The John Lieswyn Diary 2000Tour Le Fleur, May 18, 2000Jackson, USA, 25 miles/40 km Gently rolling to flat smooth 2 lane road parallel to the Reservoir, 20mph winds, 91 degrees and humid. I planned on using the time trial to open my systems up for Saturday's Olympic Trials Road Race. Based on my history in the time trial this year (30th at Redlands, 14th at Willamette, 10th at Gila) I was hoping for a top ten finish. I've been working on my Marin TT bike position the last few weeks. Colby helped me dial in my seat position last night. Working in my favor was my lack of nervousness about this race. I couldn't seem to get myself going for a super warmup, so the first 5km were pretty slow. I have a 201 max HR (same as when I was 23!) My heart rate target was 186 but it took 10k to get to 175. At 20k and 184 bpm I could see my minute man, Steve Speaks (7UP) and I started to believe in myself a bit more. I passed him before the turnaround ard found myself closing on my 2 minute man, Mark McCormack (Saturn). I ended up catching 5 guys and averaging 188 bpm on the way back. 5km from the finish I could see that I was heading for a sub 50 minute time so I went up to 192 bpm. With an uphill headwind to battle I felt a twinge in my hamstring and had to back it down to 188 again. End result? 50:06. Adam Sbeih (Navigators) turned a 49:57 to win the US title. I have to be really happy with 2nd as I wasn't expecting such a ride from myself, but it is harder to lose by 9 sec than by 90. You end up thinking about all the places you could have picked up 9 seconds. Laurent Fignon had it much worse, I guess! Our Canadian Eric Wohlberg actually won with a 48:56, fully a minute faster than Adam. When he was climbing the podium to the start, an official stopped him and said there was a problem with his rear tire being too close to the seat tube. Eric wasn't even aware of such a UCI regulation. He bent down, adjusted the wheel in the dropouts, and asked if that was better. Given the nod of the official, he set off to blister the course. After the event officials roped him in immediately to check the bike. They couldn't pass a card between the concave seat tube and his tire, so they disqualified him. A real shame that such an ill-conceived rule was enforced so harshly, especially after Eric went to such lengths to get this custom frame to work over the past week. It's one thing to disqualify a rider for drug use or a body position on the bike that exceeds UCI standards, but tire clearance to the frame? The amount of effort it takes to win such an event and win it so convincingly is tremendous. The selective enforcement by the officials was quite costly. While as a Canadian he wasn't eligible for the US title, he would have won $1500 for 1st, $1000 for the fastest 20k split, and a titanium Festina watch. One of Eric's nicknames amongst the team is "little angry man" and now it has never been more accurate. US Olympic Road Trials, May 20, 2000Jackson, MS, 18 laps, 138 miles Raining, humid, 73 degrees. Only 1st place goes to Sydney. This race meant more to me than any other in the past 4 years. I've thought about it nearly every day for the past year, and in the weeks prior to today I tried not to think about it. Why? Because if I put too much pressure on myself I'd not only "choke" but if I came in 2nd I wouldn't be able to handle the disappointment. In 97 after Hincapie won (and I came in 30 meters behind in 13th) the US National Pro Road Race, I was so disappointed I couldn't ride my bike for a week. I'd learned the lesson that you can't base your season around one event, no matter how important that event is. You can probably see where this is all leading. It was a slow race as an Olympic selection race is destined to be. No one would commit to work. The roads were slick as an ice rink. As I'm one of the worst riders for cornering in the rain, I was extremely cautious. The early break was initiated by southeasterners Chris Harkey and Rusty Miller. They built a 3 minute lead before Klasna (Saturn) Knickman (Mercury) Gragus (Jelly Belly) and Jason Van Marle (Nutra Fig) took off in pursuit. After catching the two leaders Van Marle had a go for a while by himself. The break swelled to 14 riders. Despite Navigators, Postal and us Shaklee boys not having anyone up there, we all knew it was up to the powerhouse Mercury team to bring it back. Saturn's ace Klasna had an on-form king Knickman trumped, and everyone knew it. I got my second flat tire of the day during one of the few fast laps, and had to chase for half a lap by myself. I wasn't the only one, as all the teams had up to 15 flats each. Navigators team car actually couldn't stop on the slick pavement quickly enough to avoid running over Todd Littlehales. Despite getting hit, he got up and rejoined the peloton. I think that someone threw tacks on the road. Mercury started chasing at about 4 laps to go. When we were all back together again with 2 laps to go, the attacks started in earnest. Our sprinter Dave McCook was having an awesome day, and I felt so-so. But we both missed the crucial break of about 10 riders at one lap to go. Their lead see-sawed between 5 and 10 seconds for the longest time. I kept thinking that they would be caught. Wishful thinking as it turned out. The last chance to bridge the gap was with 4 miles to go while winding through a technical section. Colby was ready to take me halfway. For some reason I'll never know, I hesitated. When I finally made a move (with Chris Horner and Mike Sayers on my wheel) it was on a short hill. I gave it my all but the break finally got organized and just pulled away. It turned out that just at the moment I was trying to bridge, Frank McCormack (Saturn) had attacked the break and built a 12 second lead. The break gave chase and that was that. Frank was caught 2 miles to go, then his brother and teammate Mark gave it a try. He was caught 700 meters to go, setting up yet another Saturn rider Tony Cruz for the sprint. It was really close at the line, with Cruz just edging out Derek Bouchard Hall (Mercury) and Frankie Andreu (US Postal). Dave McCook did win the field sprint for 11th while I came in dejectedly at 19th. There will be no Olympic Team in my cycling career. On to the next race, the Capitol & Clarendon Criteriums. Hey, chin up, John... Everyone except Tony has to live with this day, and just think how Derek feels... |
