Later 2001 Race Reports
By Various Team Members
A photo of Nancy Morgenstern racing.
G.S. Mengoni Gran Prix Results (August 26 update)
Prospect Park New York Bicycle Classic report from Ann (August 12 update) Altoona Reports (August 8 update) Poughkeepsie Criterium Photos (July 30 update) WebEvent.com/NY State Championship Reports from Leslie (July 23 update) Floyd Bennett Field Report from Dave M. (July 19 update) Park Ridge P-1-2 Report from Eugene (July 18 update) Tour of the Hilltowns Report from Leslie (July 16 update) Prospect Park Report from Eugene (July 15 update) Lou Maltese Memorial Report from Eugene (July 8 update) Fitchburg Reports (July 6 update) Prospect Report from Kurt (June 24 update) Video of Women's Sports Challenge Sprints (June 15 update) Women's Sports Challenge Photos (June 10 update) Like déjà vu all over again -- ESGQ report from JT (June 3 update) Somerville report from Kurt (May 29 update) Housatonic crash and chase report from Eugene (May 22 update) Harriman SpringFest report from Aubin (May 22 update) Orchard Beach Photos (May 20 update) Zimmerman Photos (April 30 update) New Photos (March 27 update) An Important Message from John Eustice (at crca.net) (March 15 update) Yes! Yes! Yes! (January 2 update) ****
"There was a large turn-out for the combined Masters'/Women's field which boasted 21 women starters. The pace was high for the first laps and there was some leap-frogging with the Pro1-2 field. There were several breakaway attempts throughout the race by masters riders, including by our own SBCG team, but nothing stuck for long. There was other spice in the form of erratic riding and the barking that follows.
The women had tucked themselves away in the field until the masters' final lap, which was the women's penultimate lap. As the masters sharpened their elbows and jittered up for their finish, the women attempted that balance of staying out of their way toward the back, but keeping up momentum to lauch into the bell lap. A nerve-wracking task. While heading up the "hill", a smoothly riding Julie Walsh (CRCA/Polo) was bumped rudely into the joggers' lane and cursed at by a rather wide rider (at least twice Julie's size), whose real frustration seemed to be his disadvantageous position in the pack.
After the masters' finish, Kara Hammond from Team TAM made a brave break-away attempt and gapped the women, who were still dodging through the spent masters riders. She was caught toward the top of the "hill" and shortly after the downhill her teammate, Kira Krenichyn, attacked again. She was caught, then Tara Parsons (CRCA/Polo) and a rider from former Spin Gym team kept the women on their toes with further attacks. By the backside downhill, the moves transistioned to jockeying for sprint position.! Toward the front of the pack were Ann Marie Miller (CRCA/Renaissance), Randy Sharp (CRCA/Axis), Catherine Powers (CRCA/Renaissance), Juana Fernandez, Lenore Imhoff (former Spin Gym team) and me.
Attention was focussed on Ann Marie and Catherine, who looked like they might attempt a team lead-out. But Ann Marie hugged the joggers' lane line on the left and Catherine drifted to the open right leaving riders behind Ann Marie (namely Randy, Juana and myself) slightly boxed in. Lenore started to come up on the right. Ann Marie slowed the pace somewhat causing a bunching affect and at that point (approx. 450 m from the finish) Catherine jumped off to the right attaining an instant 10 m gap. Juana and I immediately jumped in her direction (profuse apologies! to Lenore, whom I inadvertantly cut off in the tunnel-visioned move).
A drag-race style sprint ensued. Juana, who didn't look well during the! race, was chasing Catherine with me behind and started to fade. I jumped around her to continue. Catherine won by a bike length and Juana passed me about 20-30 m from the line to take second place. I came in third. Ann Marie came around Randy at the end to finish up fourth and fifth respectively." -- Ann
Here're reports from Leslie (women's 4) and Eugene (men's 2)
Women 4
"It was hard. It was hot.
Day One: Circuit Race
I got 8th in the circuit race and unfortunately this turned out to be the
high point of the whole weekend. The field split somewhere in the middle and
then it was all about being in the right place in the final turns (thanks
for the advice Eugene). Somehow that finish carried me to a 10th place in
the GC at the end of the weekend.
