3rd Saturn Cycling Classic - NE
Boulder, USA, August 10, 2002
Main page Start List Map Results
Complete Live Report
Start time: 9:20am
Estimated finish time: 16:30 CEST
Welcome to Cyclingnews.com's live coverage of the Saturn Cycling Classic 2002. Today's race is 225 kilometres, starting in Boulder and crossing seven mountain passes to finish in Breckenridge. As far as the parcours goes, it's hard to find a more challenging one in the US. Riders sometimes even use mountain bikes on the gravel descents, as the road surface is not good enough.
The weather today is not too bad - cool but no rain, although it could get down to 5 degrees on the tops of the mountains.
Favourites for the race include previous winners Jonathan Vaughters (2001) and Scott Moninger (2000), among others.
The race is started at 9:20 am by Greg Lemond, Andy Hampsten and Davis Phinney, who lead the peloton out of Boulder for the official start at Greenbriar.
10:10 am
The race has started aggressively, with a number of attacks in the opening kilometres.
There is a largeish group off the front containing riders such as Decano and
Candelario (Prime Alliance), Petersen and Jansen (Saturn), and Vogels (Mercury).
10:25 am
The peloton is trailing the leading group by nearly 3 minutes, which is not
cooperating too well. Rishi Grewal tries an attack, but is quickly chased down.
10:35 am
Mike Carter (Handle Bar & Grill) is off the front making a run for the first
King of the Mountain; he's about 25 seconds ahead of the group. The lead group
of 15 has broken into several smaller groups with Carter at the front and Henk
Vogels and Alex Candelario off the back. There's a gap of 6:45 between the lead
group and the peleton.
The names in the leading group: Rishi Grewal and Mike Carter (Handle Bar & Grill), Jesus Zarate, Henk Vogels and Phil Zajicek (Mercury), Matt DeCanio, Alex Candelario and Russell Stevenson (Prime Alliance), Soren Petersen (Saturn), Glen Mitchell (Navigators), Jeff Hartmann (Trek/VW-New Belgium), Troy White (Sierra Nevada), and Jon Tarkington (Vitamin Cottage/Morgal Bismark).
10:50 am
Mike Carter wins the prime on top of the Wondervu climb, one minue ahead of
Troy White (Sierra Nevada), Jon Tarkington (Vitamin Cottage), Jeff Hartmann
(Trek/VW-New Belgium), and Jesus Zarate (Mercury).
Coming down the twisty descent from Wondervu, Mike Carter is off the front; he is one minute ahead of the rest of the lead group of 14 riders. The peloton is 6:45 behind the lead group, and 7:45 behind Carter. Wondervu is the first of seven major climbs in the King of the Mountain point series.
11:05 am
The lead riders just passed through Rollinsville and are beginning their climb
to Golden Gate Road, the second major climb in the King of the Mountain points
series. Carter is still off the front, now with a two-minute gap between him
and the lead group of 13. The field is still several minutes behind.
11:30 am
Mike Carter is about 4 km from the second KOM. The gap between Carter and the group of 13 lead riders is 2:30. The gap between Carter and the rest of the field is 10:30. Looks like Carter is on track to be the first rider to Black Hawk, earning him a $5,000 sprint prize (as long as he finishes the rest of the race).
11:40 am
Mike Carter has indeed won the Black Hawk sprint, crossing the line 2 minutes, 30 seconds before the second rider Soren Petersen (No. 35) of Saturn. Jon Tarkington, Alex Candelario, and Troy White have been dropped from the first chase group.
11:45 am
Third place at Black Hawk was taken by Phil Zajicek (No. 17) of Mercury.
Fourth was Matt DeCanio (No. 23) of Prime Alliance, and fifth was Jesus Zarate
(No. 14) of Mercury. Carter still has a 10-minute lead on the field and a two-minute
lead on the group of 13, which has begun to break up.
