US Elite Championships - CN

Park City, UT, USA, June 21-27, 2005

Main Page Results Previous Race Next Race

Race 9 - June 25: U23 Men RR, 200km

MacGregor defends his title

By Andy Lee, USA Cycling

Ian Macgregor (TIAA-CREF)
Photo ©: Beth Seliga

Ian MacGregor (Golden, Colo.) successfully defended his U23 national championship today with a win in the 125-mile road race at the Park City Cycling Festival. MacGregor called his win a "100% team effort" after an overall performance that saw three riders from the TIAA-CREF squad in the top four.

Second-place finisher Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee, Wash.) also rode a strong race, but in the end he was simply outnumbered by a 12-rider team that many expected to solidify a spot on the podium's top step by day's end.

In the midst of rain and severe winds, only 47 of the 117-rider field finished.

After four loops of a 25-mile circuit, the remainder of a shattered peloton headed towards Park City for the final 14-mile stretch that included two selective climbs responsible for helping to create the defining moment of most of this week's road races.

At the base of the first climb, Stu Gillespie (Boulder, Colo.) had a 14-second gap on his teammate, Mike Lange (Golden, Colo.) while a group of six that contained MacGregor and Farrar dangled closely behind.

Near the crest of the hill, Lange had made contact with Gillespie and the two TIAA-CREF riders formed a two-man breakaway that looked as though it had a legitimate shot of staying away until the finish. With the clock ticking, Farrar attacked out of the chase group behind and MacGregor marked is move, and at the top of the first hill there were 25 seconds separating the two duos.

On the ensuing longer and steeper hill, Farrar tried to close the gap to the leaders as MacGregor sat on his wheel waiting for the right moment to make his move. About halfway up the ascent, MacGregor launched an attack that could not be equalled by Farrar.

With Farrar spent and the remainder of the original chase group losing even more time, the TIAA-CREF team essentially had the race in the bag barring any crashes or mechanical disasters in the next 10 miles.

With Gillespie and Lange having done their share of an overall team effort, MacGregor took the lead and stopped the clock at 5 hours, 2 minutes and 17 seconds as he rode across the line for the national title.

41 seconds later, Farrar officially took the silver medal ahead of Lange and Gillespie respectively.

"That was a 100% team effort," said MacGregor of the race. "Any one of those guys could have done that. Every single one of them rode 100%, and that's how this team works. The guys rode absolutely amazing. Every rider on team TIAA-CREF gave it everything they had today. It had nothing to do with me, it was all them."

Farrar, already an accomplished rider with the Health Net Team in the United States and USA Cycling's national team in Europe, posed the biggest threat according to MacGregor and the strength of his team and smart tactics were the difference.

"All I could do was drop Tyler on the hill. He's so much stronger than I am, and the only chance I have is that I weigh 130 pounds and he weighs 155 pounds. Do the math , I can go uphill a little faster, so that's where I had to go.," explained MacGregor.

"The way that race played out, I'm very happy with second place," conceded Farrar. "I mean TIAA-CREF rode that race so well today that they very much earned that result. A win would have been awesome, but Ian was amazing. When he went on the climb, there was nothing I could do. I was very impressed by the way they rode the race. It's so nice so see young guys put it together so well like that."

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Beth Seliga/

Ian Macgregor (TIAA-CREF) wins the U23 Men's road race
Ian MacGregor (TIAA-CREF) wins which means he reclaimed his title as Espoir National Champion
TIAA-CREF were the standout team and made all the right moves throughout the race
The podium (l-r): Mike Lange (TIAA-CREF), Ian MacGregor (TIAA-CREF) and Tyler Farrar (Health Net)
Hey Zak... do you see a win in there?
And they are off! The race starts in Utah
In the final lap TIAA-CREF teammates Stu Gillespie and Michael Lange
On the final climb Tyler Farrar and Ian MacGregor bridged to the pair of TIAA-CREF riders already off the front
Farrar was unable to stay with MacGregor as Ian blasted up to the break of Gillespie and Lange
Tyler, Ian and Mike after a tough race
Well done, bro! Timmy Duggan congratulates Ian MacGregor on his win
Cozza spent some time off the front as a torrential downpour hit the feedzone
A groupetto, formed in the first lap could not sustain its advantage on the field, finally being caught in the last lap
Stuart Gillespie begins his bridge from the chase group to the grupetto
Tyler Farrar (Health Net) works hard in the chase group
The bad weather was mixed with intermittent periods of sunshine
Craig Lewis (TIAA-CREF) was part of the early break