Day Two: Road Race
The road race was cut in half for the Cat 4 women (we found out as we were
warming up in the parking lot) by the sponsor who claimed "last year a lot
of the girls couldn't make it up the hill twice and got off their bikes" and
"it was a typo" as he walked away. So, day two was a 20 mile race that they
billed as a road race (despite not even meeting USCF minimum distance
standards), but was actually just a sprint up a steep hill and down a huge
descent. While the hill was admittedly painful and there was a woman on the
side of the road, halfway up the hill -- getting sick, it still didn't make
much sense that people flew in from all over the country for this. Needless
to say, with the shorter distance, it took off from the beginning. Felicia
Greer, the woman who won Fitchburg, attacked in the middle of the climb. It
broke the field apart. I watched as about 10/12 people spun away. It felt
like I was going backwards and I hyperventilated my way up and
over...slowly. Felicia Greer won.
FYI -- Kristin Lasasso who just
joined Polo came in second. She also got 7th in the circuit and top 10 in the crit. I worked
with Jaimie Epstein from Dash-Renaissance and another woman, but we got
caught about two miles from the finish by much of the field. Turned into a
sprint finish. I went way early and watched as everyone passed me about 10
yards before the line.
Day Three: Crit
The race was over before I got to the line. We were all lined up and ready
to go, but there'd been an accident in the field the race before so they
told us to do a lap. I didn't realize this is the most important sprint of
the day and ended up in the back when we started. The race took off from the
beginning and 13 got away. Spent the whole time chasing and wasting energy.
Finished in the middle." -- Leslie
Men 2
"The race was good. The circuit race was fast and a storm pounded
rain on us. A couple of other guys got away and stayed. I chickened out
leading into the in-town-turns and got nothing.
The road race was sick. The first climb was a long, steep thing up to the
Blue Knob resort. The field separated badly, but at the top I made contact
with the front. We caught all but three of the earlier attackers. I won the group
sprint to take fourth on the day.
The crit was fast and I got nothing, but I tried. ReMax had a great leadout train going on the last lap till a crash took them out of it." -- Eugene
Zui Hanafusa sent some great shots of the women's races, including some video
"The Cat 4 women's crit was fast from the beginning. Broke up on the second lap and 6 of
us got away. We hammered around 23 more times with no one able to get away
and/or really wanting to.
We then sprinted for the finish and once again CRCA/Axis won -- Randy Sharp came in first, and teammate Lori came in second. A girl from CA who hauled us all around
for much of the day, was third. I was third in the state.
I was stayed up front too much in the road race, ran out of water in the first lap, and got
stung by a bee in the head -- I was pretty much miserable.
The field broke
up on the first lap, and there were still 15 of us in the front group. A
couple of attacks, but nothing stuck -- I attacked in there and tired myself
out a couple of times. Then Jeanne Curtis (unattached)
attacked before the final descent, dragged the field, and went on to win up
the climb -- she's won this and every other RR she's entered for the last
couple years so its not really clear why she's riding with us, but...I
probably would've quit, but someone told me there was water at the top. I
got 5th and third in the state (again)." -- Leslie
"Lots of attacks, lots of groups up the road that Wilson Vasquez (CRCA/Mengoni) had to chase. Then at the end a train so strong that it turned into a breakaway -- I had my nose in Eugene's wheel) that delivered me to 200 meters from the line well rested and in perfect position. Then I stood up and pulled my foot out of my Look pedal, sprinted a few feet, - then pulled it out again, then sprinted a little more, and still ended up eighth. Which tells you how well I was placed to begin with. Pollo Martes (Toga) came off Wilson's wheel for the win. I'm still in the overall lead and we should pray for more rain" -- Dave
"Saturn Developmental. Mercury. Navigators. Colorado Cyclist. Cannondale/Wheelworks. Century-SBCG.
We went fast. We kept going fast. Davidenko(Nav.) went faster. He
was the fastest. He broke the course speed record by one second,
earning himself an extra $500.
Todd Heriott got away with two Navs in tow. They worked him over.
Kevin Monahan got away with one Nav. in tow. Kevin got jumped.
Some riders finished. Many did not. I did not, and I'm very upset.
I usually do well in that race, but my legs hurt from the start...and
they got worse.
It's a terrible race that's cruel and sadistic. I hate when I miss
it." -- Eugene
"They combined our field (Cat 4 Women) with the 55+ which makes for strange dynamics during the race. We let a group of them go off the front and decided to have our own race even though there were still
some mixed in with us.
It fell apart at the first climb and five of us got away. We worked together for about 15 miles and then we came up on a group of 1-2-3 women who had fallen off their group. Everyone was resting and talking and I kept thinking the field would catch us if we didn't get going. So I attacked and Jane Moloney (CRCA/Gap) came with me. We started time trialing and were joined for a little while by a couple of guys out of the 55+ field. Then we hit the
second hill and Jane and I took off.
