September 12/98 9:55 am - Commonwealths (full story), Avenir, Vuelta, New Brunswick and More!

Posted by Editor on 09/12/98
 

Commonwealth Games Report

We apologize for the ITT/Road Race mixup earlier. Our editor (me) was on an overnight flight back from Vegas (covering the Interbike trade show - report tomorrow, with photos), and the editoress was busy getting set up at the Canadian trade show (opens tomorrow - daily reports coming), so it slipped through the cracks. By the way, thanks to the dozens of readers who corrected us! Now, here is Steve Lund's report direct from Malaysia...

Eric Wohlberg wins bronze in RR!

After 1 lap a 4 rider break formed: 2 Kenyans (yes Kenyans), 1 S.African and one Wales rider, maximum lead of 4:50. The Aussies started the train on lap 5 and by the start of lap 8 the pack was back together. The pace of the chase shelled about 20 riders. When the break was caught the Canadians started attacking, Czeslaw was the first to get away and soloed for a lap but never got more than 30 seconds on the Aussie lead bunch. Laps 9 and 10 saw constant attacking (mostly by the Canadians) which split the pack everytime it came back together. The pack was down to about 30 riders on lap 11 when Eric Wohlberg bridged up to a lone Malaysian rider (Rosli Effandy). Aussie Jay Sweet and David George (S Africa) were quick to counter, and the 4 riders quickly gain a minute, with Eric doing most of the work. At this point the Aussies were down to only 3 riders - O'Grady was in the pack and Neil Stephens had pulled out on lap 10.

On the final lap Welsh rider Paul Esposti sucessfully brided to the break after the gap had closed to about 30 seconds. The gap slowly closed on the last lap but without the Canadians or remaining Aussies doing any work the break was never caught.

With 1 km to go Eric launched a potentially winning break at the top of a short rise above the feed zone, but pulled a foot out of the borrowed pedals he was using (more on that in a sec). He quickly regained the back of the break but was unable to outsprint Sweet or the Malaysian who had sat on for the whole break.

The first part of the splintered pack was led in by Brian Walton, who got a gap at the same spot Eric had tried to attack and stayed away to finish 6th. The Canadian team rode almost flawlessly, it was the best demonstration of team work and tactics that any of us have seen in a long long time from a National team. All of the riders were present in the many late race breaks, only Matt Anand was dropped after a hard solo effort just prior to Eric's break going away.

Results

1 Sweet 4:31:56
2 Effandy st
3 Wolhberg st
4 George 4:31:57
5 Esposti 4:31:59
6 Walton 4:32:16
7 Lillywhite 4:32:19
8 McGrory st
9 Lukasewicz st
14 Fraser 4:32:27
23 Beauchamp st

The bikes belonging to Eric, Czes and Lynne, were not put on the plane in Montreal. All rode CCA spare bikes in training, Eric with Manager Sara Neil's pedals and shoes. Despite many calls and assurances from Canada Mission staff the bikes had not arrived by Friday at 3 PM.

Further prying (with the involvement of the Canadian Consulate) discovered that the bikes were to be shipped via Singapore and would arrive on Sat at 5:30 PM. I went to great lengths to stress the importance of having the bikes for the race as 2 men's medal hopefulls did not have thier race bikes. We got the Embassy to contact Air France and with a lot of pressure they finally agreed to send the bikes direct to KL. They would arrive at 6:15 AM Saturday (2:15 prior to the men's start).

I presented the only option in this senario to our mission staff, we needed a bus on the runway to get the bikes as the came off the plane. The road course was 1:15 hour from the Airport and the bikes would have to be assembled on the road (hence the bus). We had to get them right off the plane as the KL airport was brutally slow in getting baggage out when we arrived on Wed (on the same flight). I guess I was assertive enough in stating the importance of doing this because we almost pulled it off. We (Bret and I) were driven to the Airport at 4:45 AM, we met the head of airport operations and were escorted onto the runway in our bus by him and 4 armed Malaysian Customs Officials.

As the 747 pulled up right in front of us we went out onto the runway and opened each baggage container as it came off the plane, we found all but Erics road bike. After a quick customs inspection we were in the bus with a Police escort of 2 Motobike cops, on our way to the RR course, at 125 km/hr, Czes' bike went together. We arrived 10 minutes before the start of the race. If you know Czes, you know how much whinning and complaining he was doing about not having his bike. (With good reason as the spare was about a foot to big for him) He was very happy, Eric was not so happy but he was ready to ride the spare as I don't think he thought we could pull it off. Too bad he hadn't gotten his bike, not pulled out of that pedal, and won the Gold. Wouldn't that of made a great story?

I'll send an update on tomorrows Women's Race ASAP.

Caio

Steve

PS To send e-mail to the team, send it to this address, with the persons whole name as the subject who you wish to reach. Please enter name of recipient on Subject line!!!

