The John Lieswyn Diary 2000
Tour de 'ToonaAltoona, PA, August 1-6, 2000 OOOMPH....Mercury has been hammering everyone this year! Shaklee and Saturn are duking it out for a distant second in the US Pro Tour and National Racing Calendar (NRC) rankings. Gord Fraser (Mercury) won 4 in a row at the Wendy's races in Columbus Ohio and then continued an amazing winning streak with another 4 consecutive victories at the Tour de Toona. Read on to find out how my improving fitness temporarily derailed his freight train... "America's Premier Bicycle Stage Race" With something like $80,000 for the pro men and women categories, this is definitely one of the richest races in America. The courses are challenging, the residents are supportive of the event, and the all-categories format brings nearly a thousand racers to the middle of Pennsylvania every summer. The rumor is that the 2001 event may be upgraded to a 10 day UCI sanctioned event, with even more prizemoney and media coverage. After being fairly well crushed by Mercury at the Columbus races, we rolled into Altoona hoping for redemption. A more intensive course of Shaklee vitamins and the cumulative effects of daily racing were combining to bring my fitness to 100% and I looked forward to the tough course that lay ahead. Our three Shaklee host families were awesome. They really went to great lengths for us: coming out to watch the events, stocking their houses with food, and generally coddling us. Tuesday: Prologue Time Trial 3mi/5km 13 turns, Downtown Altoona Despite a better than normal warmup and positive mindset, I couldn't push the limits in the turns and ended up with a 5:24, tied with Chris Horner (Merc) in 15th. The only difference is that he had the fastest halfway split and only turned the :24 because he came up on his :30 second man (the guy starting ahead of him) so fast that he ran out of road and crashed in a turn. Eric and Sylvain went well for us, both turning top ten times. Eric also ran up on his :30 sec man in the last turn and had to go up on the sidewalk to avoid running him over, costing him a few places. Gord won with a 5:10. Surprise, surprise. Wednesday: Johnstown Circuit Race, 60 mi/96 km 3 laps of a roughly 20mi/32km rolling course New this year, this stage took us through the pretty European styled city of Johnstown. The one "climb" of the day was barely a kilometer long and wouldn't rate even a Category 4 hill. So we expected a field sprint today. As we neared the end of the second lap, a 5 man breakaway with two Mercurys and one Saturn escaped. Navigators, 7UP and us Shaklee boys started making our way to the front to bring it back when a couple less-experienced riders touched wheels at the front, causing a crash that spread mayhem all across the road and brought a total of 4 riders down. Unfortunately, Eric and Sylvain were both involved. After remounting, Sylvain had to leave Eric as the latter rider couldn't hold his bars. It would turn out to be a broken wrist, just six weeks before the Olympics. Eric spent a few hours in the hospital and then flew home immediately to get it looked at by specialists. If I know Eric he'll be riding again within a few days, and he'll be ready for Sydney. In order to operate his gear shifters he will have to temporarily jettison the team sponsor Campagnolo's excellent equipment and use a competitor's electronic pushbutton system. Back to the race... Jame Carney and I did the work for Shaklee during the 10km multi-team chase and then Glen Mitchell did an awesome job setting up our sprinter Dave McCook for the finale. Dave finished an admirable second place to guess who. Thursday: Hollidaysburg Circuit race, 60 MI/97 km With Gord in the yellow leader's jersey, Mercury allowed a 3 man breakaway from one of the minor teams to escape early on. They timed their chase exactly right: the break was caught on the final ascent of the hill. The hill is a bit steeper on this course, and it's summit is just 3 km from the finish line. I knew from previous editions of this event that if you aren't in the top ten going over the top, you aren't going to be able to pass enough guys on the blazing descent and multi-turn final 2km to contest the finish. So I swerved and grunted my way into the top ten on the first half of the hill, only to be boxed in by one of the breakaway men who was going half our speed. I crested the hill around 20th, and hoped for a miracle (or a crash at the front... hey, that's not too nice a wish, is it?). Glen got away with three others over the top of the hill and was caught just 800 meters to go. At 400 meters to go I knew I was out of contention, but chucked it in a big gear and did a 90% sprint effort anyway. 