Tour of the Gila - NE

USA, May 3-7, 2000

Stage 3 - May 5: Inner Loop Road Race, 73 miles (m/w)

Women

The women's stage three was held over an identical route to the men, involving more than 5,000 feet of climbing over the 73 mile course, starting and finishing at Ft. Bayard. The women's race had several crashes, including autotrader.com's Andrea Ratkovic who won the stage yesterday.

Her teammate, Kimberley Bruckner made up for it by winning today's stage from Mari Holden (Timex), with Tina Mayolo (Autotrader.com) taking third. Mayolo's description of the race makes quite an entertaining read (courtesy of racereport@vcnet.com):

Have you ever felt like you're a toasted cookie on a baking sheet? Today's race kind of gave us a taste of what that might be like. Not so great! Our 73-mile road race didn't start until 10am, so it was a hot one. In more ways than one!

The first sprint bonus was at 6 miles. Our own Andrea Ratkovic grabbed some of the money put up for the sprint for a stellar third. Later on Julie Young took second in the other sprint. In my delirium I have to honestly say that I have no idea where it was.

The battle between Jeannie Longo (France) and Mari Holden (Timex) continued and started approximately at mile 6 as the road sloped gently upwards. Gently is all relative you see as we were all gasping for every last small molecule of oxygen as someone decided that the race was to start immediately.

Funny how I forgot that in order to be scared on the descent you first must get up the climb. Somehow all the AutoTrader.com women made it up the first climb - this was no easy feat. This day would promise a long solo ride into the wind and over the hills for those who faltered in the very beginning. The first descent was really fun no technical corners just fast and fun. I think the field was down to about 30 at this point.

There was a second climb that Ms. Longo decided to race up that once again split the field but the descent was another fun one - that is until the very last few corners. Andrea sped off the front with Nicole Freedman (Charles Schwab). Unfortunately, she was later found laying on one of the hairy corners toward the end of the descent. I have to say the descent was much less lethal than last year which left piles of women in each corner. I slowly picked my way down hoping to save all my skin. Somehow I missed Andrea in the corner and she once again sped by with blood dripping from her chin like a goatee.

Finally, all 25 of us were back together - that is except Mari Holden. She was busy speeding away testing her stellar time trialing talents. However, her time trialing capabilities were soon to be tested by our own speedy Kimberly Bruckner. None was too happy about starting a chase so we all tried to roll through. The Charles Schwab team did their best to help but Team Elita would have nothing to do with it - neither would Jeannie Longo.

The head wind was pretty strong and the chocolate in our cookies was melting. So we tried a new tactic. Attack, attack, attack. Take turns. After a few attacks off the front Kimberly's number came up. Off she went and suddenly she had 1:40 on the field which was chasing amazingly fast - especially Julie Hanson (Saturn) and Lara Ruthvin(Texas something). But Kimberly held them all off.

When we got to the feed zone at around mile 60 it seems that Mari was waiting for her able assistance. The rest of us were busy panicking because in the lower half of the feed zone there seemed to be no AutoTrader.com van with the cold treats to help us on our way. I was wondering if that one drop of water would stop a wild choking fit in case we didn't get any water. Pam was wondering the same as she spoke over the radio "Ellen? Are you in the feed zone?" But what were we thinking doubting our wonderful support crew? They just were at the top of the hill so we wouldn't have to carry all ten gallons of water, coke and revenge all the way up the climb.

So in front Kimberly was madly working with Mari. Seems that she really needed some help and Kimberly was doing the majority of the work. She just kept thinking "hey it's only a 25 mile time trial". My thoughts exactly (oh yeah, sure). So she managed to pull Mari all the way to the line giving her a 4 minute time bonus - ah and she even won the race.

The AutoTrader.com speedsters were busy leading out yours truly for the sprint. Dropped me at 200 meters from the line to take third. It's all in the team you know!!

Results

1. Kimberly Bruckner (USA) AutoTrader.com              3.36.46
2. Mari Holden (USA) Timex 
3. Tina Mayolo (USA) AutoTrader.com                       4.06
4. Sarah Ulmer (NZL) Elita                                
5. Nicole Freedman (USA) Charles Schwab                   4.08
6. Lara Ruthven (USA) TX Cycle Sport                      
7. Melanie Dorion (USA)                                   
8. Kim Smith (USA) Timex                                  
9. Stacey Peters (USA) 800.COM                            
10. Sophie St. Jacques (Can) Elita                        4.11

General classification after stage 3:

1. Mari Holden (USA) Timex                             7.51.59
2. Jeannie Longo (Fra) Ebly                               3.24
3. Kimberly Bruckner (USA) AutoTrader.com                 4.04
4. Andrea Ratkovic (USA) AutoTrader.com                   6.32
5. Sarah Ulmer (NZL) Elita                                7.10
6. Julie Hanson (USA) Saturn                              7.11
7. Katrina Berger (USA) Charles Schwab                    8.48
8. Lysle Wilhelmi (USA) 800.COM                           9.08
9. Catherine Cardwell (USA) Charles Schwab                9.15
10. Pam Schuster (USA) AutoTrader.com                     9.21

Men

John Lieswyn's report

Course and conditions: again very hot and dry, strong winds. 3 major climbs today, rolling hills for the final 20km. First climb to Pinos Altos, 2nd climb in the Gila National Forest, then a dangerous descent to a long river valley before turning back onto the highway for the mostly uphill/headwind route back to Fort Bayard.