12:00 pm
The riders are just starting the screaming descent from the top of Oh My
God Road down into Idaho Springs. Mike Carter is being caught. He's been reeled
in by Jeff Hartmann of Trek/VW, Russell Stevenson of Prime Alliance, Soren Petersen
of Saturn, Matt DeCanio of Prime Alliance, Jesus Zarate and Phil Zajicek of
Mercury, and Harm Jansen of Saturn. Results of the third KOM at the top of Oh
My God Road are: 1st- Carter, 2nd- Zarate, 3rd- Zajicek, 4th- DeCanio, and 5th-
Jansen.
Note: In order to claim the $5,000 first-place sprint prize, Carter has to finish the 140-mile race within 25 minutes of the winner.
12:15 pm
The riders are through Idaho Springs and on their way to Georgetown. They
just passed through the feed station, and Jeff Hartmann of Trek/VW is off the
front. He is followed by a pack of seven riders that include Soren Peterson,
Jesus Zarate, Russell Stevenson, Phil Zajicek, Harm Jansen, Mike Carter and
Matt DeCanio.
12:25 pm
In Breckenridge, No. 427 Kurt Sorensen won the Men's Cat 4 Criterium, and
No. 421 Ed Oliver took second. The Nicole Reinhart Men's Cat 3 Criterium is
about to begin.
12:35 pm
With 55 miles covered, the riders have negotiated the tortuous descent from
Oh My God Road. On the way down, Hartmann set off on a solo attack, and is 55
seconds ahead of Carter, DeCanio, Jansen, Petersen, Zarate, Stevenson and Zajicek.
12:38 pm
Still on the way to Georgetown, Jeff Hartmann has been caught. He's now
among the lead pack of eight riders. The lead group has an advantage of 8'45"
on the field. There are a few members from the original lead group scattered
between the current lead group and the field.
12:50 pm
The leading eight riders remain the same: Carter, DeCanio, Hartmann, Jansen,
Peterson, Zarate, Stevenson and Zajicek, just outside of Georgetown. Grewal
and Vogels are chasing this group and are just over two minutes back.
1:00 pm
The first riders have started up the grueling Guanella Pass. The lead group
of eight is breaking up with Jesus Zarate off the front. There's a second group
that has formed by a seven-rider break-away from the field combining with some
of the stragglers from the initial lead group. The seven break-away riders include
Jose Adrian Bonilla (No. 5) of Handle Bar & Grill, Chirs Wherry (No. 12) of
Mercury, Michael Creed (No. 22) of Prime Alliance, Tim Johnson (No. 34) of Saturn,
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (No. 41) of Tokyo Joe's, and Burke Swindlehurst (No.
61) and Chris Baldwin (No. 62), both of Navigators. The lead group has about
a 5-minute lead over the second group, and the second group has about a 2-minute
lead over the field.
1:15 pm
On the Guanella climb, Zarate has a one minute lead on Phil Zajicek, followed
by Soren Petersen, Russell Stevenson, Harm Jansen, Jeff Hartmann and Mike Carter.
But the big news is that yet another group has broken away from the field. And
this group of eight is one to watch, because it includes the 2001 Saturn Cycling
Classic winner Jonathan Vaughters (No. 1) of Handle Bar & Grill and the winner
of the 2000 race Scott Moninger (No. 11) of Mercury. This group also includes
Tinker Juarez (No. 3) of Handle Bar & Grill, Tom Danielson (No. 13) of Mercury,
Carl Swenson (No. 42) and Walker Ferguson (No. 43) of Tokyo Joe's, Andrew Miller
(No. 76) of Trek/VW - New Belgium, and Andrew Bajadali (No. 92) of Excel Sports.
This group is gaining fast on the second group that includes Mercury's Chris
Wherry.
