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Tacchino Cyclocross #2 - Leesburg, Virginia, November 04, 2006
The penultimate round of the 2006 BikeReg.com MABRAcross series took place
in the beautiful and historic town of Leesburg, Virginia on Saturday, November
4. Promoted by the Squadra Coppi, a local club named in honor of the legendary
Italian Fausto Coppi, the race was held in the pristine Ida Lee Park and Recreation
Center less than a half-mile from the town center. While Catoctin Mountain served
as a backdrop, the racers didn’t need any visual reminders about hills
as the course featured two very long (for cyclo-cross), grassy and sometimes
off-camber climbs. The repeated climbing was devastating for the slower classes,
but even the elite racers characterized the course as “grueling”.
The featured Elite/Pro Men started fast, with a group of 8 getting away up “Mount
Ida” on the first lap. One of the pre-race favorites, Greg Marini of Coffee
Plus, was the first of the contenders to lose contact when he dropped his chain
on the high-speed double barrier dismount on the first lap. Those barriers,
placed on a long straight section of track, appeared to be relatively straight-forward,
but for some reason they played havoc with racers all day long. And before the
end of this race, they would play a pivotal role again.
Within a few laps, the composition of the lead group had stabilized. Keck Baker
(CVCC), Bryan Butts (SPBRC/Bianchi) and Nathan Deibert (Holmes Cycling) were
in a three-on-two tag-team match with the FORT Frames duo of Gregg Wittwer and
Weston Schempf, who kept taking turns attacking the group. Less than halfway
into the one-hour race, Schempf put a gap on the rest of the group. “I
put in an effort up the hill toward the finish line and saw that I got a gap,
so I kept on going“, he said afterwards. Baker just barely hanging on and
unable to work (he was eventually dropped late in the race), and Wittwer not
about to chase down his own teammate, the responsibility fell to Nathan Deibert
to lead the chase. He rode aggressively, but Schempf’s well-timed attack
had given him an insurmountable lead and he won with about a 300 meter advantage.
Behind him on the last lap, some of the best action of the day was unfolding
as the man-on-man battle for second place between Deibert and Wittwer flew down
the hill and toward the barriers just 500 meters from the end of the race. Wittwer
drew gasps from the spectators as he flew across the dismount section visibly
faster than any other racer had all day long, gapping Deibert. In desperation,
Deibert tried to sprint back to Wittwer, but he accelerated too soon out of
the next corner, causing him to fall when his rear wheel lost traction. Wittwer
had time to celebrate as he came across the line to give the FORT Factory Team
a one-two finish.
For Velo-Bella Kona’s Melanie Swartz, most of the drama took place during
the weeks prior to the race. Swartz is a former MABRAcross champion who lives
just 35 minutes away from Leesburg and is also a former member of the promoting
Squadra Coppi club. She was also a front-row starter at last-year’s National
Championships due to her placings in UCI races. At Leesburg, she attacked on
the first lap of the Elite/Pro Women’s race and never looked back, winning
by a wide margin. But in the two week’s leading up to the Leesburg race,
Swartz and her Velo Bella Kona team had to choose between two of their major
objectives for the year, trying either to win the MABRAcross series championship
or scoring UCI points in New England for a better start position at the U.S.
National Championships. At the end of the day, after the course had been knocked
down and cleaned up, Melanie Swartz summed up her decision in one sentence,
“Sometimes, supporting your local race is more important than UCI points.”
Results
Elite/Pro Men 1 Weston Schempf (FORT) 2 Gregg Wittwer (FORT) 3 Nathan Deibert (Holmes Cycling) Elite/Pro Women 1 Melanie Swartz (Velo Bella Kona) 2 Marjan Huizing (DC Velo) 3 Lisa Vible (C3/ADG/Joe’s Bike Shop)