10th. Hey, that's another hundred bucks, at least. Guess who won. Right, good guess. Cruz finished second for Saturn, and DBH finished 3rd for Mercury. Friday: Martinsburg Circuit Race, 80 MI/128 km 4 laps x 20mi/32km of a rolling course. Overcast skies threatening rain. 100 percent humidity again. The halfway point of the circuit brings us down a long downhill stretch and up a gentle climb through a forest. Team 7UP was active today with Clark Sheehan and Anton Villatoro both making solo attempts. A single rider isn't going to hold off six Mercury riders, so us Shaklee boys did our best to join them. No dice. On the third lap, Anton was brought back and the peloton was all together making the left turn into the forest. A light rain had begun falling and I figured it was pretty important to be at the front at this point in the race. Just as I got there, DBH and Mark Walters (Navigators) were taking off, so I jumped with them. I took even turns with them but we were reined in within a minute or so, and I could hear Sylvain on my radio cursing about something. Looking around, it quickly became evident that somehow 13 riders had rolled off the front and I was the lone representative for Team Shaklee. Not good. The individual winner of Toona gets $2000 while the winning team brings home $4000. The teams classification is decided by adding up each team's top three riders times for each stage. The thirteen riders included 3 Mercurys (incl. Gord) 2 Navigators (Walters and Davidenko) and two Saturns (Wherry and Walton). So this meant that if this break stayed away the best team Shaklee could hope for was 4th in the teams classification. Plus we wanted Sylvain and/or Glen to be in contention for the individual General Classification so that any one of the three of us could be a threat in Saturday's hilly road race. I did my best to get in the way of the smoothly rotating riders in an effort to slow our pace, but out and out chopping the front of the "echelon" is a strict unwritten no-no. Starting the fourth lap Sylvain was in a three man chase group that closed to within a nail-biting 10 seconds of my group. As soon as Mercury and Navigators learned that another Shaklee man (who had finished 4th individual overall last year) was about to catch up, they really dropped the hammer. We would have to write off our team classification hopes and I turned my thoughts to how to win the stage. The sprint would be short and flat. 2 strikes against me. Saturn threw in a few soft attacks that didn't work and then Moninger and DBH led out Gord into the final six turns before the finish. Davidenko was on Gord's wheel and then me. Coming out of the last turn I was repeating to myself over and over "take your first win of the season NOW" but mental tricks didn't work as Gord wiped Davidenko and I out. 3rd for me, with the 5 second time bonus, puts me in 5th overall behind Gord, Davidenko, DBH, and Wherry. Saturday: Verizon Circuit Road Race 95 miles/152 km 3 climbs. Dry today. Our Jame Carney got in the early break with Saturn's Harm Jansen, Lombardi's Pat Heaney, NutraFig's Burke Swindlehurst, and one other. Mercury set their whole team on the front but burned up just two guys chasing: Phil Zaijcek and Mike Sayers. The "rabbit" break (set up by the other teams to induce Mercury to chase hard in defense of the yellow jersey but not expected to make it to the finish) was 3 minutes ahead at the start of the first major climb. Mercury chased a bit too hard and didn't save enough guys for the real attack, which came on the last climb of the day. Wherry, Davidenko, Vesty and I got a small gap on Gord, et al. Moninger made the mistake of coming along with us instead of staying with Gord, and while he eventually dropped back to help Gord, the four of us saw the first opportunity to get the the line without a Mercury guy in months. And we seized it. We rode the last 20km (mostly downhill back into Altoona) absolutely flat out, to finish 35 seconds ahead of the remnants of the peloton. I finally got my win as I had a nice long sprint to the line ahead of Davidenko. In what would turn out to be a critical juncture for my overall placing, Vesty popped Wherry for 3rd and the last time bonus placing. (It goes 15-10-5 seconds for the top 3). Sunday: Altoona Criterium, 35 MI/56 km 30 laps, 8 turns per lap, raining. Davidenko has his work cut out for him. Mercury goes straight to the front, drives it hard enough that within 3 laps the peloton explodes. The first group is: 5 Mercurys; Davidenko and Baldwin for Navigators; Wherry, Cruz and Ventura for Saturn, myself, Chris Fisher, Heaney, and Kevin Monahan. I sat 7th wheel the entire race despite a rear tire that just would not hang on in the wet corners. Behind me, Heaney crashed Monahan TWICE. Gord's team is giving him an armchair ride through the final corner going into every time bonus sprint lap, and he is demolishing Davidenko in every sprint. I pick up a 1 second time bonus early on, but cannot score any more after that. At 8 to go Cruz flies by all of us with Wherry in tow, and Wherry stays away for 3 laps to pick up an 8 second time bonus and close to within 1 second of me for 3rd overall. At this point I get on Wherry's rear wheel and stay glued to it until the finish, no matter how many Mercury men ride away from us (Moninger and then Horner go first and second and Gord takes 3rd for a dominating ride) I would have liked to be more aggro and go for it, but Wherry was too strong and if an attempted breakaway by me were to fail, he could counterattack me and lose me in the corners, and I'd slip off the podium to 4th overall. It was pretty nerve wracking trying to keep my rear tire from sliding out as Wherry put 2 bikelengths on me in nearly every corner, but I kept closing the gaps until the race ended. Next up : Manhattan Beach, CA Grand Prix over and out
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