We kept it going into a headwind and while I'd like to say we were the
picture of efficiency - we were both dying at this point and crawling at
about 10mph. One K to go and we start trying to get position on each other. I don't sprint so good -- so Jane got first, I got second." -- Leslie
Results are at www.bikereg.com.
"As my group was getting caught at the bottom of the hill, I
attacked -- slowly and with non-zippy-feeling legs. At the top Oscar
Pineda (7-Up/Colorado Cyclist) came past, so I got aboard the express and we were gone.
After staying away for a few laps, we were joined by brother Juan (also 7-Up),
Todd Heriott (Westwood Velo), and Dave Sommerville (Kissena) -- so we went faster and
stayed away. At this point I already felt as if I had been racing for
three hours. My body was not being kind to me.
Back in the field, Dave the Melch-Man was toying with the field and
being a general nuissance to slow them down.
In the sprint, Todd led it out. The Pinedas got 1-2 and I got 3rd.
In the field, Dave M. placed too." -- Eugene
"Yes, Wilson won again. There was a break of three riders away for a few
laps, at about 15-20 sec. The Mengonis put down the leadout train and brought
the leaders close, and Wilson polished them off (and everyone else) in the
sprint.
Melchior and I tried but couldn't get in with the good breaks. Melch
got top 20, I got a pair of tired legs, a sore shoulder, and a sour puss.
" -- Eugene
(Maltese results at the CRCA website)
Here're reports from Kurt (Masters), Leslie (women's 4) and Eugene "fourth ride since breaking a bone" Boronow (pro-1-2). Full results are at the event website.
Masters
"O.K., I'm a little depressed about how things ended -- here's the story.
Dave Melchior was the Man in the masters 35+ for the first two stages, winning the time trial (though he posted a time slower than the Pro Saturn rider Lyne Besette who broke 28 minutes). Not many Pro 1-2 men could do such a good time, and most of the the guys on our team are trying to break 30 minutes -- but some have`nt in many years of trying. So Wow!
The second day circuit race was typically steady, but would come down to a field sprint with Dave winning again coming from 20 deep out of the last turn, powering by everyone just at the line for a New York sweep, with Scott Bodin second, and Enrique Cubillo third. Enrique also claimed the Sprint Jersey by winning almost all the point laps.
The third stage was our undoing, although a N.Y. rider still won -- Scott Bodin, who aggressively caused a good break that included the two guys we needed to control: Joe Rano and Randy Rusk. We just couldn't contain them. They finished over a minute up on the field to give Rano the overall G.C. lead, and causing a tough finish up the mountain, dropping Dave from first to fourth overall and moving Scott from back in 27th after a poor TT, to fifth on G.C.
The criterium final was fast and breaks were hopeless, although JT did a nice move to fly off for a few laps at sevem to go. Still a field sprint was inevitable, I think because of the heat and tough racing over the whole weekend , nobody had much left to put out. New England riders got the last word as well, by sweeping the podium with Charles Bedard winning and Joe Rano`s superdomestique Paul Curley in second . Dave solidified his fourth overall with a fourth in the final stage." -- Kurt
Women 4
"Excuse the length of this report, but I figured in addition to telling you my
personal story I could give you all a little insight on what goes on in
Cat 4 women's racing. Basically, while we're sometimes short on team tactics,
there is a lot of individual strategy going on out there. It was great to
see how alliances were made also, particularly among the riders from NY.
The CRCA women, for the most part, worked together a lot although it tended
to be on the fly as opposed to a well thought out plan. But I'll get into
that later...
My personal experience at Fitchburg:
Time trial: My worst event. Haven't done enough of them and dropping my
chain while they were counting down to my start - "10, 9 , 8 -- oh sh!t 5, 4,
3, 2, 1 -- get out of the way" did't help. Still haven't figured out how I
managed to do it. Fortunately was able to get it back on and roll out
without losing more than about 10 seconds - but I still like to think that
somehow if it hadn't happened I could have made up the 2 minute 40 second
difference between myself and the leader....Right..... Lesson learned -
learn how to time trial and make sure you're already in the big ring before
you coast down the hill to the start. Also, you can really screw up
everything or take over the race on this stage.
Circuit Race: Fast. We only have six laps so everyone's going from the start.
Again I have mechanical issues -- this time I get my chain stuck between my
frame and the cassette in the second lap at the base of the hill leading up
to the finish line. Support is there - we get it fixed as the pack
disappears over the crest and I chase for a lap. Somehow catch back on just
before we do the hill again, and I'm just so psyched that I'm back in it
that I don't even notice the climbing. Final couple of laps we're down to
about 25 people -- a big crash on the straight away and someone attacks (or
accelerates out of fear). Last lap -- Pam Allesio from Verizon (she's finally
upgrading after this) sprints for first. I watch Randy Sharp (Axis) begin
sprinting way early on the hill -- think about catching her wheel, but
unfortunately don't since she got second. I ended up a ho-hum 12th. Lesson
learned -- you can catch back on. Figure out what the hell is going on with
my chain. It's not over until it's over.
