6th Clarendon Cup - NE

USA, June 1, 2003

2002 Results Results Past winners

Different strokes as Carney and Van Gilder take Clarendon Cup

By Ray Easterling

This one's mine!
Photo © Steve Berry

Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) won the sprint to the line in a turbulent sixth edition of the Clarendong Cup in Arlington, Va. Carney pulled away in the final meters to best Victor Rapinski (Saturn) and Hayden Godfrey (7-UP/Maxxis). Only 27 of the 150-man field survived the 100 laps to the finish on the six-turn, 1-kilometer course.

The women's race was a different story all together with Laura Van Gilder (Saturn) making a strong solo break early and lapping the field. Her teammate Ina Teutenberg beat 18-year-old Magen Long (Oklahoma Bicycle) in the two-up finale.

Women: Van Gilders powers to lap field

The preceding day's rain and hail storms gave way to a blustery first of June and wind gusts near 30 miles per hour would factor in both the men's and women's races. In the early event, Van Gilder hopped off the front of the field with Helen Kelly in tow. Van Gilder jumped again with 34 laps remaining, dropping the TDS Telecom rider in the course's wide right-hand turn. Through the remainder of the race, members of Diet Rite were pushing hard at the front but both the course and the wind favored the former national criterium champion, as Van Gilder eventually lapped the field, taking up residence back in the main pack late in the race.

With Van Gilder safely ensconced in the field, her teammate and two-time Olympian Ina Teutenberg was free to hunt for second. Teutenberg exploded off the front of the field with eight laps remaining, and only the young rider from Oklahoma Bicycle Racing, Magen Long, could catch on. With three laps remaining, the two riders had 25 seconds on the field. The Saturn sprint specialist hit another gear in the last lap, cruising across the line to claim second.

"Having three teammates in the field is really helpful," Van Gilder said of her solo break. "I felt very confident coming in today. When you have three riders helping you out back in the field ... you can really go for it.

"[The wind] put the field at a disadvantage," she said. "I felt if I just persevered I could put seconds into [the field]. I'm very happy with the result." Van Gilder has taken both second and third at the Clarendon Cup previously, but this is her first trip to the top of the podium at this event.

Men: Carney battles wind, dodges crashes

The wind and the rapid pace played havoc with the men's field, paring the field down from 150 to a mere 27.

The infighting began almost immediately, with Trent Klasna (Saturn) and Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance) off the front after just three of the one hundred laps on the day. Two laps later, a persistent Klasna was barely hanging off the front only to be reeled in soon thereafter. The race continued this way with multiple breaks leaping off the front only to be swallowed whole again by the charging field. What riders were not simply ridden off the back wheel had to contend with crashes littered throughout the six-turn course.

Klasna was off the front again in another break with 42 laps to go, only to get jettisoned from the back of the pack due to a wheel change. Klasna clawed his way back through the pack and, with 35 laps remaining, he and six other riders made a break that had the makings of a race winner. Klasna was joined by team-mate Victor Rapinski, Dan Schmatz (7-UP/Maxxis), Danny Pate (Prime Alliance) and David O'Loughlin (Ofoto/Lombardi Sports), among others. The 7-UP rider eventually fell off the back of the group, causing a renewed charge from the remaining team members in the field.

A break that was within 13 seconds of lapping the field started to unravel with 19 laps to go. Klasna went out the back of the field, leaving teammate Rapinski looking to others in the break for help but getting none. The lead group fell apart and was caught with 16 laps remaining.

The field remained together until the final laps when Phil Zajicek (Saturn) made a solo move off the front and the Prime Alliance team gave chase. A crash in the third-from-last lap took out several riders including members of the Saturn team. In the final lap, Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance) chased down Zajicek's move and teammate Danny Pate led out Jonas Carney to the final turn. Carney outsprinted Rapinski and Hayden Godfrey (7-UP/Maxxis) to the line for the win. Carney gave a lot of credit to his team-mates. "Without them, I couldn't have done anything today."

"I saw 50 laps to go and I thought 'Are you kidding me?'" Carney said of the fast pace. "The field was really tough today. Last year was hard but this year was even harder. Coming out of the third corner was like hitting a wall [due to the wind]. If you didn't have good legs today, you aren't going to finish."

"Today I feel very good, my teammates did very good work," Victor Rapinski said, "but on the last lap, Chris Horner and Ivan Dominguez crashed."

Crashes, wind and the difficult pace-setting served to disrupt the field throughout the race.

"The crits here are really, really hard and really dangerous," said New Zealander Hayden Godfrey. "We heard on our radios that our man got pipped from the front, so we got the order to move to the front."

"The wind actually played a big part of [the crash with two laps remaining]," Godfrey said. "The wind just played carnage."

"Two and a half laps to go, somebody must have just clipped a pedal," Carney added. "I hope they're all all right. I kind of got stuck in [the crash] but didn't go down."

"I've been trying to win this race since they started doing it," Carney added. "I've been close, and I've crashed." Now, Carney has a win.

Photos

Cyclingnews reader Steve Berry correctly picked the winner of the men's division of the Clarendon Cup even before a pedal stroke was turned in anger, thus managing to perfectly capture the "before and after" expressions of Prime Alliance sprinter Jonas Carney.