Results

1 Ian Macgregor (Team TIAA-CREF)                              5.02.17
2 Tyler Farrar (Health Net Pro Cycling Team p/b Maxxis)          0.41
3 Mike Lange (Team TIAA-CREF)                                    0.56
4 Stu Gillespie (Team TIAA-CREF)                                 0.57
5 Taylor Tolleson (Unattached)                                   2.21
6 Bobby Lea (Northwestern Morgage)                               2.23
7 Nicholas Reistad (Advantge Benefits/Endeavour Cycling Team)    2.30
8 Craig Lewis (Team TIAA-CREF)                                   2.55
9 Brent Bookwalter (Advantge Benefits/Endeavour Cycling Team)    2.57
10 Jeremiah Wiscovitch (Seasilver)                               3.54
11 Tom Peterson (BroadmarkBroadmark Capital)                     3.59
12 Alex Welch (Mercy Cycling)                                    4.00
13 Christoph Herby (Snow Valley presented by Seal-O)             4.04
14 Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly)                                   4.12
15 Jered Gruber (Locos Cyling)                                   4.15
16 Chad Beyer (Team TIAA-CREF)                                   4.20
17 Bennet Van Der Genugten (HoneyStinger/Spinergy Wheels)        4.22
18 Emmanuel Suarez (ub racing)                                   4.23
19 Craig Wilcox (Jittery Joe's-Kalahari)                         4.24
20 David Robinson (Team TIAA-CREF)                               5.00
21 Sterling Magnell (Monex)                                      6.08
22 Travis Hagner (Fulton Flyers Land Rover/Siemen)               6.12
23 Alex Hagman (Ft Lewis College)                                6.17
24 Christopher Allison (Camp Highland)                           6.20
25 Christopher Kuhl (CRCA/Sakonnet Technology)                   6.36
26 Blake Caldwell (Team TIAA-CREF)                                   
27 Taylor Kneuven (BroadmarkBroadmark Capital)                   7.19
28 Alexi Martinez (Excel Sports)                                     
29 Andy Guptill (CRCA/Sakonnet Technology)                       7.21
30 Daniel Neyens (BroadmarkBroadmark Capital)                    8.06
31 Zak Grabowski (Team TIAA-CREF)                                8.38
32 Aaron Pool (Trek VW)                                          9.11
33 Chris Wilson (Tri State Velo)                                 9.34
34 Clark Butcher (Amateur Cycling Club of Memphis)               9.36
35 Nicholas Clayville (BroadmarkBroadmark Capital)               9.40
36 Johnny Hayes (CRCA/Sakonnet Technology)                       9.49
37 Wes Hartman (Advantge Benefits/Endeavour Cycling Team)       10.30
38 Wes Bredin (Veloworx Racing)                                 10.34
39 Justin Morgan (BroadmarkBroadmark Capital)                   10.49
40 Seth Hansley (Park City Cycling Academy)                     13.12
41 Jonathan Royal (Tri-State Velo)                              14.29
42 Bradley Viera (Team Snow Valley)                             16.13
43 Josh Gewirtz (Fiordifrutta)                                       
44 Steven Cozza (USA U-23 National Team)                        18.01
45 Max Spirin (McGuire Cycling)                                 19.35
46 Joshua Smith (CenturyTel / VRAD)                             19.51
47 Adrian Hegyvary (Recycled Cyles Racing Team)