Road Race: Fast the first lap and I'm worried that I didn't warm up -- the
race almost ended for me there. The race leader at this point is some girl
from Ohio - Felicia Greer (PDQ). Everyone is watching her because she
crushed us all in the time trial and its clear she's looking to make a break
- she also has the whole "unknown rider" mystique thing happening for her.
It happens the second time around -- she goes for it at the Church Street
hill and no one stays with her. We're down to about 25 riders at this point
in the front group and we watch her go -- thinking we'll catch her on the
downhill or the backside -- we don't and she goes on to win impressively.
Meanwhile back in the pack we're finishing our last lap before the final
climb up the back of Wachussetts. We take the turn and a small group gets a
little gap on the rest of us -- Jane Moloney (CRCA-Gap), Pam Allesio (Verizon),
Sylvie Burlot (CRCA-RLX Polo Sport) and one or two others. The climb is steep. Somewhere
on the mountain I begin hallucinating and seeing bright flashing lights.
Fear of heatstroke or falling off my bike keep me pedaling. Suddenly a
switch turns on and I start spinning past other riders. In a surreal few
minutes before getting to the top I pass three riders. All of them tell me
to "go for it." Does this happen in men's racing? Encouragement from your
competition? Come in eigth. Lesson learned -- always watch Cat 4's who fly in
for an event.
Crit: Finally last day and I'm tired but feel good enough to make something
happen. Get into a break with Nancy Morganstern (CRCA-Axis) for about 20 seconds
and can't hold it -- we're both shocked that it lasted that long. We're
going down the backside of the course both of us dying and we can't figure
out why no one is catching us. Find out later than Loren Launen from Dash
was blocking for us. See what I mean about CRCA working together? So,
thinking that I just need to stay in and make sure a couple of riders don't
get away. I sit in and watch while a couple of riders get away. No one
chases -- they aren't in contention and no one thinks they'll stick. But good
blocking from Excite, a crash on the side street, and a general consensus in
the field of "let this be over" keeps us somewhat slow and the three riders
hang on to finish 30 seconds before the field. The rest of us sprint it out.
Overall, happy to have ended up 10th in the GC although never had the
impressive finish one really wants to have. It helped to have teammates
there shouting on the sidelines -- even if I suspect they were shouting at
their girlfriends not me. The CRCA women finished well with Sylvie Burlot
(Polo) in fifth, Jane Moloney (Gap) in seventh, and Nancy Morganstern (Axis) in
eight.
Look out Altoona!" -- Leslie
Pro-1-2
"I watched from the back, and it was pretty interesting. I did ok in
the ITT, but the pain in my shoulder was unbearable that night.
I got dropped in the circuit race and was lapped third times. Wilson Vasquez
thought I had attacked each time, and that I was coming back. Ha!
The RR was hot! I got water, coke, watermelon and BBQ potato chips in the feed zone. One guy from Colavita crashed twice in the first three miles.
The crit was fast, fast, fast. Then the storm hit. It was like a
typhoon! All at once there was driving rain, gale-force winds, and
zero visibility. They announced that the race was to bo shortened --
"Two to go". We were slipping & sliding and getting blown about. The
back stretch wasn't a road anymore -- it was a river. There were
riders scattered all over the course. Kurt said that I got top 20,
which is funny because I had gotten dropped and then caught back on.
Somehow I clawed my way up front just before it hit the fan." -- Eugene
"This guy Bernie McGarry of Cranford/CTS continues to amaze me. He only trains indoors and almost only does local park races. Yesterday at the Kissena Prospect Park 35+ he rode away after a few laps of already being the one rider to follow everything.
I only just managed to latch onto a bridging teammate of his( Chris G). As I sat out the 1st rotation, I of course took note of Bernie pulling a good 30+ seconds before every other rider just coming through. A few laps of all of us doing what we could and we came upon a group of about 25 guys in the P-1-2-3 field . Bernie surged right through wnet going solo for a while, allowing his two teammates (Morgan and Chris) to sit, while the 2 Sonys and I had to close it up. When we surged up to him we left the group of P-1-2-3s behind and continued our paceline.
