March 12/06 7:50 am - Escape Velocity/dEVo Spring Race #3 (brief), Volta Ciclistica do Porto Alegre Report

Posted by Editoress on 03/12/06
 

Escape Velocity/dEVo Spring Race #2 & 3
Courtesy Gordon Ross

Race #3: Armstrong! - March 12th

No upgrade points, just suffering. That's the name of the game when the Spring Series comes to the Armstrong circuit in Fort Langley.

Excellent weather and dry roads greeted the riders Sunday morning, but Armstrong is all about the hill.

In the C race, Jonathan Page prevailed over Jeremy Stothers, with Frank Schimunek rounding out the podium.

The B group survived with a large pack through the last lap, but Escape's own Jason Thompson made it look easy, riding away from the group on the final climb, and finishing well ahead of the rest of the group. John Markez and Matt Savage took second and third in the uphill sprint to the finish, and Ron Klopfer (Coastal) and Eric Smith (Bow Cycles) rounded out the top five.

A small bunch stayed away for much of the race in A's, but a pursuing peloton reabsorbed most of the riders on the last lap. Cory Lange of Symmetrics and Damian Waugh of Masi-Adobe remained clear to the end, though, followed by Waugh's teammates, Scott Slater and Sean Dawson. Coastal's Larry Zimich finished fifth.

A Group 117 km

1. Cory Lange (Symmetrics Cycling)
2. Damian Waugh (Masi-Adobe)
3. Scott Slater (Masi-Adobe)
4. Sean Dawson (Masi-Adobe)
5. Larry Zimich (Coastal)

B Group 83 km

1. Jason Thompson (Escape Velocity)
2. John Markez
3. Matt Savage
4. Ron Klopfer (Coastal)
5. Eric Smith (Bow Cycles)

C Group 53 km

1. Jonathan Page
2. Jeremy Stothers
3. Frank Schimunek
4. Pink # held on by 1 pin
5. Tyrone McGuire

Race #2: Aldergrove Zero Avenue Road Race - March 11th

Today's races happened under clear skies but with persistent wind on the course. The deceptively selective course drove the riders to their limits.

The A group saw a group of three escape from the bunch, and they stayed away until the end, when Rocky's Kevin Calhoun got away from the break to take the win. John Tolkamp of Escape and Jeff Sherstobitoff of Symmetrics cruised to second and third, respectively, and Murray Solem of Blak Dog won the bunch sprint over Nick Rowe, Espoir Laval.

The B pack was a spirited gang, and although the wind and a fast pack minimized the number of breaks, Jeff Ain (Escape Velocity) got away with a lap and a half to go, and never looked back. The heavily contested sprint was taken by Eric Smith of Bow Cycles, with Coastal teammates Anselmo Rossiello and Ron Klopfer picking up third and fourth.

The same wind that kept the B group together shattered the C's, and a lead group of less than ten sprinted for the win. Frank Schimunek won it, with Paul Falcon of Coastal in second. Dave Richardson, Peter Curtain, and Brook Glanville rounded out the top five.

A Group
1. Kevin Calhoun (Rocky Mountain Bicycles)
2. John Tolkamp (Escape Velocity)
3. Jeff Sherstobitoff (Symmetrics)
4. Murray Solem (Blak Dog Cycles)
5. Nick Rowe (Espoir Laval)

B Group
1. Jeff Ain (Escape Velocity/Devo)
2. Eric Smith (Bow Cycles)
3. Anselmo Rossiello (Team Coastal)
4. Ron Klopfer (Team Coastal)
5. #4571

C Group
1. Frank Schimunek
2. Paul Falcon (Team Coastal)
3. Dave Richardson
4. Peter Curtain
5. Brook Glanville


Volta Ciclistica do Porto Alegre Brazil
Courtesy Brett Boniface

Apologies for the lack of updates, internet access was hard to come by during stages 3 and 4 in the mountains.

Stage 3

With 210.9km to cover several teams with riders further down the GC attempted to send riders away early on however the most significant early moves came 20km into the stage when Brett and Alex Arseno (Green Jersey leader from Data Ro Blumineau) broke the pack into three pieces up a short steep hill for about 2km. After some early ''situational'' mechanical troubles Ryan Anderson was good to go for the rest of the race. After the morning chatter was brought back the Scott Pro Cycling sent two riders to the front allowing only Sidnei Santos (ACC) to breakaway for 75km, but he too was eventually scooped up when the pace surged heading into the 20km climb up to Gramando. Ryan Anderson and Fraser Hayes did a phenomenal job hanging onto the lead group until 6.5km to go when the U23 GC leader Nicleu Santos (Scott Pro Cycling) made one last surge to go on for the stage win and help solidify his grasp on the U23 Jersey.

Stage 4

It was assumed that the climb into Gramando would have sorted out the overall GC somewhat however heading into the 198.5km Mountain stage (total climbing = 7000ft) the top 10 overall riders were separated by less than 2 minutes. Catching Memorial Pro Cycling by surprise Avai went to the front from the gun and drilled the pace for the first 110km. What many didn~t expect was that Canadian Team rider Daniel Goncalves would also be pitching in by taking some long hard pulls for his State Team and friend Miguel. Picking up time bonuses on the course, Miguel Direnna (AVAI) became the leader on the road. After the half way point Memorial and Scott picked up the pace shattering the field on 4km climb 22km from the finish. At the end of the day Memorial kept the Yellow Jersey by a hare, while Scott emphasized the strength of their team taking the Overall Team GC, Points and U23 jerseys.

Again, Ryan and Fraser had huge rides finishing in the first chase group while Daniel finished with Brett who was suffering from way too much fun in the sun. (aka the lobster was baked).

Stage 5

After some kind attention from the medical staff, IRC Cameron Law was aloe'd up and ready to go, especially considering that the temperature plummeted overnight into the mid 30's.

According the race profile the stage was supposed to be rolling downhill for the first 20kms and then 20kms straight down, however as was previously experienced this tour, profiles can be somewhat deceiving with the first 20km full of one kilometer poppers before the ripping decent where speeds hit 95+ km/h.

With 20s separating the top 5 GC riders the final stage was expected to be extremely fast, however nobody expected that the average speed would be 49.8km/h (from the neutral) given the sharp cross wind that was experienced for the majority of the stage. IRC Cameron Law decided to just giver jumping on pretty much anything that moved. Ryan Anderson did a good job pulling back a group of 9 riders (four of them from Scott Pro Cycling) 65km from finish.

As the pack hit the freeway with 10km the pace was insane with the distance being covered in less than 10 minutes. Speeds in the lead out hit 70km/h and IRC Cameron Law did a job finding themselves with 3km to go however it was too little too late though they did the team did manage Fraser and Ryan 23rd and 24th respectively.

Final GC

1. Armando Camargo (Bra) Memorial/Santos/Fupes/Giant, 18:33:55
2. Miguel Direnna (Uru) Avai/Florianopolis, at 0:06
3. Magno Nazaret (Bra) Scott/Marcondes Cesar/Fadenp/SJC, 0:18
4. Douglas Moi Bueno (Bra) Extra/Suzano, 0:25
5. Renato Ruiz (Bra) Extra/Suzano, 0:30

39. Ryan Anderson (Can) IRC/Cameron Law, 10:48
42. Fraser Hayes (Can) IRC/Cameron Law, 12:03
80. Brett Boniface (Can) IRC/Cameron Law, 1:06:11
84. Daniel Goncalves (Bra) IRC/Cameron Law, 1:13:40