Images by Steve Berry

Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) looking quietly confident.
In the dash to the line, Carney's facial expression says it all.
With Carney (Prime Alliance) easily outsprinting Victor Rapinski (Saturn) and Hayden Godfrey (7-UP/Maxxis), Cyclingnews reader Steve Berry has good reason to say "I told you so!"

Images by Ray Easterling

Victor Rapinski tests the waters early with a solo effort.
Trent Klasna soloing off the front early.
An Ofoto/Lombardi rider leads the field early.
The group was together early, but riders began to get pulled almost immediately.
The field tries to stay together.
The main pack...
… spreads out.
Many participants hit the deck due to the day's winds and turns.
The field winds its way through the Arlington streets.
Working hard to keep up with the Joneses.
A 7-UP rider cracks, leaving just six riders in the break.
Having worked all day, Trent Klasna is done a few laps before the finish.
Klasna working at the front of the seven-man break.
Klasna pushing the pace at the front of the reformed field after the break is caught.
7-UP joined Prime Alliance working to pull back the break once the 7-UP rider cracked from the lead group.
The strong breakaway group is finally reeled in.
Jonas Carney sprinting ahead of Victor Rapinski.
Jonas Carney gets the win.
The Men's podium.
Two Colavita-Bolla riders take a coffee break after the race.
With three laps to go, Phil Zajicek springs off the front of the group.
Phil Zajicek holds his slight lead with two laps to go.
Phil Zajicek looks to control the front once the break is caught.
The women's field early in the race.
Laura VanGilder's early break with Helen Kelly of TDS Telecom.
The Diet Rite team worked hard at the front to real in the lone leader, to no avail.
The Diet Rite team working to put Tina Mayolo-Pic into position.
Laura VanGilder lapping another rider.
VanGilder working hard at the front of the break.
Ina Teutenberg and Magen Long breakaway from the pack eyeing second and third places.
After breaking her break partner, VanGilder solos for the win.
Ina Teutenberg beats Magen Long to the line for second.
The Women's podium.

Results (provisional)

Men
 
1 Jonas Carney (USA) Prime Alliance
2 Victor Rapinski (Blr) Saturn
3 Hayden Godfrey (NZl) 7-UP/Maxxis
4 Danny Pate (USA) Prime Alliance
5 Siro Camponogara (Ita) Navigators
6 Greg Henderson (NZl) 7-UP/Maxxis
7 Trent Klasna (USA) Saturn
8 John Lieswyn (USA) 7-UP/Maxxis
9 Jackson Stewart (USA) Ofoto/Lombardi Sports
10 Greg Wolf (USA) Colavita-Bolla Racing
11 Alvaro Tardaguila (Uru) UPMC
12 Alex Candelario (USA) Prime Alliance
13 Chris Baldwin (USA) Navigators
14 David O'Loughlin (Ire) Ofoto/Lombardi Sports
15 Todd Littlehales (USA) Sierra-Nevada/Clif Bar
16 Mike Tillman (USA) Schroeder Iron
17 Erik Saunders (USA) Ofoto/Lombardi Sports
18 Marty Nothstein (USA) Navigators
19 Mark McCormack (USA) Saturn
20 Phil Zajicek (USA) Saturn
21 Scott Zwizanski (USA) Snow Valley
22 Chris Wherry (USA) Navigators 
23 Svein Tuft (USA) Prime Alliance
24 Tim Larkin (USA) Ofoto/Lombardi Sports
25 Cameron Hughes (USA) Schroeder Iron
26 Johnathan Page (USA) Prime Alliance
27 Patrick O'Donnell (USA) West Virginia Cycling Team
 
Women
 
1 Laura Van Gilder (USA) Saturn
2 Ina Teutenberg (Ger) Saturn
3 Magen Long (USA) Oklahoma Bicycle
4 Sarah Uhl (USA) Saturn
5 Tina Mayolo-Pic (USA) Diet Rite
6 Julia Oh (USA) Independent Fabrications
7 Lynn Gaggioli (USA) Velo Bella
8 Tania Duff-Miller (USA) Diet Rite
9 Charmain Breon (USA) Freddie Fu
10 Jo Kiesanowski (USA) Diet Rite
11 Emily Gloeckner (USA) TDS
12 Joan Wilson (USA) TDS
13 Helen Kelly (USA) TDS
14 Melissa Sanborn (USA) Unattached
15 Betsy Sellers (USA) Revolution/Rock Creek
16 Elizabeth Begosh (USA) Team Snow Valley
17 Rebecca McClintock (USA) Colavita-Bolla Racing
18 Lenora Felker (USA) Freddie Fu
19 Kori Kelly (USA) Diet Rite
20 Megan Elliott (USA) Saturn
21 Cybil DiGuistini (USA) Diet Rite
22 Kristy Scheffenacker (USA) ABRT/Team Snow Valley
23 Brooke O'Connor (USA) Colavita-Bolla Racing
24 Tina Skelly-Kunstbeck (USA) Lateral Stress Velo/Trek/VW
25 Sandra Kolb (USA) Los Gatos Bicycle Racing

Past winners

2002 Vasili Davidenko (Navigators)     Ina Teutenberg (Saturn)