Herriot and Gewirtz Ride Well at Tucson Bike Classic, March 14-16

Fiordifrutta/Wheelworks had its first race together as a team in Tucson, AZ with six members converging from different parts of the country. Curt Davis, Don Mills, and Mike Dietrich flew in from cold and snowy New England, Josh Gewirtz traveled from school in Colorado, Todd Herriott arrived hot off the heels of his overall win at the Tour of Cuba, and Josh Anthony hoped to carry over some of his fitness from his recent racing at the Cyclocross World Championships. Many pro teams with warm weather miles in their legs were in attendance and our boys knew that Saturday’s 100-mile road race would be brutal.

Stage 1 was a short 3-mile time trial, which was tough on those who had not yet adapted to the heat of the Arizona sunshine. Herriott jumped into the top 25 with a time that was only 11 seconds behind winner Gord Fraser (Healthnet). Saturday’s second stage saw the riders do five loops of a course that climbed over Gates Pass. Herriott made it into the sixteen rider front group, which escaped without race leader Fraser. But due to a tragic accident in the category 2 men’s race, the Pro/1 race was stopped on the final lap and Herriott’s group was awarded a time gap over the field.

Sunday’s Stage 3 Circuit Race saw Herriott, Anthony, and Gewirtz finish in the front group, with Gewirtz making the best of a hairy sprint finish to finish an amazing 5th place on the stage! Herriott ended up in 7th place on general classification and was the second amateur rider.

Stiler Cote Races in Europe, March 16

Oliver is on his first trip of 2003 with the National team in Europe, and writes in with his race report from the Belgium race Gent-Ieper-Kattekoers which took place on March 16th:

Race Diary - Climbing the first rung

Last week I visited the dentist for a routine cleaning and he informed me that I had some marks on my teeth that looked to be caused from clenching. He joked that if I didn’t stop I wouldn’t have any teeth left in a few years. I couldn’t think of what caused the clenching at the moment, but today going up the Kemmelburg I unveiled the mystery. As I rocked back and forth just humping that bike up the steep cobbled grade I felt those teeth grinding hard together like a mortar and pestle. With several races like today’s Gent-Ieper on our weekly calendar, I’m sure come May I’m going to be in the market for a mouth guard.

This is my first race as an Espoir in Europe- I’ve taken a few trips as a junior and I had learned a little about junior racing. As a culmination of it all I was selected to go to junior worlds last year in Zolder, a rewarding opportunity. Ok, all fine and good, now I’m back in Belgium and starting all over again at the bottom rung of the senior latter.

My teammates and I flew in last Thursday March 13th, we pre-rode some of the course for Gent- Ieper on Friday and before I could get nervous in anticipation it was Sunday and we were rolling out in the neutral start in Gent for the 63 running of this race. Gent-Ieper is classified as a UCI 1.6, so supposedly it’s the lowest ranked senior race. Our director, Noel, gave me a little freedom today because I’m a first year Espoir. He said he didn’t have very high expectations of me on the day, that there were a lot experienced guys here, but I wanted to do my best to help the team and earn my teammates respect. Gent-Ieper is a UCI 1.6, so supposedly it’s the lowest ranked senior race.

After a 7k neutral start We rode 70 or 80 kilometers west to Ieper where the race was going to pick up with 2 loops of a hilly course which included the infamous Kemmelburg- a step cobbled climb that is used in the classic Gent-Wevelgem. My teammate Pat, one of the most experienced guys on the team, had warned me to stay up front during these circuits because that was often when splits would occur due to a crash; I guess its hard for 215 riders to go up a one-lane climb without there being a "little" rubber band effect. I soon found this out first hand. The fight to stay up front was tremendous- if you could get to the top 15, within 30 seconds I would find myself squished in 50th- just a constant swarm. I managed to scramble over the Kemmelburg in a large front group of 50 or so riders, among them were my teammates pat, mark, john, and dan. I noticed instantly that the selected group became surprisingly less nervous after that first circuit and just riding steadily was much easier.

A group of ten was just off the front with no USA riders in it so pat, mark, and I started giving everything to chase that group down so we could try and get john up for the sprint. At this point I was on the rivet and after a few turns at the front I was even more on the rivet. I could pull through a few times but not equally with pat and mark. I was just giving everything as progress was slowly being made and the job wasn’t done yet. Eventually we did close the gap but I was really hurting and we still had two finishing laps of 6kilometers. Everything was getting strung out, I was slowly moving farther and farther back. the speed never got below 50kph for these finish laps, and I had virtually no power left to sprint out of each corner. Once inside the last lap and I was just dangling. I think I was seeing god in the last few kilometers, but I finished just at the tail end of the front group. If the race was one more lap I would have been history. In the end all five of the USA boys to make the split finished in the front group and at dinner tonight the tone was upbeat. It was motivating to have so many of us up there in the finale and everyone is looking forward to future races.