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Kuhn Cup

Lancaster, PA, September 14, 2002

Mild temps, sunny skies, booming reggae. Yeh mon!

Report by Mike Zban

Mild temperatures and sunny skies greeted the riders as they unloaded their bikes in the school parking lot and readied their steeds for this year's edition of the Kuhn Cup.

Without two-time defending champion Bean's/Guy's Bikes back to defend their title, we would see a new champion come out of this ragtag group. As riders pinned their number and pumped up their tires, reggae boomed from truck of Barry Free and his team ( combined age - 300) discussed strategy and tried to milk a couple of minutes handicap from the promoter. Coffee, island music, and haggling over the line...yes, this indeed was the Kuhn Cup in all its beauty.

The 50 or so riders and their caravan of vehicles headed up the river towards the fortified compound of Three Mile Island with a combination of hope and fear with the knowledge that the next half hour was guaranteed to be filled with the sweet pain of riding on the rivet. After a momentary pause for what might have been the most indiscreet discreet pee break ever, things got underway. In the end it was GS Lancaster just edging out Team Harrisburg by two seconds for the lead with Haverstick and Free's team still in reach (handicap, yeah right!). On the other end of the spectrum, the bottom four teams were within striking distance of each other for the bottom rung on the ladder and the burden of having to take home the Palachick Cup (aka, head on a stick). For the points race the venue changed to the rolling 2.5 mile loop and the points race format. For this event, the 6 member teams were split into two three man teams and two races were held concurrently. Sprints were held every lap and the winners of the laps earned bonus seconds that were deducted off the team's TTT time. At the end of the day it was the lowest total time that walk away the winner.

An interesting note is that the times this year were significantly faster than the previous year. This year's slowest TTT team, Quaker City, would have handily won last year's TTT with the same time. While some of that difference might be attributed to the weather, it also shows the increased level of competition that the event generates. Heat #1 - The first heat got aggressive right from the start. After a furry of attack a break went away that would stick for the distance. With 6 of the 7 teams represented and everybody's best sprinter up the road, the remainder of the field was content to ride tempo and let the guys up front duke it out. Keith Wilson picked up the first few sprints, but in each case, Mike Carney was right there the keep Harrisburg in the hunt. Meanwhile, on the other end of things, Darco Lelavic was taking advantage of Aquafina's absence in the break by picking up bonus seconds and moving Quaker City out of the basement. The final outcome was that Quaker City saved themselves from the Palachick Cup, but the Harrisburg/GS battle would be decided in the second heat.

Heat #2 - Harrisburg decided that the best offence was a good offence and went right after GS Lancaster. While the were picking up points in the first couple of sprints, GS was not to be outdone. Like a prizefighter counterpunching, GS was using their riders effectively and gobbling up the points that Harrisburg wasn't getting or, at times, countering the H-burgh move to get maximum points. While H-burgh may have been winning some of the small battles, their aggression was tiring them out and would eventually cost them the war. On lap 6, just after the double points sprint, TT specialist John Spittal attacked. As the rest of the field expected Harrisburg to take up the chase there was a momentary pause and Spittal got 20 second right off the bat. Exhausted, but undaunted H-burgh started their chase but, by then it was too late. Stuck in a sandwich between Spittal up the road and Garret Schneider jumping their chase and picking up the sprints, H-burg put up a big fight but ultimately was overwhelmed. Spittal picked up about 2 minutes in bonus seconds on his own and GS walked away with the Kuhn Cup. In picking up only 6 seconds in bonus time, Aquafina couldn't overtake either Evolution nor Quaker City and retained the Palachick Cup for another year.

Results

                      Time (Avg speed)    TTT place    Bonus pts    Net time    Final placing

1 GS Lancaster           29.35 (27.26)            1          179       26.36                1
2 Harrisburg             29.37 (27.26)            2           72       28.25                2
3 Bikyle/Flyers          30.57 (26.00)            4           92       29.25                3
4 Era Bike and Ski       30.29 (26.45)            3           33       29.56                4
5 Quaker City            31.25 (25.66)            7           65       30.20                5
6 Evolution of Pa        31.12 (25.86)            5            6       31.06                6
7 Aquafina               31.20 (25.75)            6            6       31.14                7

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