1:35 pm
In Breckenridge, final results for the Men's Cat 3 and Men's Cat 4 Crits
have been announced:
Men's Cat 4 results are: 1st- Kurt Sorensen, 2nd- Ed Oliver, 3rd- Jeff Cospolich
Men's Cat 3 results are: 1st- Patrick Owen, 2nd- Scott Bourke, 3rd- Peter Horn
1:56 pm
Two Mercury riders Jesus Zarate (No. 14) and Phil Zajicek (No. 17) are now
off the front as they head down the back side of Guanella Pass. Reigning champion
Jonathan Vaughters is in fith place and is coming up fast on Burke Swindlehurst
of Navigators, who is in fourth. Chris Wherry of Mercury is in third. Vaughters
had a minor crash in a turn, but was up immediately and is still in fifth. The
results of the Guanella Pass KOM are: 1st- Zarate, 2nd- Zajicek, 3rd- Wherry,
4th- Swindlehurst, 5th- Vaughters, 6th- Andrew Miller (Trek/VW - New Belgium),
7th - Michael Creed (Prime Alliance), 8th - Scott Moninger, and 9th - Jose Adrian
Bonilla of Handle Bar & Grill.
2:15 pm
Wherry, Swindlehurst, Zarate, Zajicek and Vaughters are now the leading
five on the road, after the Zarate/Zajicek duo was brought back and Vaughters
joined the leaders.
2:25 pm
The top five riders- Zarate, Zajicek, Wherry, Swindlehurst and Vaughters-
regrouped as they came to the bottom of Guanella. All but Vaughters made smoothe
transitions back to road bikes for their return to paved roads. Unfortunately
for Vaughters, the Handle Bar & Grill support car wasn't there waiting for him
with a road bike. The Mercury riders- Wherry, Zarate and Zajicek- eased up,
perhaps waiting for teammate Scott Moninger who wasn't too far behind. Meanwhile,
the Handle Bar & Grill support car showed up and provided Vaughters with a road
bike just in time for him to continue with the lead pack.
2:35 pm
The lead riders are at mile 93 of the 140-mile race. Swindlehurst is off
the front slightly. And Mercury's Scott Moninger and Handle Bar & Grill's Jose
Adrian Bonilla have joing the lead group. Meanwhile, in Breckenridge, the Junior
Men's Criterium has just finished and the Women's Criterium rider introductions
are just about to begin. The Junior Men's Criterium winners are: 1st- Mikkel
Christensen, 2nd- Jason Short, 3rd- Mike Fox.
2:50 pm
Out on the course, the seven lead riders are working together, not pushing
very hard. They just passed through a feed station. But a new group of four
is coming up behind them; the foursome- Andrew Miller (No. 76) of Trek/VW -
New Belgium, Soren Petersen (No. 35) of Saturn, Walker Ferguson (No. 43) of
Tokyo Joe's, and Michael Creed (No. 22) of Prime Alliance- are about three minutes
behind the leaders. All of the riders appear to be taking it a little easy,
perhaps recovering from the tough up and down of Guanella.
3:05 pm
After reaching the top of Kenosha Pass, the fifth KOM, there's still a group
of seven lead riders with a group of four riders three minutes behind them.
KOM results from Kenosha Pass are: 1st- Zarate, 2nd- Zajicek, 3rd- Bonilla,
4th- Wherry, 5th- Swindlehurst.
3:20 pm
The lead riders are nearing the top of Red Hill Pass. The lead group of
seven is down to six as Mercury's Phil Zajicek has dropped off the back. The
second group of four is still about three minutes behind the leaders. In other
news, Mike Carter, who was first across the sprint line in Black Hawk, has dropped
out of the race, which means he cannot claim the $5,000 sprint prize. That means
the second person to cross that line -- Saturn's Soren Peterson -- can win the
$5,000 as long as he finishes the race within 25 minutes of the winner. Peterson
is now in the group of four that is just minutes behind the leaders.
3:32 pm
The threesome has joined Phil Zajicek, and the four of them have caught
the six leaders, so there is now a lead group of 10 as the cyclists reach the
112-mile mark on Red Hill Pass. The lead group includes four Mercury riders
- Chris Wherry, Jesus Zarate, Phil Zajicek, and Scott Moninger; two Handle Bar
& Grill riders - Jonathan Vaughters and Jose Adrian Bonilla; Burke Swindlehurst
from Navigators, Michael Creed from Prime Alliance, Soren Peterson from Saturn
and Walker Ferguson from Toyko Joes.
