Race ReportTeam Shaklee's J-Me Carney nipped Steve Speaks (Plymouth/Ellsworth) at the line in a photo-finish to win the third annual Carolina State Bank Criterium. The two were part of a 10- man break that separated from the field with 13 km remaining in the 70 km race.Until the winning move materialized, the race was motivated by the $3500 in primes at stake. With so much money on the line, speeds remained high throughout (48.4 km/h avg.), and there were constant attacks. The pace was pushed early on by the likes of Nikolai Semenchine (Regulators), Todd Littlehales (Navigators), Mike Sayers (Nutra-Fig), Thurlow Rogers (Comptel/Colorado Cyclist) and Derek Bouchard-Hall (Shaklee), along with Speaks, but no one was able to get clear by more than a few seconds. The winning move was made after Roberto Gaggioli took a prime with ten laps to go, and his teammate Speaks broke away with a group of Shaklee and Comptel/Colorado Cyclist riders. Two laps later the break was ten riders strong and was up 9 seconds on the field. With 4 laps to go, in anticipation of a big Gambler's Prime just before the finish, Chad Gerlach (Navigators) pushed the pace, and the break worked its way into a 20 lead. Gerlach took the final prime and still was able to hold on for third place overall. Speaks launched his final attack on the backstretch of the course, and looked to have the race won, but a late fast surge from Carney, a three-time U.S. National Points Race Champion, made the race too close to call. Carney clinched the win by thrusting his bike over the line, and seemed to have surprised Speaks. Robbie Ventura (Navigators) won the field sprint for 11thplace, 20 second behind the winner. The win capped a big day for Team Shaklee, who earlier in the day held a press conference to showcase its sponsorship agreement with local Gardner-Webb University. With the Shelby crowd thus having a home team to cheer for, and the team having extra motivation to win for their hosts, perhaps the Shaklee win was inevitable. The team had someone in almost every attempted break during the race. Results, Shelby, 70 kms:1 J-Me Carney (Shaklee) 1:26:45 2 Steve Speaks (Plymouth-Ellsworth) 3 Chad Gerlach (Navigators) 4 Kirk Willett (Comptel/Colorado Cyclist) 5 Kevin Monahan (Breakaway Courrier Systems 6 Ashley Powell 7 Thurlow Rogers (Comptel/Colorado Cyclist) + 0:01 8 Oscar Pineda (GS Mengoni) 9 Matt Koschara (Shaklee) + 0:04 10 Scott Mercer (Shaklee) + 0:09 11 Robbie Ventura (Navigators) + 0:20 12 Todd Littlehales (Navigators) 13 John Peters (Comptel/Colorado Cyclist) 14 Steve Sevener (Wisconsin Ginseng) 15 Ryan Oelkers (Torelli) 16 Radisa Cubric (Charlotte) 17 Dave McCook (Plymouth Ellsworth) 18 Damien Keckisen (Wisconsin Ginseng) 19 Dirk Friel (Richbrau) 20 Mike Buekle (Wisconsin Ginseng) all s.t. |