A couple laps more and we came upon another ten or so P-1-2-3s, which we had trouble passing through, but Bernie wouldn't let up and we reeled in the two riders who were leading the P-1-2-3 race. From that point on Bernie never stopped pulling and even led out the sprint. Chris jumped hard form the back and got the win with Juan Pimental of Sony second. I got around Bernie with 150 meters to go, but he passed me right back to take third. Oh and Morgan flatted out. I don`t know if Bernie would have beaten him. We`ll have to see on another day?" -- Kurt
Zui Hanafusa sent these animated GIFs of the winning sprint and field sprint in the 1-2-3 race. Note: These files are large -- over 350K each.
And one other thing -- many of the WSC photos (thumbnails are in Gallery 21) can be viewed at extra-high resolution by clicking on the photo itself.
From Marco Quezada and John Tomlinson
"I love racing in Prospect Park in bad weather. The last time there was hard rain for the Empire State Games qualifier (six years ago?) we won the race and qualified three guys. It rained hard Saturday, Kurt G. won after attacking from far out, and we placed three or four in the first ten. Eugene (who spent a lot of the race alone off the front attacking and alone of the back after a flat) was second with Yann Blindert of CRCA-Renaissance third. The race finished in many pieces, which was nice.
It was also nice to see some action from teams we don't ride against that often, with guys from Setanta and Psoas-Axis being players to the end.
We didn't have anyone in the women's race, which was a big CRCA-RLX vs. CRCA-WSF battle. Frances Harrison and Beth Renaud of WSF were first and second in a field sprint, with Julie Walsh of RLX third.
Sunday was nicer weather and just as nice a result for us, with Keith winning the Colavita Skyline crit in the 3s with help from Carbo."--JT
"Somerville was like Floyd Bennett Field, to me anyway, with a very strong head wind going down the backstretch, lending itself to breaks in which made for quite an exciting finish in the Pro-1-2 race. Perfect conditions for Eric Wohlberg (Saturn) to claim another win there. Wonderful timing, as Mark Walters (Navigators) soloed away from a break of nine with four to go, that had built a one minute lead over the main pack. With two to go, I was certain Walters would win -- he had a 20 second lead on the other eight who were looking at each other and mostly watching Wohlberg, who'd established the break and seemed to usually be pulling it.
At the bell, Wohlberg was hammering with only one rider (John Wirsig of Snow Valley) in tow, about ten seconds from Walters. Then two more riders, then three from behind coming after at ten seconds or so between. Wohlberg won the three-up sprint with Wirsig second and Walters third. All the six others made it in, as the field sprinted for ninth.
Our Dave Melchior rode very well all race, always towards the first quarter of the race. I'm not sure if he placed in the top 35 (money), maybe just? I'm glad I went, because it's really the best single race in the US." -- Kurt Gustafsson
(partial Somerville results are at cyclingnews.com)
"It happened on a downhill switchback at mile-80. The riders in
front of me couldn't make the turn and skid out. I slowed and tried
to navigate around them and POW! Doug O'Neill hit me from behind, and
some other riders did the same to him. We all hit some wood barriers
and slid, rolled, and/or catapulted down the ravine.
I did a flip,
landed on my back, and started sliding down. I grabbed a small tree
and stopped sliding. I quickly climbed out and un-tangled my bike
from Doug's. The chase was on!
There was dirt and sand everywhere -- in my shoes, my hair, my
shorts. I wasn't cut up, but my back hurt and I was a mess.
After a while, Doug and another guy caught me and we rode hard for
a while. We picked up some other riders, and came to the gate at the
finishing-circuit. They let us in! Whopee! We rode as hard as
possible just to survive a while on the circuit. 'We're still alive.
Let's go!'
One lap, then we were pulled." -- Eugene Boronow
(Housatonic results are at cyclingnews.com)
"Ann Mullen and I raced the tough
1-2-3 field. The race broke up on second lap and six or seven
women got up the road. Our chase group of about 11
contained three women who continuously blocked for their
teammates up the road. The pace was held high and we
managed to drop a few from our group.
About 40 women
started in our field,so where everyone else went,I
don't know.
The sprint was against a severe head wind
and I was able to give Ann a lead out,although the
wind nearly blew her over. We finished in the top 20. It
was a good training race. Looking forward to the second Harriman race in the fall." -- Aubin Sullivan
(Harriman results are at the CRCA website)
from Eugene Boronow and Zui Hanafusa
from Zui Hanafusa
Spring Series Opener from Marco Quezada
John's appealing again for people to avoid the Night Ride. You might also want to read this
New season, Dave Melchior has joined the men's team and we've got a much-expanded women's team. Take a look at our roster for details. Tim Clarsen has left the team and has our best wishes.
