May 24/05 1:52 am - Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race

Posted by Editoress on 05/24/05
 

Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race Washington State, May 21-22
Courtesy Team Symmetrics

The Mutual of Enumclaw stage race is a premier event in Washington State with three stages in two days. Saturday morning begins with a short 10km TT followed by a 60 minute, 8 corner technical criterium in the evening. The stage race wraps up on Sunday with a 140km, 6 lap road race with a 3km climb at the end of each lap.

After 5 days of hard training at the Symmetrics Cycling summer training camp, Enumclaw was a perfect training race for the team to prepare for the MT Hood NRC Stage Race and the Grand Prix de Beauce. "We rode really hard during camp doing five or six hours in the saddle each day," comment Eric Wohlberg "The boys are starting to get the idea that to compete at the professional level we need to train hard and long. We needed to wrap up the week with some good racing and Enumclaw was a perfect venue for our younger riders and more experienced riders to come together as a unit. This week was really about team building."

Unfortunately for everyone at Enumclaw the weather is never agreeable and racers were faced with thunderstorms, rain, sun, and heavy winds. It was a mixed bag and for the California based Jacob Erker and Eric Wohlberg it was a touch too cold for their liking. Both grew up in cold climates in Canada but they have come to enjoy the benefits of California weather over the past few years. In the end, however, both still proved to be hard men and rode a strong race.

The Saturday morning TT remained dry with a touch of wind on the final stretch to the finish. Even with the light wind, Canadian National TT champion Svein Tuft was able to break the course record by two seconds. Tuft rolled in with a time of 12:44 (47 km / hr) beating Kenny Williams' record of 12:46 set in 2004. Wohlberg had a bit of bad luck after getting caught behind a horse truck/trailer rig during the opening stretch which slowed him up over the first kilometer of the race but was still able to take 3rd behind Kevin Rowe. Andrew Pinfold had one of his better TT's taking 4th only 6 seconds slower than Wohlberg showing that his form is coming around just in time for the June racing.

On the women's side Mandy Poitras and Marni Hambleton took 4th and 7th in the TT behind Canada's Leah Goldstein who took a commanding 1st.

The criterium was an all Symmetrics affair with the men's team setting a strong tempo for the entire 60 minute race. The course was wet and slick and the team set themselves at the front and kept it that way until the finish with Andrew Pinfold taking the win, Eric Wohlberg 2nd and Cory Lange 3rd. "The course was too technical and wet to send a group away. We decided to just stay on the front, keep the tempo hard enough that others couldn't move up into our train," commented Pinfold after his race win. Pinfold picked up 17 seconds in time bonuses during the crit moving him into 2nd in GC and Wohlberg picked up 10 seconds in bonuses moving him into 3rd in the GC ahead of Kevin Rowe.

The Symmetrics women did the same with Maria Lee and Marni Hambleton setting a strong tempo for GC contender, Mandy Poitras, who took the final sprint followed by Leah Goldstein (Trek-Red Truck) and Marni Hambleton. The Symmetrics women rode a tactically perfect race taking the opportunity to grab a stage win away from Leah Goldstein and Sue Weldon. Weldon crashed with only a few laps remaining in the crit and lost some valuable time to Goldstein.

Sunday's road race was another tempo day for the Symmetrics squad holding the front of the peloton the entire race. With the strong cross winds on the flats staying at the front was the name of the game on this day. There were a few small breaks that were able to get away but none were able stick as the winds were just too much. "We never actually chased anything down, " said Scott Goguen, "It was really a matter of the breaks just not having enough steam to stay up the road. They would just slow down and eventually come back to the peloton." Jacob Erker set hard tempo up the final few climbs holding off any late attacks bringing Pinfold and Tuft in for 1st and 2nd with Tuft holding on for the GC win. Pinfold and Wohlberg took 2nd and 3rd in the GC only to find out that Wohlberg was penalized 10 seconds for crossing the yellow line which moved him to 4th behind Kevin Rowe who grabbed 3rd.

The women's team didn't fair as well in the road race as they did in the criterium. Leah Goldstein (Trek- Red Truck), Sue Weldon (Subway), Mindy Zifferin-Hall(Group Health), Carrie Eller (Tamarac) were able to sneak away from the bunch preventing Poitras from moving up in the GC. Poitras took the bunch sprint after 4 laps of racing holding her 4th in the GC. Marni Hambleton slipped one spot to 6th in the GC with Maria Lee taking 9th.

Check out the photos from Enumclaw:

Time Trial Photos

Criterium Photos