Lieswyn hits the road after a long winter

  John Lieswyn isn't going to use a snowy Worcester winter as an excuse. The climate did limit the pro racer's off-season road training, and it showed last month at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in California, but Lieswyn says to just give him a few more weeks and he'll be in competitive form.
   Lieswyn, 32, who moved to Worcester from California last year, finished the 2000 season ranked No. 3 among pro men on the national road racing circuit. The top two were Mercury riders Gord Fraser, from Canada, and Henk Vogels, from Australia, so Lieswyn, then with Team Shaklee, was the top-ranked American.
   This year Shaklee is not sponsoring a team, and Lieswyn is co-leader of the 7UP/Colorado Cyclist team with former Saturn rider Clark Sheehan. The two have been racing "the same amount of time, but never on the same team at the same time. We've both been on Coors Light and Saturn, but at different times," said Lieswyn, who was on the U.S. national team in 1991, 1992 and 1995 and holds a national team time trial record.
   Both Lieswyn and Sheehan are strong in long-distance stage races, "but the majority of events for us will be city-center criteriums where we'll be trying to set up someone else for the sprint," Lieswyn said. "It's like in football: The quarterback doesn't do the scoring, it's the receivers."
   Lieswyn's wife, veterinarian Dawn Kingsbury, began a yearlong internship at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton last June, and the couple bought a house in Worcester's Greendale section. In the fall, Lieswyn entered some cyclocross races just for fun and found the New England circuit "was really awesome. The SuperCup race in Gloucester -- that's the way bike racing should be, a giant party atmosphere for families."
   Lieswyn used to mountain bike every day when he lived in Asheville, N.C., but considers himself too cautious to be competitive in that sport.
   Cyclocross racing, though not conducted on paved roads, "is not like mountain biking," he said. "It's totally controlled," with racers cycling and carrying their bikes on a closed circuit with known obstacles. "I'd say it's the safest of all the disciplines -- no cars, no trees."
   Lieswyn's best 'cross finish in 2000 was ninth place in the Amherst International Cyclo-cross race Oct. 28.
   Over the winter, he concentrated on home remodeling but biked on the road at least once a week. On relaxed rides in the neighborhood he often had his dog, a Doberman named Closer, trotting alongside on a leash. "He grew up accompanying me on a bike," Lieswyn said.
   In January, Lieswyn did a 40-kilometer race in Brazil, "and all it did was show me how out of shape I was."
   However, he had a blast during the rest of his stay in Brazil viewing Sao Paolo over the handlebars, and that's one of his favorite things about cycling, "getting to see the world from a different perspective than a tour bus or car."
   For winter workouts at home, Lieswyn would spin on a trainer in his basement, tethered by headphones to a stereo playing a dance mix of Eurotrance MP3s, facing a few simple signs he put on the wall to keep his mind on task:

•   "Saturn -- Klasna -- Wohlberg." "Mercury -- Moninger -- Vogels." Those are the teams and riders to beat.
•   "USPRO road champion." "WIN." Those are the goals.
•   "National time trial champion -- 10 seconds." That's his Holy Grail, and his strategy. In last year's national TT championship in Jackson, Miss., Eric Wohlberg "beat me by about 55 seconds ... and then was disqualified for an equipment violation." Lieswyn ended up in second place, 9 seconds back from winner Adam Sbeih (Navigators).