| Subject: | Tour of Willamette Day 2 |
| Date: | 04/13/2000 12:06 AM |
| From: | Candi Murray |
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21st Tour of Willamette USA, April 11-16, 2000 Stage 2 - April 13: Smith River-Vincent Creek Road Race, 89 miles men/62 miles women Women: Autotrader.com take the initiative By John Alsedek, cyclingnews.com correspondent (copied from cycling news.com) After two days of sunny and temperate conditions, the weather reverted to the Pacific Northwest stereotype: rain, and lots of it. Not that today's stage, the Smith River Road Race, needed anything to make it more challenging. Contested in the Clay Creek Recreation Area, the race course consisted of narrow logging roads that ranged from slick - and occasionally debris-strewn-macadam to sections of gravel. Combined with a series of snaking climbs (and descents), the Smith River Road Race was summed up by Nutra Fig pro, and former Cyclingnews contributor, Ronnie Schmeer as "guerilla warfare". Speaking of Cyclingnews contributors....it was AutoTrader.com's Pam Schuster who carried the day in the women's race. After several early attacks by the Saturn ad Timex squads, a nine-rider break formed at the 34-mile mark. It included Julie Hanson (Saturn), Odessa Gunn (Timex), Elizabeth Emery (Charles Schwab), Erin Carter (Elita), and the AutoTrader.com duo of Schuster and Andrea Ratkovic. With most of the top women's squads represented, the closest overall challenger to race leader Lyne Bessette was her own Saturn teammate, Julie Hanson (10th, 0:48 back). The move quickly gained 40 seconds going into the Queen of the Mountains sprint, won by Ratkovic from Schuster. At that point, Schuster decided to try her luck in a solo effort over the last nine miles. With teammate Ratkovic ready to counterattack, the rest of the break resigned itself to the race for second, as Schuster rolled in with a 34-second advantage. Ratkovic topped the day off for AutoTrader.com by outsprinting Elita's Carter for second, while Bessette finished with the main group, 46 seconds in arrears. Overall, Bessette narrowly retained her lead, with Schuster leapfrogging Katrina Berger to move into second, just two seconds back. Anna Wilson's report Today we raced the second stage of the Tour of Willamette. Going into the stage we had Lyne Bessette in the lead, 19 seconds in front of surprise performer, Katrina Berger. She finished second yesterday - I was so delirious by the end of the climb that I didn't even notice her going past me and then past Mari!! Anyway, Katrina was in second with Mari Holden (Timex) in third, myself 4th and Tracey Gaudry (Timex) 5th. It was a wet start today with most riders in rain jackets. We raced 80 kms today, over very narrow, logging roads. Beautiful countryside - if it wasn't for the weather!! There was a sprint at the 40 km mark, worth 8, 5 and 3 seconds to win and place respectively. Our plan was for me to win that sprint, with Petra taking second to prevent Mari or Tracey getting the extra seconds. However, the plan went a little wrong when the sprint line was a couple of kms later than it was supposed to be and there were no warning signs of its approach. Dede was the first to notice the organiser's ute with three people standing up in the back of it and realised that that was the sprint line. She started sprinting, and the rest of us realised that that was the sprint line with about 100 metres to go. I did not have a quick enough acceleration to get going in that space of time, but luckily Petra did and she just nipped Mari at the line, with Lyne taking third place. So Mari gained a couple of seconds on Lyne - and moved to second place overall, 18 seconds from the lead. From that point we were fairly aggressive, hoping to force Timex to chase again. With about 20 kms to go, Julie Hanson (Saturn) slipped into a breakaway with about 8 riders. Julie was the best placed overall in the break and so we were happy to let the group go. However, we hadn't counted on the fact that Julie had two Autotrader riders with her - Andrea Radkovich and Pam Schuster. They attacked and counter attacked all the way to the finish and eventually were successful in getting Pam away solo for the win. Pam finished about 15 seconds in front of the sprint for second place and that ride put her into the leader's jersey. The chasing bunch that I was in, along with all the other main players, finished about another 20 seconds back. So I think now Pam will be the leader with Julie Hanson in second place. Lyne and myself should be pretty close to the lead still since Pam didn't have a great day yesterday. Tomorrow looks really hard and will probably be make or break day for the tour lead. Three days to go!! Results 1. Pam Schuster (USA) AutoTrader.com 2.43.50 2. Andrea Ratkovic (USA) AutoTrader.com 0.34 3. Erin Carter (Can) Elita 4. Julie Hanson (USA) Saturn 5. Elizabeth Emery (USA) Charles Schwab 6. Odessa Gunn (Can) Timex 7. Karen Timewell (USA) Escape Velocity 0.46 8. Mari Holden (USA) Timex 9. Lyne Bessette (Can) Saturn 10. Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn General classification after stage 2. 1. Lyne Bessette (Can) Saturn Men: Mercury and Saturn in opposition Meanwhile, in the 89-mile men's event, the Saturn men picked up where the ladies had left off in Stage 1. After a multi-rider pileup at a gravel section just two miles in split the pack into two sections, there was a general regrouping that lasted until the first King of the Mountains sprint, taken by Jelly Belly's Adam Livingston. At that point, a group of 25, including five Mercury riders and most of the top G.C. riders, kept things rolling on the descent, and seemed to be well clear of any chasers. Therefore, it came as a surprise when they were joined by 15 racers at the 50-mile mark, and then by another 15 just five miles later. With nearly a dozen pro or amateur riders in the front group, Mercury looked to be in the driver's seat. A fact driven home when they could afford to have Gord Fraser, a recent stage winner in the Criterium International, cover Shaklee's Graeme Miller when he made a gutsy move off the front. However, despite gaining as much as 1:40, the duo were back in the fold by the second K.O.M. sprint, where mountains leader Doug Ziewacz (7 UP/Colorado Cyclist) added to his lead. From that point until the finish, Mercury kept the pressure on at the front, perhaps in hopes of having race leader Scott Moninger jump clear on the uphill finish. But things didn't quite work out that way: the group stayed together up the twisting but gradual climb, leaving it to a group sprint, where Saturn's Mark McCormack and Tony Cruz beat the odds and took advantage of Mercury's hard work to take first and third, respectively. It was a pleasant bonus for Saturn team director Andy Lee, who had previously admitted "We don't really have our best climbers, so this is pretty much a training race for us." Overall, Moninger, who placed second in the stage, increased his lead over 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist's David Zabriskie to 0:10. Results 1. Mark McCormack (USA) Saturn 3.44.22 2. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury 3. Antonio Cruz (USA) Saturn 4. Damon Kluck (USA) Spokesman 5. Adam Livingston (USA) Jelly Belly 6. David Zabriskie (USA) 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist 7. John Lieswyn (USA) Shaklee 8. Will Frischknicht (USA) JW Sports 9. Jason McCartney (USA) Nutra Fig 10. Justin Spinelli (USA) JW Sports General classification after stage 2. 1. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury |
