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US Elite Championships & Olympic trials - NE
Redlands, CA, USA, June 16-19, 2004
Nationals results National champions summary
Race 1 - June 16: Junior Men Selection Series RR, 68km
Taylor battles to stay away for selction race victory
By USA Cycling
Zach Taylor (Marietta, Ga.) has won the junior men's selection race, the opening event of the US Elite Championships & Olympic trials in Redlands, California. One of five in a series of events that factors into selection of the world championship team, this morning's event covered the same 7.6km start loop followed by four laps of the circuit for a total of 67.6km.
The first significant move of the day occurred when Taylor and Erek Riggs (Antelope, Calif.) amounted a 50-second gap on the field of 39 riders. As Taylor suffered up the climbs, Riggs opened up a slight gap, but as the bunch approached the base of the climb to Panorama Point for the third time the field was fully intact. With opportunities to create a selection dwindling, the pace up the climb intensified, and a group of 13 riders found itself with a slight advantage over a chase group of 12. Just before the start of the final lap, the two lead groups came together and Taylor made his move. By the time he made his way around to the final ascent up Panorama Point, Talyor had put a minute between himself and any challengers. As Riggs attempted to bridge across, Taylor managed to reach the summit with his one minute advantage secure.
With the field feverishly chasing from behind, it looked as though Taylor would be caught in the closing kilometers, but a strong final effort by Taylor, coupled with a breakdown in the chase behind, allowed Taylor to easily cruise in for the win 1:15 ahead of Luke Pennington (Hood River, Ore.) who took the sprint from the final group of 11 riders.
"I had trouble on the climbs all day long," explained Taylor afterwards. "At the end of the third lap, I figured I was either going to help one of my teammates win, or get away before the climb. I got dropped on the little climb before the start of the last lap and when I finally caught up, I just went right by the field and time trialed all the way home."
Results
1 Zach Taylor (Hot Tubes) 1.56.51 2 Luke Pennington (Bike Gallery) 1.15 3 Michael Sheppard (Major Motion) 4 Zach Bolian (Hot Tubes) 1.16 5 Alex Boyd (Major Motion) 6 Christopher Stockburger (Team Rio Grande) 7 Chad Beyer (Domenics / Team Strada) 8 Peter Stetina (Team TIAA-CREF/5280 Magazine) 9 Colter Cederlof (Echelon) 10 Adam Switters (Lombardi/Klein) 1.17 11 Erek Riggs (Lombardi Sports/Klein) 1.20 12 Alex Howes (Team TIAA-CREF/5280 Magazine) 13 Shawn Rosenthal (Tieni Duro) 1.26 14 Nick Frey (Hot Tubes) 2.19 15 Chase Renick (Team Swift) 2.20 16 Alessandro Ferrero (Coast to Coast Development-KAM-) 17 Max Spirin (Tieni Duro) 18 Tejay Van Garderen (Rio Grande) 2.21 19 Alex Welch (Team Power Train) 2.43 20 Kyle Hughes (Canyon Velo) 2.48 21 Taylor Lane (Team Rio Grande) 2.56 22 Mike Margraf (Team Swift) 23 Spencer Beamer (Hot Tubes) 6.43 24 Matthew Williams (Team Rio Grande) 7.00 25 Nicholas Weighall (Team Swift) 8.17 26 Anton Nicola (Team Swift) 8.54 27 Tucker Olander (Team Rio Grande) 9.34 28 Chardin Detrich (Team Snow Valley) 10.33 29 Brady Kappius (Team TIAA-CREF/5280 Magazine) 10.35 30 Gabriel Mendez (TopPro) 31 Luis Zamudio (Excel Sports) 13.14 32 Tom Hanley (BikeSource) 16.57 33 Aron Woolsey (Team Swift) 17.02 34 Benjamin Lanz (Northwest Cycling) 17.50 35 Davis Glasscock (Team Rio Grande) 23.41 DNF Chris Trembly (Major Motion)
