May 26/01 2:56 am - Green & Sydor Take Tolmie, Wedge Report

Posted by Editor on 05/26/01
 

Mount Tolmie RR - Victoria, BC

The racers (Pro, Category 1-2 Men and Category 1-3 Women) are on the final finishing loops of 140 km for the men and 110 km for the women. The first report we received had men at 7 to go and the women with 3 laps remaining.

In the men's race, a group of 16 was at the front pushing the pace. At 3 minutes were Roland Green, Geoff Kabush and Svein Tuft, chasing hard and quickly closing the gap. The remainder of the pack was another 2 minutes.

In the women's race, Alison Sydor, Trish Sinclair and 4 other riders were working together in a break, but the pack was just 30 seconds behind them.

Just as we were about to post this report, another message came in that Alison Sydor has won the women's race, 20 feet in front of Gina Grain. In the men's race Green, Kabush and Tuft went right by the breakaway with three laps to go, and then Green dropped the other two to win by 15 seconds. Kabush outsprinted Tuft for second.


Wedge Report

Stage 5; Killorglin-Skibbereen 150km

Well, today was supposed to be the stage to end all stages, the big duffer, the palace of pain, the fury of hell, the - you get the point. Well, it was sheit. An early break went with nobody important, and then a second move went I went with it. It was kinda weird, guys were going for it, then they would sit up, fast, slow, fast, slow. We hovered at a few minutes up,  but it was destined to fail. The sheep on the road seemed unimpressed. We came back to the field, and from there on in, it was a never ending game of attack'n'chase with the lead group at 1 minute. Towards the end, a few riders made it up to the break, and a few came back, but in the end they only affected the stage, not GC as they were basically caught on the line. German Christain Knees took the stage, while we got screwed in the bunch gallop, which was the scariest yet. I finished 24th.  Bluesky (Jason Crookham) dropped to 4th, tied with 3rd, and I remain 12th and there are 30 of us within one minute overall.

Tomorrow is the flat stage where nothing ever happens, which most likely means that the sheep will hit the fan.

Stage 6 Skibbereen-Dungarvan 164km

Well, again not much change in the GC. Today was the first time in my life that I went 56km/hr, uphill, in my eleven cog, on a King of the Mountain sprint. Crazy. There was a small group off at the end, but it only got a few seconds. We blew our lead out at 3km to go, I tried to stay up there, but got head butted off the wheel I was following as it got squirrelly as hell. I will never be a sprinter, but it is fun to hang out there as long as possible. Dominique Perras finished 7th, a few seconds ahead of the charging field. Bluesky moved up to 3rd, still tied for 2nd with a few others, while I got bumped back to 15th, still at 41 seconds back from the leader overall. Things are heating up though, the not-so-Great Brits are getting fines for hand-slinging, while the Germans can't keep their fists to themselves. The German hot head Knees took the jersey, and is gonna have a heck of time defending tomorrow. Oh yeah, first rain day today, but only for the first while. The Irish lads are freaking out that there is no rain.

Peter Wedge