March 28/98 23:27 pm - Demet Takes First Ever Women's World Cup

Posted by Editor on 03/28/98
 

Demet Wins Women‚s Road World Cup

We just received reports from Clara Hughes and Kim Langton in Australia about the first ever women‚s road World Cup (actually, they both phoned at the same moment on 2 different lines!). American rider Dede Demet of Clara‚s Saturn squad won. „We rode smart‰, said Clara, and Kim echoed her: „Saturn were awesome, they controlled the race and rode really well.‰

Clara described the circuit as more of a hard criterium circuit, with one climb in the middle of it. The riders did 35 laps, and Clara described the Saturn tactics: „We just sat in for the first 10 laps, there were lots of attacks going on, but the pace was really high. The plan was for Karen (Kurreck, her team mate) and I to take it easy for the first half - we were fresher, since we had just flown in a couple of days before and not ridden the New Zealand tour. After 15 laps we started to make moves. Dede attacked with Liz Tadich (Australia) and Pam Schuster (Saeco-Timex), and the gap went up really fast (1 minute after 4 laps) since both the Australians and Saturn were controlling things in the pack.‰

Longo and Marsal (French riders) were trying to get up, but I think right now the North Americans and Australians are much stronger. A few laps later Karen Kurreck and Adida (from Lithuania) jumped on the hill and got gap, so now the Lithuanians were helping to shut things down. At the front, Pam Schuster attacked with a kilometre to go. Demet tried to counter, but pulled her foot out of her pedal. Clipped back in, Demet managed to catch Schuster with 400 metres to go (Tadich had been dropped by the original attack), and sat on the Saeco rider‚s wheel in the final 100 metres, when she sprinted around her to take the first ever World Cup win for the Saturn squad. Kurreck took 4th, and another Saturn rider, Karen Bliss-Livingston, took the field sprint for 6th. Hughes, Langton, Cybil Diguistini and Annie Gariepy all finished in the pack (of about 35 from the original 87 starters). Sophie St Jacques, still suffering the effects of the crash in the New Zealand tour, which put 4 stitches into her knee, could not stay with the pack.

Kim Langton reports that both Annie and Cybil were in breaks during the early stages of the race, and were really happy to finish in the peleton of such a stellar field. It also came out during our conversation that the 4 riders who have been competing „Down-under‰ have been doing so the entire time with out a manager. mechanic, etc.! Kim admitted that this had made it rather tough, since they have had to look after all their own mechanical work, travel arrangements, feeds, etc. Luckily, she said, the South African manager (among others) has taken the foursome under his wing and has semi adopted them...

We will bring you official results and the men‚s Grundig World Cup tomorrow. (By the way, the Canadians were extremely pleased to hear about Alison Sydor‚s win in California)