Tour of Elk Grove wrap-up

Final thoughts on the Tour of Elk Grove:

• » It was strange to see the rider in a CSC jersey and realize he wasn't just a Fred. It turned out not to be Christian Vandevelde, however, and I'm not sure why. Instead it was one Kasper Klostergaard, a developmental rider from Denmark.

• » Someone get Mayor Craig Johnson to run for governor. I don't even know his party affiliation. I just know the man has his priorities in order.

• » Water was uncomfortably scarce in the heat, but the chicken sausage supply was more than adequate, thanks to the Goose Island booth. I enjoyed three over the weekend, and the apple gouda was especially good.

• » Someone please buy a few years' worth of advertising so I can afford proper camera gear. Standing near the pro shooters with their lenses always makes me feel like a 3-year-old on his first trip to a public locker room. "Daddy, theirs are so big!"

• » "I am not sure why," Scott Scott Van Maldegiam (Spin Doctor Cyclewerks) writes me, "but everyone seemed extra friendly yesterday. It might have been due to the long break we had and/or the fact that everyone wanted to know what happened to the guy who crashed." Aside from the usual frantic shrieks of "Hold your line!" in the turn, I sensed this, too.

• » I already posted about them once, but Chris Horner's remarks on Lance Armstrong and Discovery are noteworthy enough to repeat: "Either he's an idiot, which I don't think he is, or he's afraid to fail, which is the most obvious to me. Or, he's tired of cycling and wants to take the easiest way out, which I don't believe is the case because he's a businessman and wants to make money." Cheers to Amie Shak of the Herald for extracting this interesting quote.

• » I presume appearance fees were employed to attract Horner and teammate Fred Rodriguez. It would have been easy for them to soft-pedal their way through the weekend or even to quit early, rather than risk their careers in dodgy domestic crits. On the contrary, both of them were in it to win it and electrified both races. Hooray for Predictor-Lotto! I know where I will turn next time I need an in-home pregancy test.

• » Expect racing at Matteson and the tracks this week to be especially hot as some pros and other elites pop in for midweek workouts.

• » Special thanks to Fred Newton of Special Events Management for hooking me up with media credentials for the day. SEM doesn't do cycling full-time but has been accommodating for this guy who does.

Saturday race reports:
Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing; P): "Frankie Andreu wanted me to be a work horse. He wanted me to covers moves and ride like a mad man, which I did."

Carrie Cash (X Plane Team Revolution; W-3/4): "I catch a glimpse of turqoise/red and also a rider in red. Could it be? Yes it was!"

Ron Cook (ABD; 30+ 1/2/3): "The only difference between me and my family was that I paid $28 to watch this race."

Tim Keeley (ABD; 3/4): "OUCH!"

Bryan McVey (Vision Quest; 3/4): "I guess I don’t feel as bad for being an idiot since there were a good 20 people around me that didn’t have a clue the race was over as well. "

Brian Morrissey (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 5): "Not really sure what happened after this point except that it got pretty fast."

Christine Roettger (X Plane Team Revolution; W-3/4): "I was looking for the 200 m sign and was surprised to see the 150. An alarm went off and I jumped with whatever I had left."

Matt Smith (Big Shark; 3/4): "It was fast, some people went crazy for primes, we sprinted and stuff for the finish."

Mark Swartzendruber (Delta Faucet; 1/2): "Steven Howard of the Priority Health elite team won $4,000 for taking first place. That's a fairly decent hourly wage."

Saturday photos:
Action Images
Cyclingnews
Graham Fisk
Sheesh photo

Sunday race reports:
Carrie Cash (X Plane Team Revolution; W-P/1/2): "Let me tell you, women are really very logical when they are on the bike, but you push the FF button and things get really messed up."

Debbie Dust (Team Kenda Tire; W-P/1/2): "Every woman on the line was capable of winning today and the racing proved to be fast and aggressive with lots of breaks for the entire 60K."

Laurel Green (Team Mack; W-P/1/2): "It felt weird to have the field all mixed up and not really racing with leadouts all over the place."

Hub Racing (W-P/1/2): "The tables got turned for Dale Tye. Hub Racing led her out instead of the other way
around."

Brooke Miller (Tibco; W-P/1/2): "It was the Cheerwine show, since they had LVG and a full squad and all the other NRC teams only had a handful of riders. We were all marked, so no break that we were in would stick whereas local riders would ride off the front all day."

Brian Morrissey (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 30+ 4/5): "Gone was the 'Oh [shoot]' feeling as I came around each corner, overgeared then undergeared, riding at redline to catch on to the back of the pack."

Matt Smith (Big Shark; 3): "Huffing and puffing, I got back in the front and got myself good position."

Mark Swartzendruber (Delta Faucet; 30+ 1/2/3): "I'd lay odds of a break successfully staying away for more than three laps on the Elk Grove course at roughly equal to those of a certain sMACK rider remaining upright through the course of an entire cycling season. In other words, pretty slim."

Toyota-United (P): "Dominguez said he honed in on the wheel of Fred Rodriguez with about 20 laps to go."

Bob Willems (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 30+ 4/5): "I'm now just going to be up front and if I have to burn a few matches to stay there rather than getting stuck in the messy buldge 12 riders back, I'm fine with that."

Sunday photos:
Action Images
Cyclingnews
Lee Sam
Spin Doctor Cyclewerks
The Editor

Comments

Posted by: John Tomlinson at Aug. 15, 2007 12:28 PM

Posted by: ScottV at Aug. 16, 2007 08:38 AM