3:40 pm
In Breckenridge, the Nicole Reinhart Women's miss-and-out format criterium
finished with Sarah Konrad as the winner. The Women's Criterium results are:
1st- Sarah Konrad (Mercy Cycling), 2nd- Jessica Phillips (Saturn Cycling), 3rd-
Kori Kelly (Diet Rite).
3:52 pm
The KOM results for Red Hill are in: 1st- Zarate, 2nd- Wherry, 3rd- Bonilla,
and 4th- Moninger. In an interesting change of events, Mercury's Phil Zajicek
and Saturn's Soren Peterson dropped off the back of the lead pack of 10 on Red
Hill Pass. Then Soren Petersen rejoined the group just in time to make a break
with Mercury's Chris Wherry. As the group is leaving Fairplay and on its way
to Alma, Wherry and Peterson have a 37 second lead over the pack of seven, which
includes former champions Jonathan Vaughters and Scott Moninger as well as Zarate,
Bonilla, Creed, Swindlehurst and Ferguson.
4:05 pm
The men are coming into Alma, and Wherry and Petersen have extended their
gap to 1'30" over the pack of seven. Still to come is Hoosier Pass, the
seventh in the KOM point series. And then its downhill into Breckenridge.
4:20 pm
As Wherry and Petersen started up Hoosier Pass, Petersen couldn't maintain
the pace with Wherry. And the chasing pack of seven has become five as Michael
Creed and Jesus Zarate have dropped off the back. Wherry, whose father passed
away this earlier this week, has a 40-plus-second solo lead on the chasers and
could very well be on his way to winning a 2003 Saturn VUE. However, Bonilla,
Moninger, Vaughters, Swindlehurst and Ferguson might have something to say about
that.
4:30 p.m
Wherry just crested Hoosier Pass and has a 1'30 lead over teammate Scott Moninger
and Navigators rider Burke Swindlehurst, who both managed to break away from
the chasing pack of Jonathan Vaughters, Soren Petersen, Jose Adrian Bonilla
and Walker Ferguson. Wherry is in the home stretch with fewer than 10 miles
between him and the finish line.
4:40 p.m.
Wherry is about 7 km from town. He's at least a minute ahead of Moninger and
Swindlehurst. Not far behind them is Soren Petersen, who has defending champion
Jonathan Vaughters on his tail.
4:45 p.m.
Wherry rides into downtown Breckenridge for a single lap of the criterium course.
4:47 p.m.
Mercury's Chris Wherry completes the final lap and becomes the 2002 Saturn Cycling
Classic champion, winning a 2003 Saturn VUE. He kisses his fist and raises it
the sky. ...Seconds later Navigators' Burke Swindlehurst and Mercury's Scott
Moninger ride into Breckenridge with one lap of the criterium course to go before
deciding second and third place.
4:48 p.m.
Burke Swindlehurst rounds the last corner just a split second ahead of Moninger
to take second place and a $10,000 prize. Moninger will receive $6,000 for third
place.
4:50 p.m.
Saturn's Soren Petersen comes into town and takes fourth place (for $4,500)
followed by 2001 Saturn Cycling Classic champion Jonathan Vaughters who comes
in fifth to win $3,500. Saturn's Soren Petersen comes into town and takes fourth
place (for $4,500) followed by 2001 Saturn Cycling Classic champion Jonathan
Vaughters who comes in fifth to win $3,500. Also, because Black Hawk sprint
winner Mike Carter of Handle Bar & Grill did not complete the race, Saturn's
Soren Petersen, who came in second at Black Hawk, wins the $5,000 sprint prize
from the City of Black Hawk.
Results
1 Chris Wherry (USA) Mercury 2 Burke Swindlehurst (USA) Navigators 3 Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury 4 Soren Petersen (Den) Saturn 5 Jonathan Vaughters (USA) Handlebar & Grill
