July 9 - Lafayette Criterium
Race info

Reports: Josh Kadis,  Eric Peterson 35+ 4/5, next race

Results

Photos:Mike Nachtwey, Shawn Clover, Chris Patterson, Matt Davis

35+ 4/5 report by Eric Peterson

After my victory at the Dash for Cash criterium in June, I was 10 points away from an upgrade to CAT 3 racing. I had 5-6 races left in the season and with the exception of one thought I could do well enough to get those points. I have enough top 10 finishes to upgrade, but set a goal to do it by points.

This was a very cool course. A 150 degree turn into a mild uphill and two fast 90 degree turns. It was HOT even though we had about an early 10 AM start. I chose to race only in the Masters 4/5 race as the Cat 4 was too early for me to get organized.

I had a good warmup but from the opening whistle I felt like dung. I even had a hard time holding on at several points, but I kept at it because Ro and Jack were in attendance and I have beaten the funk to finish well before. I didn't have my computer on the bike and at one point I asked my buddy Steven who had drifted to the back if we were setting a fast pace. He said we weren't so that made me feel even worse. A several man break took off pretty early and it turned into just one guy who held at about 15 seconds for quite a while. With 3 laps to go I figured I had to at least make a showing so I headed to the front to see if a hard push would motivate my legs. It didn't, I was rewarded with plenty of pain. I also didn't want to help catch the breakaway guy if I wasn't going to benefit from it, so I shut down and by the finish had drifted towards the back finishing 29th out of 51 riders. Kind of disappointing to feel that cr$%py and not have a chance at any upgrade points. But I still felt confident about the upcoming races.

HARPER, MCCAULEY SURVIVE THE HEAT IN LAFAYETTE -

Lafayette, Calif. (July 10, 2006) - With temperatures climbing well into the 90's at yesterday’s Lafayette Criterium, race winners Beverley Harper (Touchstone Climbing) and Gordon McCauley (Successfulliving.com) took advantage of their time trialing abilities to keep the pack at bay in the Women 1/2/3 and Men Pro/1/2 races.

McCauley, who earned a bronze medal for New Zealand in the race against the clock at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, was one of two world-class time trialists in the winning breakaway in the men's race, where he outsprinted 8-time Canadian national time trial champion Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics) as the pair lapped the main field on the finishing straight.

But while the laps ticked down and the two leaders played cat-and-mouse, Roman Kilun (Health Net presented by Maxxis) made a strong solo chase out of the field to finish third after catching and riding away from Rich del Valle (Club One/Jamba Juice) and Kevin Metcalfe (Pacific Coast Cycling), both of whom had been in the lead group with McCauley and Wohlberg for most of the race.

"I knew Roman was closing and I didn't know how good a sprinter he was, so I wanted to keep him from catching us" McCauley recalled, "but we didn't want to get mixed up in a bunch sprint, so we just tried to stay between Roman and the back of the field."

McCauley's chances improved as Wohlberg's rear tire slowly lost pressure during the last two laps, and the New Zealander was able to take the last corner more aggressively and come off the field's draft on the homestretch.

In the women's race, Harper cruised to a solo win after breaking away with teammate India Sanjuan, who slipped back to the field after a mechanical.

Harper, who placed 7th in the national time trial championships at the USA Cycling National Festival in Pennsylvania on Thursday, said that the result "boosted my confidence, so I took a gamble and attacked pretty early with India."

Winning the field sprint behind Harper was Mary Ellen Ash (Bay Area Velo Girls), who said that "no one really wanted to pull Beverley back, so I just tried to get in position for the field sprint. Someone clipped a pedal on the ground in the last corner and everyone froze, so I took off."

McCauley on the podium Photo by Josh Kadis

Before placing 5th in the Pro/1/2 race, Metcalfe earned the same result in earlier in the day in the Masters 35+ 1/2/3 race, won by Larry Nolan (Discovery Channel Masters).

Other race winners in Lafayette were Wendy Hermes (Travis Hawks) in the Women 4 race, Mickey Caldwell in the Masters 55+, Steve Gregorios (Morgan Stanley/24HR Fitness/Specialized) in the Masters 45+, Chris Carscadden (WTB/Santa Cruz) in the Masters 35+ 4/5, Ken Owen (Pegasus/Vandenberghe Properties) in the Elite 3 race, and Ken Arizpe (Kovarus/Squadra Ovest) in the Elite 4 field.

The 2nd annual Lafayette Criterium was the seventh of nine races in the Northern California/Nevada Cycling Association's 2006 NCNCA Premier Series, which wraps up in September with the Giro di San Francisco and the Carrera de San Rafael.

Dean Laberge(Lombardi) sprints for 7th ahead of Uthman (McGuire) Photo by Josh Kadis

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