May 20/97 22:53 pm - Giro, Tour de l'Aude, Letters

Posted by Editor on 05/20/97
 

Giro d'Italia, Italy
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Stage 4, San Marino-Arezzo, 156 km:
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1. Mario Cipollini (Ita) Saeco 3.57.58 (39,333 km/h)
2. Endrio Leoni (Ita) Aki
3. Angel Edo (Spa) Kelme
4. Glenn Magnusson (Swe) Amore e Vita
5. Fabio Baldato (Ita) MG
6. Mirko Rossato (Italy) Scrigno
7. Gabriele Missaglia (Italy) Mapei
8. Mario Traversoni (Italy) Mercatone Uno
9. Marcel Wust (Germany) Festina
10. Mariano Piccoli (Italy) Brescialat all s.t.
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GC
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1. Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei 12:18:03
2. Evgeni Berzin (Rus) Batik at 0:01
3. Roberto Petito (Ita) Saeco 0:12
4. Luc Leblanc (Fra) Polti 0:37
5. Piotre Ugrumov (Rus) Roslotto 0:53
6. Ivan Gotti (Ita) Saeco 0:55
7. Andrea Noe (Ita) Asics 1:13
8. Enrico Zaina (Ita) Asics 1:16
9. Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) Polti s.t.
10. Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spa) Kelme 1:22
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Tour de l’Aude, France
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Stage 9, Criterium Limoux, 110 km
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1. Muller (Ger) 2:41:02
2. Hohfeld (Ger)
3. Marsal (Fra)
4. Schmidt (Ger)
5. Samokvalova (Rus)
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Stage 10, Limoux - Limoux, 128.9 km
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1. Viola Paulitz (Ger) 3:43:26
2. Valvik (Nor)
3. Kurreck (USA)
4. Marsal (Fra)
5. Schmidt (Ger)
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Final GC
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1. Linda Jackson (Can) 29:35:44
2. Boebnenkova (Rus) at 1:38
3. Van de Vijver (Bel) 2:16
4. Polikevicioete (Lit) 6:11
5. Samokvalova 6:47
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Letter from Georgia
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Just returned from an exciting weekend in Athens Georgia. The place is a cyclist's dream. Awesome scenery, 85 F, sunny perfect road surfaces and very friendly people.
I was lucky enough to acompany Eric (Wohlberg) to Athens, for two days of racing with Shaklee. They were participating in two criteriums which were part of the 18th annual Fresca Twighlight Criterium. This event is one of many during this festival weekend. I took part in the Twighlight Gambler. This is a 50Km or 100Km Tour. You get a playing card at the start, pick up three others during the ride and get the last one when you finish. There were about 300 to 400 participants of all ages. The 100 Kms took us through beautiful country roads, a covered bridge built in the 1800's and a few good climbs on the home stretch.
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On Saturday the Twighlight Criterium is the premier event of the weekend. Some of the hottest professional cycling teams from around the nation come to compete for $10,000. The streets of downtown Athens are blocked off for a crowd of about 25,000 spectators. The women raced at 7:30 pm and the men followed around 9:30pm. Among the men's team were the Navigators, Shaklee and several other pro teams. It was a 1 km course with 60 laps and around 150 riders. There was an early break of 7 riders. This break lasted till the end. Eric was off on his own chasing for 14 laps and picked up many primes. He also got the fastest lap which was worth $500. The break lapped the field and we saw the Navigators pick up first place. Shaklee got a 6th place. On Sunday the criterium was held in Conyers, Georgia. This was the site for the MTB race for the Olympics. There is a 1 mile crit track which the race was held on. The same teams came out and gave us another great show. This time Eric broke away with Chad Gurlich from Navigators and they lapped the field. 2 Shaklee riders joined a chase which consisted of Graham Miller, J-Me Carney and Scott Peirce. With about half a km Eric broke away again and finished solo.
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Letter from Italy
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Buongiorno touti!
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So after a really good week of intense training, I was ready to bite my teeth into a big race Sunday. What I didn't expect was to do one of the biggest races of the weekend in Italy (for Juniors).
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The race took place in a town called "Otricoli", which was about 30km from Rome. From where I have been so far, the country side here was the most magnificent I've seen yet. A lot of valleys, vineyards, mountains, old buildings etc...
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The race itself was 113km, which was taken place on the most confusing circuit that I have ever done. Lucky for me no one that I asked before hand knew how the race went either... Here is a little description...
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First off, the course is all climbing/descending, there was NO flat parts to this course. This obviously made the course quite hard, with only 29 of 130 finishing. There was one main circuit in town (about 8km long) and other longer laps. Sooo... here is the course (hold on!):
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- 1 Main lap
- 1 bigger lap South
- 3 Main laps
- 1 very small circuit
- 1 big lap north
- 2 Main Laps
- 1 confusing lap South then North/East
- Up to a uphill finish into town!
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Now if that doesn't sound confusing, try racing without know this first! The climbs started at about 25-50m and climbed to a max 400m, but there was (at least) 30 climbs that we did.
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The major factor of the race this weekend was the fact that it was over 30C! I'm still not used to this, and was really hurting from it. I was in so much agony at one point that I poured Endura on my head (nice and sticky)!
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Well enough about that, here's how the race developed. First 60km, nothing big happened I went for what I thought where some hill sprints (but actually ended up being the wrong lap). After that, a big mother of an attack was put in place (in which I was a part of) which separated the group to about half a dozen.
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It regrouped a bit on the major descent (after doing 3 laps of the main circuit), but then broke off again on the next big climb (about 15km long). At this time I was in the front group, but then latched off from the heat (I felt like I was going to toss my cookies). I ended up being in the main second group, which consisted of about 8-10 riders.
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None of the riders wanted to chase or even set a high tempo. One of the riders told me to Not to do anything or I'll have problems (in Italian of course)... Sooooo... I ended up trying some attacks, in which none worked. So I just stayed in the pack and cruised till about the 95km mark.
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After hitting the last big climb of the day before the finish. I went to the front an set tempo, nothing huge but enough to split up our group. I ended up getting away with another rider (a good friend from another race), and we set a fast tempo till the finish. Before the finish we ended up caching another rider which was dropped from the break.
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Comes the sprint, and I took the uphill grind quite easily to take a satisfying 19th place. There wasn't much I could have done in this race after I dropped off the break, because I was just dead from the heat. I had to recover by pouring a whole bottle of water on my head to cool off.
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I still need a couple of weeks in this heat to get used to it. Other than that, I felt really good today and was participating in all the big efforts during the race (top 3 riders), and had no problems strength wise in my legs or system. If it was maybe 25C or so, I'm sure I would have finished in the break and maybe would have placed... :)
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So I'm off for another big week of training. Wednesday, Aldo will be taking me to do Hill Sprints (on a 28% hill!), so I'm looking forward to that! :)
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Till next weekend...
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Ciao,
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David Gluzman