THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Green, Florit take overall titles in Vermont
Not since the days of Juli Furtado has the NORBA National Championship Series seen the kind of dominance that concluded with the circuit's final cross-country race of 2002 on Friday at Mount Snow Resort in southern Vermont.
Following a runaway win by Argentinean Jimena Florit in the women's race that gave her the overall title, Canadian Roland Green captured his seventh straight NORBA cross-country race on a tough and technical Mount Snow track to take his second-straight overall crown.
Green's win streak is the longest in series history, eclipsing Furtado's run of six in a row back in 1993. It also gave him nine wins in his career, moving him out of a tie with the legendary Ned Overend and into fourth place alone on the all-time list. John Tomac is No. 1 with 13. Tinker Juarez and Steve Larsen are tied in second with 10 each.
Green's win in Vermont was likely the easiest of the seven. Following a short parade loop, The Trek-Volkswagen rider blasted off the front with training partner Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and the pair was up by a minute near the end of the first full lap. From there it was just a matter of time before Green took off on his own and the move finally came near the end of the third lap when all Hesjedal could do was watch his friend pedal away. By the time the race's finish rolled around the gap had grown to a hefty 3 minutes, 48 seconds.
"He's the strongest guy out here," Hesjedal said. "Today was nothing new."
Australian Paul Rowney (Yeti-Pearl Izumi) was next across the line, giving him a pair of podiums (he was third at the Durango short track) in the final two races of the year. Next up was 23-year-old Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX-Polo Sport), whose fourth-place effort was more than enough to hold off Travis Brown in the chase for the U.S. national title.
"No doubt this is the best day of my cycling career," Horgan-Kobelski said. "I've dreamt about winning this since I was a junior."
Brown (Trek-Volkswagen) completed the Mount Snow podium, piping Trek regional rider Jeremiah Bishop at the line.
Earlier in the day, it was Florit leaving no doubt about who the top female cross-country racer on the NORBA circuit was, taking her fourth win of the season and wrapping up the overall title with it.
Like Green, Florit rode at the front from start to finish, crossing the line 47 seconds ahead of Canadian Alison Sydor who came past fellow Canadian Chrissy Redden (Subaru-Gary Fisher) midway through the race.
The win capped a memorable NORBA season for Florit, who hadn't won a series race until the short track at Deer Valley last year. Since then, though, the San Diego resident has been on a tear.
"Winning last year was just a little piece of candy," Florit said. "I wanted the whole cake so I had to bring my level one step higher."
Mary Grigson (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Gretchen Reeves (Rocky Mountain) completed the women's podium.
"Winning Trans Alp gave me a lot of confidence," said Reeves, who teamed with Leslie Tomlinson to win the long-distance race in Europe earlier in the month, then took her best NORBA finish since 1998 on Friday.
Six spots back of Florit was American Alison Dunlap, who rode a courageous race, finishing seventh despite having a broken left wrist that required a full forearm cast. Dunlap's effort was enough to hold off Shonny Vanlandingham in the race for the U.S. national title.
"It was too bad that she hurt herself. I'm bummed we didn’t get to battle like the rest of the year," said Florit of a showdown with Dunlap that never materialized. Dunlap came into the race in Vermont with a two-point lead in the overall standings and was the only rider to beat Florit in a NORBA cross-country race this year.
"I'm pretty proud of myself for getting seventh," said Dunlap, who broke the bone last Friday when she crashed during a training ride while trying to avoid a man walking his dog. "I really slowed it down on the downhills early in the race, but then I realized I could tolerate the pain."
Dunlap will get a chance at redemption on Saturday when she attempts to win her fifth straight short-track race and wrap up the overall and national titles. That race is set for 3 p.m., followed by the men at 3:30, then the mountain cross in the evening. Sunday is downhill day with the finals set for 1 p.m. Check back to VeloNews.com all weekend for reports, results and photos.
Race Notes
— Last year's national champion Kirk Molday completed a disappointing year with a 19th-place finish in Vermont. Afterwards the SunRace-Santa Cruz rider said he was all done and was retiring from racing to pursue a degree in landscape architecture at Mesa College near San Diego.
— Soft rain came and went during the later half of the men's race, before letting loose near the finish. The storm also brought a shower of lightning that shut down the ski area's chairlifts and forced the postponement of mountain cross practice and qualifying. The seeding round was moved to Saturday at 11 a.m.
— Balance Bar-Devo rider Adam Craig finished 12th to wrap up the NORBA under-23 title.
