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June 29, 2002

When the cats are away, the mice will play.

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Ed Bennett

Despite being on the same weekend of the Fitchburg-Longsjo stage race, this week's race (60km) had good depth in its field with Think Racing's full squad being the one to beat. Unfortunately, Bennett's Bike's Ed Bennett put a kink into Think Racing's schemes and stole the win.

From the starting gun attacks took off with Team Nutrition's Yann Blindert being the aggressor. However, none of the breakaway combinations looked satisfactory to the peloton and were eventually caught. Much of this was due to Think Racing which was determined to end the race as a field sprint with its heavily favored sprinter Leon Moser to take the win. But plans went awry about 24kms from the finish. At Tavern on the Green, Bennett attacked and was soon pursued by Think Racing's Craig Upton who in turn was followed Rennaisance's Rob Rigg, Metro/Sanchez's Chung Chiang and Gap's Gerry Martinez. With Smilie (Craig Upton) in the break, Think Racing was willing to modify their plan and let the breakaway play out. Behind the field was slow to react. Eventually, this break of five joined together around Cat's Paw Hill, but still did not work well together, for many of the riders were reluctant to fully commit themselves. The only rider to consistently speed along was Bennett with the rest playing cat and mouse behind him. Eventually, the break slimmed down to four, Bennett, Smilie, Chiang and Rigg. Behind a chase group broke off from the field, but eventually were unable to catch the break.

About 1km from the finish, the breakaway began to play cat and mouse again. Unsure of how close the peloton was, Chiang continued to push the pace and opened up a small gap. Noticing that this gap was slowly growing larger, he accelerated and gave it his all. The breakaway hesitated expecting Bennett to lead the chase, but underestimated his jump when he accelerated. Coming up Cat's Paw Hill within the last 200 meters, Bennett, speeding up the hill, caught and passed Chiang to take the win by several bike lengths. Chiang rolled in 2nd with Smilie and Rigg following for 3rd and 4th. Moser took the sprint in the chase group to finish 5th.

RACE NOTES: Chung Chiang (Metro/Sanchez): "I dedicate my placing to those who have had the confidence to keep me on their Century Fantasy Zone fantasy team."

June 22, 2002

Miya Shoji claims its first win at a Team Cup race!

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Robert Lattanzi

In an aggressive race (60km) full of many breakaway attempts Miya Shoji's Robert Lattanzi takes the win after a successful break. From the start of the race riders where attacking hoping to find that magic combination required to stay away. At the fast pace the field was holding it appeared unlikely that a break would succeed. However, with over 20km remaining a counter-attack after Cat's Paw Hill sparked the winning break. A handful of racers slowly separated from the field along the Upper Eastside with a slow dribble of racers bridging across until about 11 or so riders in the break. With adequate representation ahead, the field sat up and let the breakaway motor away.

With only a few kilometers remaining, Blue and Gold's Stuart Gillespie made a valiant attack. The chasing breakaway hesitated for a moment, but eventually caught and passed Stuart, ending up as a small field sprint with Lattanzi taking the win followed by Bennett's Bike's Ed Bennett and Axis' Ralph Hassard for second and third.

RACE NOTES: 5th place Eugene Boronow (SBGC) shared a word with us before the start of the Team Cup race: "Although Team Cup points are important, I haven't decided what to do today -- who to work for. As manager of team Sneaky and rider of SBCG, I'll have to assess my priorities. Is this thing on?"

June 1, 2002

Basil can't believe it

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This isn't Basil

After a month's absence from the park we all returned to line up at 6:00 AM to race our favorite 10k loop six times. The temperature was perfect at 70 degrees unlike the inhospitable weather that greeted us in March and April. With the NYC Empire State Qualifier taking place in the "other" park, the A field was smaller then usual. With no clear heavy hitters present it looked to be a race of tactics and team work. Renaissance and MoneyGram had the numbers and the horsepower. Bennets and Team Nutrition was also represented with more than one rider. The race started out as expected, fast, with Renaissance and MoneyGram launching riders off the front, until a combination of five riders formed that most teams in the field were content to see ride away. With a good amount of horsepower in the break and a good amount of horsepower in the field blocking, the responsibility fell a few riders that wanted to continue racing, and racing they did. The break was kept within striking distance until three more riders rolled off the front on the Harlem hill and bridged to the break with one lap remaining. Although the filed was keeping the break within striking distance at 30 seconds it proved to be more then enough. From the break Renaissance's Basil Mountsoppoulos and MoneyGram's Sal Abbruzzese had built a small lead over their old breakaway allies with Basil out-sprinting Sal for the win.

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