Straight out of Fort Bayard we tried to take control but the peloton attacked us on every little hill. Making the turn onto the Pinos Altos climb, two of our strongest team players, Graeme and Glen flatted. Luke spent his day's energy shot leading them back on as Sylvain, Kent and Christian set a hard pace at the front. Riders shot across the small gap to the break and when it got to be about ten riders I took a hard turn at the front to neutralize it.

Our mechanical woes continued as my rear wheel pulled out of the frame (again...better try a different quick release tomorrow) and Glen's neutral support provided wheel was incompatible with his new 10 speed shifting levers. Glen's chain jammed and he nearly crashed but made a sensational save. On the second climb in the forest, Sylvain and Christian kept the pace high until the feed zone. There Glen got a 10spd wheel from the team van and did his 3rd chase of the day to rejoin us.

The bunch was all together as we began the crazy descent down to the valley. Mercury sent Roy Knickman and Jan Bratowski to push the limits, and I couldn't get closer than about 6 bikelengths behind. Sweat salt made my eyes tear up, and distracted me a few times entering decreasing radius switchback corners. I held it up - Jan and Roy kept looking back to see where the pack and I were. Behind me there was nobody in sight but I could hear our team/race leader Eric Wohlberg's brakes squealing turn after turn. At the bottom I closed the gap to Roy and Jan and we were off.

With Eric's race leadership as my excuse I "sat on" and did nothing to help the other two. At an average of 35mph with the wind we were up to about 45sec lead before Roy heard something over his radio that caused him to "sit up" and rest. Over a small hill we were joined by Saturn's Tony Cruz (whose excuse not to "pull" was that his teammate Bart Bowen was missing from the move) and Mercury's Gord Fraser. This 5 man break was still excellent for Team Shaklee as I was the highest man on the GC (overall time) and if the break made it all the way to the finish with 3 minutes then Eric and I would be 1st and 2nd overall.

It was 7UP and Jelly Belly's job to reel us back in. The 3 Mercurys jammed at over 40mph (68kph) until the 60mi (100km) mark and I pitched in for a few turns as well. As we made the turn onto the highway and into the uphill headwind, Roy dropped off and only Jan and I were taking turns. The peloton had closed on us to within a minute, and by the time we'd made it through the feedzone the game was up. In the final miles Eric made it into a 5 man break that stayed away by about 15 seconds at the finish. While Mike Sayers (Mercury) took the stage win Eric finished 4th and increased his overall lead over Bouchard-Hall. The main pack was about 50 riders and smaller groups would come in over the next 45 minutes.

We received the unfortunate news that Kent crashed hard on the descent out of the forest and broke his femur. I got back to the hotel to find our manager Steve packing up Kent's computer and work papers (Kent holds down a full time job as a groundwater hydrologist) and a change of clothes. Kent would be flown via a small plane to Albuquerque for surgery.

Results

1. Michael Sayers (USA) Mercury                  3.02.28
2. Clark Sheehan (USA) 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist        0.01
3. Florencio Ramos Torres (Mex) Tecos)              0.04
4. Eric Wohlberg (Can) Shaklee/Marin         
5. Burke Swindlehurst (USA) Navigators              0.07
6. Vassili Davidenko (Ukr) Navigators               0.17
7. Tim Erwin (USA) UNM Lobos
8. Alex Candelarid (USA) Boulder CHAOS
9. Drew Donaldson (USA) Boulder CHAOS
10. Steve Cates (USA) Mercy Cycling              

General classification after stage 3:

1. Eric Wohlberg (Can) Shaklee/Marin             7.34.32
2. Clark Sheehan (USA) 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist        1.34
3. Eddy Gragus (USA) Jelly Belly                    1.42
4. Derek Bouchard-Hall (USA) Mercury                1.50
5. Bart Bowen (USA) Saturn                          2.24
6. Doug Ziewacz (USA) 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist         2.55
7. Scott Price (USA) Landis Cyclery/WMRC            3.52
8. Ron Schmeer (USA) Nutra Fig/Noni
9. John Lieswyn (USA) Shaklee/Marin                 4.06
10. Phil Zajicek (USA) JW Sports                    4.22