Canadian Commonwealth Games Team KL98 : cdnathlete@pd.jaring.my

Check out our web site!!! www.commonwealthgames.ca

More Road race results (the race was 184 km):

1. Jay Sweet (AUS) 4:31:56
2. Nor Effandy Rosli (MAS) 4:31:56
3. Eric Wolhberg (CAN) 4:31:56
4. David George (RSA) 4:31:57
5. Paul Esposti (WAL) 4:31:59
6. Brian Walton (CAN) 4:32:16
7. Chris Lillywhite (ENG) 4:32:19
8. Scott Mc Grory (AUS) 4:32:19
9. Czeslaw Lukasewicz (CAN) 4:32:19
10. Mahadzir Hamad (MAS) 4:32:19
11. Robert Holden (IOM) 4:32:19
12. Connor Henry (NIR) 4:32:19
13. Chris Walker (ENG) 4:32:27
14. Gord Fraser (CAN) 4:32:27
15. Stuart O'Grady (AUS) 4:32:27
16. Neil Teggart (NIR) 4:32:27
17. Brendon Vesty (NZL) 4:32:27
18. Jacques Fullard (RSA) 4:32:27
19. Elliot Hubbard (BER) 4:32:27
20. Chris Newton (ENG) 4:32:27
21. Julian Winn (WAL) 4:32:27
22. John Tanner (ENG) 4:32:27
23. Sylvain Beauchamp (CAN) 4:32:27
24. Dennis Easton (NIR) 4:33:46
25. Scott Guyton (NZL) 4:33:46


Tour de l'Avenir, France

Stage 9 - La Terrasse to Courchevel, 149 km

1. Christophe Rinero (Fra) Cofidis 4:55:18
2. Txema Del Olmo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 5:06
3. Thierry Loder (Fra) France 6:22
4. Glenn D'Hollander (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002 7:48
5. Bram De Groot (Ned) Netherlands 8:53
6. Peter Wuyts (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002 9:56
7. Thomas Muhlbacher (Aut) Austria 9:58
8. Sven Montgomery (Swi) Post Swiss Team 11:46
9. Marcel Gono (Aus) Credit Agricole 15:10
10. Michele Ferti (Ita) Amore e Vita 15:11

22. Steve Rover (Can) Mercury Cycling Team 37.51

Final GC

1. Christophe Rinero (Fra) Cofidis 38:47:42
2. Txema Del Olmo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 5:59
3. Thierry Loder (Fra) France 8:29
4. Thomas Muhlbacher (Aut) Austria 14:20
5. Joseba Beloki (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 16:38
6. Peter Wuyts (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002 16:57
7. Bram De Groot (Ned) Netherlands 24:01
8. Mathias Buxhofer (Aut) Austria 31:40
9. Tom Stremersch (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002 32:48
10. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 35:47

39. Steve Rover (Can) Mercury Cycling Team 2:06:30


Vuelta Espana

Stage 8 - Palma de Mallorca to Palma de Mallorca, 182 km

1. Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Polti 4:16:21
2. Peter Van Petegem (Bel) TVM-Farm Frites
3. Andrei Tchmil (Bel) Lotto-Mobistar
4. Nico Mattan (Bel) Mapei-Bricobi
5. Marcus Zberg (Sui) Post Swiss Team
6. Martin Hvastija (Slo) Cantina Tollo
7. Pascal Chanteur (Fra) Casino
8. Marco Serpellini (Ita) Brescialat-Liquigas
9. Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE-Deutsche Bank
10. Angel Castresana (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi all s.t.

GC

1. José Maria Jiminez Sastre (Spa) Banesto 36:44:44
2. Roberto Heras Hernandez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca at 0:31
3. Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 0:33
4. Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal 0:56
5. Abraham Olano Manzano (Spa) Banesto 0:58
6. Daniel Clavero Sebastian (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros s.t.
7. Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spa) Banesto 0:59
8. Dario Frigo (Ita) Saeco
9. Fernando Escartin (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca
10. Oskar Camenzind (Sui) Mapei-Bricobi all s.t.


World Cycling Handicap Championships, Colorado Springs
(courtesy Alex Cloutier, thanks to Claire Bonin for the translation!)

The Canadian National Team is composed of 4 tamdem teams and one cerebral palsy rider. The blind (visual impaired) riders are: Stéphane Coté from Beauport; Yvon Provencher from Montréal; Brian Cowie of Vancouver and Julie Cournoyer of Sherbrooke. The drivers are: Jean-Sébastien Bernier from Québec; Fabien Bergeron from Montréal; Min Van Velzen from Vancouver and myself Alexandre Cloutier from Québec. Gary Longhi is the only Cerebral Palsy team member. The coaches and managers are Vincent Jourdain and Allan Prosky.

The competition will run from September 13 to 20th. There are road and track events. You will be able to follow the event on http://www.usaba.org/ Good luck to all of us, and I will send you the results upon my return.


New Brunswick Cup Series
(thanks to Dave Macfarlane)

Top three standings in the NB Tel Mobility MTB Cup expert categories, after eight races, with one race remaining - this Sunday in Moncton. Full results can be found on the VeloNB Web page at: http://intellis.net/velonb/

Womens Senior Expert
1. Vanessa Williams
2. Willie Broeren
3. Karen Murray

Mens Senior Expert
1. Dana Hamm
2. Jeremy Harding
3. Geoff Pendrell

Mens Junior Expert
1. Greg Grant
2. Corey Jay
3. Peter Cheney

Mens Cadet Expert
1. Luc Leger
2. Matthew Hadley
3. Marcel Vautour

Mens Veteren Expert
1. Bill Goobie
2. Peter McKinley
3. Ronald LeBlanc