Three top teams, each with a former winner of the Fitchburg Longsjo
Classic stage race, are in the hunt for the 1998 Fitchburg title this week.
Lynne Tolman's bicycling column archives
Mercury has John Peters, who took the overall prize in the
four-day race last year when he was on the Comptel Colorado Cyclist team. Saturn
has local favorite Frank McCormack of Leicester, who won in 1994, when he had no
team. And the Navigators squad has 1995 winner Mike Engleman, who was with
Shaklee then.
"It really depends on who's in good form," said
race promoter Ray Wolejko of the Fitchburg Cycling Club. "Mercury is sending so
many riders (11), they'll be trying to control the field. It's going to be hard
for any individual to make a move."
Early last week, Wolejko
had not heard whether the U.S. Postal Service team, which includes 1996
Fitchburg winner Tyler Hamilton, planned to enter the race. And the Saeco-Timex
women's team, which has last year's Fitchburg winner Giana Roberge, will be
racing in Europe.
The racing begins Thursday with an expanded
time trial, 13 miles long compared to last year's 7 miles. Instead of riding
down Route 31 from the Best Western Royal Plaza, making a U-turn and heading
straight back, the racers will turn onto Route 140 north for some climbing and
loop back via Route 2A, entering the hotel driveway from the north.
"We changed it to make it longer, which riders have said they
wanted, and hopefully a little safer," Wolejko said. "There's congestion on
Route 31 with riders going in both directions, and we did have an accident last
year where a rider coming up the hill T-boned a truck" turning left out of the
driveway.
On the new course, the turn from Route 2A to Route 31
is a sharp downhill right, about 130 degrees, so "you've got to be going slow
there," Wolejko said. "But these races are won going uphill, not downhill."
The Wachusett Mountain Road Race, on Saturday, also has a
slight change this year, because of road repairs under way on the mountain.
After several hilly circuits in Princeton and Westminster, the racers will climb
to the finish line at the summit via the "up" road, instead of going up the
steeper "down" road as in years past.
The mountain stage also
has a new title sponsor, Unitil Fitchburg Gas & Electric Light Co.
In the women's competition, Saturn is likely to dominate. Its
riders include national criterium champion Karen Bliss Livingston, 1996 Olympic
medalist Clara Hughes, three-time national champion Dede Demet and 1997 national
time trial champion Elizabeth Emery.
Including amateur
categories, about 700 cyclists in all are expected. The stage race is part of
the New England Women's Challenge series, and, for the first time, the Lance
Armstrong Junior Olympic Race Series. While juniors will all race together,
there will be separate leader's jerseys for the top finishers in the 15-16 and
17-18 age groups, Wolejko said.
The Fitchburg Cycling Club
always adds to the mix by recruiting ringers to wear FCC jerseys. This year's
FCC lineup includes pros from Switzerland and Australia, Wolejko said.
Mercury is the leading team in the U.S. National Racing
Calendar standings, with New Zealander Julian Dean and Canadian Gord Fraser --
both Mercury riders who plan to race in Fitchburg -- nipping at the heels of
U.S. Postal Service rider George Hincapie in the individual rankings.
Saturn's Frank McCormack has moved up to No. 8 in the
standings, right behind his younger brother and teammate Mark. Frank won the
prologue criterium and a time trial stage and the points jersey in the Grand
Prix de Beauce in Quebec, which ended last Sunday. Saturn teammates riding at
Fitchburg will include Canadian Olympic track cycling medalist Brian Walton,
Scott Fortner and Bart Bowen.
Navigators' top man is 1994
national criterium champion Trent Klasna, No. 5 in the U.S. standings. But
Wolejko thinks Klasna's teammate Scott Moninger, known as an exceptional
climber, could be a dark horse candidate for the Fitchburg title.
~~~
The Tatnuck Watershed Festival at Coes Pond, Worcester, which
was rained out June 13 and rescheduled for June 20, has been postponed again, to
Sept. 12.
~~~
The Limey Show, featuring dealers of classic
English bicycles and parts, runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m today
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