Candi Murray
21st Tour of Willamette
USA, April 11-16, 2000
Stage 2 - April 13: Smith River-Vincent Creek Road Race, 89 miles men/62
miles women
Women: Autotrader.com take the initiative
By John Alsedek, cyclingnews.com correspondent
(copied from cycling news.com)
After two days of sunny and temperate conditions, the weather reverted to
the Pacific Northwest stereotype: rain, and lots of it. Not that today's
stage, the Smith River Road Race, needed anything to make it more
challenging. Contested in the Clay Creek Recreation Area, the race course
consisted of narrow logging roads that ranged from slick - and occasionally
debris-strewn-macadam to sections of gravel. Combined with a series of
snaking climbs (and descents), the Smith River Road Race was summed up by
Nutra Fig pro, and former Cyclingnews contributor, Ronnie Schmeer as
"guerilla warfare".
Speaking of Cyclingnews contributors....it was AutoTrader.com's Pam
Schuster who carried the day in the women's race. After several early
attacks by the Saturn ad Timex squads, a nine-rider break formed at the
34-mile mark. It included Julie Hanson (Saturn), Odessa Gunn (Timex),
Elizabeth Emery (Charles Schwab), Erin Carter (Elita), and the
AutoTrader.com duo of Schuster and Andrea Ratkovic.
With most of the top women's squads represented, the closest overall
challenger to race leader Lyne Bessette was her own Saturn teammate, Julie
Hanson (10th, 0:48 back). The move quickly gained 40 seconds going into the
Queen of the Mountains sprint, won by Ratkovic from Schuster. At that
point, Schuster decided to try her luck in a solo effort over the last nine
miles. With teammate Ratkovic ready to counterattack, the rest of the break
resigned itself to the race for second, as Schuster rolled in with a
34-second advantage. Ratkovic topped the day off for AutoTrader.com by
outsprinting Elita's Carter for second, while Bessette finished with the
main group, 46 seconds in arrears. Overall, Bessette narrowly retained her
lead, with Schuster leapfrogging Katrina Berger to move into second, just
two seconds back.
Anna Wilson's report
Today we raced the second stage of the Tour of Willamette. Going into the
stage we had Lyne Bessette in the lead, 19 seconds in front of surprise
performer, Katrina Berger. She finished second yesterday - I was so
delirious by the end of the climb that I didn't even notice her going past
me and then past Mari!!
Anyway, Katrina was in second with Mari Holden (Timex) in third, myself 4th
and Tracey Gaudry (Timex) 5th. It was a wet start today with most riders in
rain jackets. We raced 80 kms today, over very narrow, logging roads.
Beautiful countryside - if it wasn't for the weather!!
There was a sprint at the 40 km mark, worth 8, 5 and 3 seconds to win and
place respectively. Our plan was for me to win that sprint, with Petra
taking second to prevent Mari or Tracey getting the extra seconds. However,
the plan went a little wrong when the sprint line was a couple of kms later
than it was supposed to be and there were no warning signs of its approach.
Dede was the first to notice the organiser's ute with three people standing
up in the back of it and realised that that was the sprint line. She
started sprinting, and the rest of us realised that that was the sprint
line with about 100 metres to go. I did not have a quick enough
acceleration to get going in that space of time, but luckily Petra did and
she just nipped Mari at the line, with Lyne taking third place. So Mari
gained a couple of seconds on Lyne - and moved to second place overall, 18
seconds from the lead.
From that point we were fairly aggressive, hoping to force Timex to chase
again. With about 20 kms to go, Julie Hanson (Saturn) slipped into a
breakaway with about 8 riders. Julie was the best placed overall in the
break and so we were happy to let the group go. However, we hadn't counted
on the fact that Julie had two Autotrader riders with her - Andrea
Radkovich and Pam Schuster. They attacked and counter attacked all the way
to the finish and eventually were successful in getting Pam away solo for
the win. Pam finished about 15 seconds in front of the sprint for second
place and that ride put her into the leader's jersey. The chasing bunch
that I was in, along with all the other main players, finished about
another 20 seconds back.
So I think now Pam will be the leader with Julie Hanson in second place.
Lyne and myself should be pretty close to the lead still since Pam didn't
have a great day yesterday. Tomorrow looks really hard and will probably be
make or break day for the tour lead. Three days to go!!
Results
1. Pam Schuster (USA) AutoTrader.com 2.43.50
2. Andrea Ratkovic (USA) AutoTrader.com 0.34
3. Erin Carter (Can) Elita
4. Julie Hanson (USA) Saturn
5. Elizabeth Emery (USA) Charles Schwab
6. Odessa Gunn (Can) Timex
7. Karen Timewell (USA) Escape Velocity 0.46
8. Mari Holden (USA) Timex
9. Lyne Bessette (Can) Saturn
10. Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn
General classification after stage 2.
1. Lyne Bessette (Can) Saturn
Men: Mercury and Saturn in opposition
Meanwhile, in the 89-mile men's event, the Saturn men picked up where the
ladies had left off in Stage 1. After a multi-rider pileup at a gravel
section just two miles in split the pack into two sections, there was a
general regrouping that lasted until the first King of the Mountains
sprint, taken by Jelly Belly's Adam Livingston. At that point, a group of
25, including five Mercury riders and most of the top G.C. riders, kept
things rolling on the descent, and seemed to be well clear of any chasers.
Therefore, it came as a surprise when they were joined by 15 racers at the
50-mile mark, and then by another 15 just five miles later.
With nearly a dozen pro or amateur riders in the front group, Mercury
looked to be in the driver's seat. A fact driven home when they could
afford to have Gord Fraser, a recent stage winner in the Criterium
International, cover Shaklee's Graeme Miller when he made a gutsy move off
the front. However, despite gaining as much as 1:40, the duo were back in
the fold by the second K.O.M. sprint, where mountains leader Doug Ziewacz
(7 UP/Colorado Cyclist) added to his lead.
From that point until the finish, Mercury kept the pressure on at the
front, perhaps in hopes of having race leader Scott Moninger jump clear on
the uphill finish. But things didn't quite work out that way: the group
stayed together up the twisting but gradual climb, leaving it to a group
sprint, where Saturn's Mark McCormack and Tony Cruz beat the odds and took
advantage of Mercury's hard work to take first and third, respectively.
It was a pleasant bonus for Saturn team director Andy Lee, who had
previously admitted "We don't really have our best climbers, so this is
pretty much a training race for us." Overall, Moninger, who placed second
in the stage, increased his lead over 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist's David
Zabriskie to 0:10.
Results
1. Mark McCormack (USA) Saturn 3.44.22
2. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury
3. Antonio Cruz (USA) Saturn
4. Damon Kluck (USA) Spokesman
5. Adam Livingston (USA) Jelly Belly
6. David Zabriskie (USA) 7 UP/Colorado Cyclist
7. John Lieswyn (USA) Shaklee
8. Will Frischknicht (USA) JW Sports
9. Jason McCartney (USA) Nutra Fig
10. Justin Spinelli (USA) JW Sports
General classification after stage 2.
1. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury