The John Lieswyn Diary 2000Capitol Cup CriteriumWashington D.C., USA, May 27, 2000 100km, 50 laps, 2km city circuit with 7+ turns. Rain. Memorial Day weekend in DC. There are thousands of tourists, veterans, and bankers on Harleys checking out the memorials all over downtown despite the rain. I spent Thursday flying to Greenville SC to pick up my car which needs to get to the northeast for my impending cross country move. Friday I drove 9 hours. All in all I got 90 minutes of riding in over the last 2 days, so my legs didn't feel very strong as the race got going. After 13 laps my teammate Sylvain Beauchamp opened a gap behind me and shouted "go!". I really didn't want to be in a long breakaway - It was hard to follow Mercury's Steve Zampieri as he was going really well especially in the corners. After several laps together at a lead of about 15 seconds, another Mercury man Henk Vogels joined us. Now this guy had horsepower. Hanging on for dear life, I conceded the race to Henk and Steve. I would try and help, I wouldn't sprint at the finish, and take 3rd. Henk seemed fine with it but every time that I couldn't take a turn at the front Steve would open a gap and let Henk go. My big tactical error was in not staying glued to Henk's wheel. Zampieri didn't have the juice to stay away by himself but Henk certainly could. At 16 laps to go I called Steve's bluff when he opened a gap. The best I could do against these guys was 3rd while back in the pack Sylvain and our sprinter Dave McCook could potentially improve on that. I thought for sure Mercury wouldn't give up a guaranteed 1-2 finish. I was wrong as Steve totally quit pedaling and Henk was gone solo. In half a lap Steve and I looked at each other as we lost a 35 second lead on the field. Team 7Up (who'd been chasing the three of us for half an hour) blew to bits and quit chasing at the same time. Henk built his lead to over a minute. Back in the group I was furious at Steve & Mercury and furious at myself for giving up a podium finish. In the interest of saving strength for tomorrow's Clarendon Cup (another stop on the US Pro Tour, with double today's prizemoney) I dropped out at 8 laps to go. There will be no quitting and no excuses for me tomorrow. Mercury won the race but didn't sweep the podium as Robbie Ventura (Saturn) finally found his legs to finish 2nd, and Shaklee's powerhouse sprinter Dave McCook took 3rd. Yeah Dave! Over and out. Clarendon Cup CriteriumArlington, VA, May 28, 2000 I have to pack and drive to Philly right now so the short story is that the Clarendon Cup, 50 miles on a misty & cold day in Arlington VA came down to a field sprint. Dave McCook and Jonas Carney went 1-2 in the sprint for team Shaklee. We had all breakaways covered the whole day so it was a good team effort. Eric crashed early on and slid for a ways on his knees but he got back into the race and seems OK. I felt about 40% yesterday and today I would estimate I'm up to about 70%, so hopefully by the time we get to Lancaster on Tuesday I'll be 100%. |
