led especially by Mengoni swept up everyone ahead except Molloy, who won solo, and Dave hung on for second, though it looked like he was part of the field spring, which was won by ReMax's John Idone.
We can't give a detailed report on the B and C races, but did help get the results up at pretty quick at www.crca.net.
Spring Series Round 2 -- Central Park
We figured Dave would be a little tired from 42 miles off the front, so the plan was for some other guys to take action early to take a little pressure off. The start was kind of weird, with two guys from different teams both in the Leader's jersey due to some unresoloved controversy. Both rode strong and defensively at least...
Anyway, Walid from our team attacked from the gun. After his group came back there was a lot of little action, with eventually Dave getting away in a good group of five or six guys. They went hard and were away for a couple of laps, before being brought back by a chase from the Colavita team from New Jersey. Good riding on their part.
More small attacks at the end, and then we (Chris Lloyd would be proud) and a few other teams got some good trains going. So it was a field sprint. Who one? Well Walid, who flatted while on the front with a couple K to go asked Wilson Vasquez of CRCA-Mengoni. Wilson looked at him as if to say "Who do you think?" Yes, Wilson won his zillionth field sprint up Catspaw, with Rosevart Martez of Toga second, Kyoo Min of Renaissance third and Dave from SBCG fourth. We also got Keith Ryan in eighth, so it was a good day for us.
In the masters a group of about eight guys got away. We had three in the group for awhile -- Lance, Kurt and Chad -- but Morgan Stebbins of Spin Gym was in control and won handily.
NYC Spring Series Round 1 -- Central Park
The Pro-1-2-3 was animated, with Renaissance, Dave Melchior from our team and others attacking quite a bit. Dave was away in a small group about halfway through, which grew in size as other riders crossed in ones and twos, with eventually about 15 guys in front. That split, with six riding away before the group was caught. Three of those guys came back, with the other three, including Melito Heredia (Toga), JP Partland of Sock Guy and a CRCA/Gap rider going ahead. There was some chasing from Charlie Issendorf of Mengoni, some Renaissance and some of us. We tried, no impact. The break stuck and Melito won.
The field sprint was the usual, some swerving, and Wilson Vasquez (Mengoni) winning handily. On our part we had Walid leading out Dave, with Dave placing.
Then the nonsense began -- picking minor places by lobbying. Dave kept getting his placed pushed down as various people claimed to have placed higher. One ReMax rider who was clearly in the money was bumped out by someone who probably wasn't even top 20. We can't understand how with almost a $20 entry fee (before late fees) and several good sized fields there was not a camera.
In the 35+ John McGovern (Sony/Global Locate), who always starts the year right, took off at the start and that was it -- he won solo. Morgan Stebbins (Spin Gym) and some other guys got clear on the first lap also and stayed away, with Morgan taking second, we think.
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