THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Tour of Georgia: Cipo' finds his legs in Columbus
When Italian superstar “Super Mario” Cipollini failed to contest the opening sprint stage of the Dodge Tour de Georgia on Monday, the sport’s cognoscenti immediately questioned what might be amiss with 2002 world champion.
Was it the criterium-style finishing circuits that slowed down his Domina Vacanze lead-out train? Was he out of sorts in the near 90-degree heat? Perhaps he had simply arrived in the U.S. out of shape, or maybe, some supposed, the realities of age had finally caught up with the 37-year-old sprinter.
Following a lackluster spring campaign that saw Cipo’ dropped at his beloved Milan-San Remo, the issue of time is a recurring and legitimate question for the twice “retired” 37-year-old sprinter. One close look at the wrinkles in his infamous smile reveals the years “The Lion King” has spent in the sun, on his bike, winning races and climbing podium steps.
While even Cipollini admits he doesn’t have the power he once had, the Domina Vacanze rider isn’t ready to hang up the bike just yet, evidenced by his mass sprint stage 2 victory ahead of Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) and Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) in front of a boisterous downtown Columbus crowd.
“Yesterday was definitely a different day,” a grinning Cipollini explained. “I wasn’t accustomed to the temperature and I was still a little bit jet-lagged. Today, everyone wanted to do well, especially me, but also my teammates.”
A consistent breeze, much cooler weather and throngs of cheering schoolchildren greeted the peloton over a rolling 118.5-mile course that traveled through the rural towns of Woodland, Shiloh, and Pine Mountain. After crossing through the scenic 14,000-acre Calloway Gardens resort, the route dropped into Columbus for four flat, L-shaped two-mile finishing circuits.
Looking to defend the leader’s jersey Fraser had earned with his stage 1 victory, Health Net went to the front immediately and closely patrolled any break that tried to escape. Particularly aggressive was the Ofoto team of Tuesday’s best young rider Nieko Biskner, which sent Erik Saunders up the road 10 miles in. Saunders was joined by Landbouwkredit-Colnago’s master breakaway artist Jacky Durand, prompting the peloton to quickly reel the pair in.
Next to have a go was Ofoto’s Scott Zwizanski, who slipped away at mile 13. After a few minutes, Navigators’ Mark Walters bridged to Zwizanski. Next to join the pair was CSC’s Jakob Piil and, a few miles later, Will Frischkorn (Colavita Olive Oil), constituting a four-man break that would stay away for nearly 90 miles holding a gap that never exceeded three-and-a-half minutes.
“They told me over the radio that Mark Walters was coming up, and I thought, ‘Thank goodness, I have someone to come up and suffer with me,’” Zwizanski said. “I’ve been in breaks like that before, where you’re out there all day long. Everyone was pulling through. Will was really trying out there today. He was probably the strongest guy in the break. We definitely let him catch back up. Once he got back there, skipped a few turns and recovered, we started our rotation. You just kind of get into the mindset that you’re going to suffer for a few hours.”
Behind Health Net put Jason McCartney at the front, where he set tempo with Domina Vacanze’s Sergio Marinangeli for over three hours, feathering the gap at three minutes from mile 48 to mile 72.
“It may have looked like our entire team was at the front,” Fraser said, “but it was really just one guy, my roommate Jason McCartney. The rest of team only worked on finishing circuits.”
Fraser said it’s always a tough decision to sacrifice a teammate, but in the end McCartney was the clear choice. “Jason was third in the U.S. national time trial championships last year, and the time trial is coming up, and it was hard to decide who was going to be the guy for Health Net-Maxxis to set the tempo, but that’s kind of what Jason came to the team for, jersey defense, so my hat’s off to Jason today, he did a good job.”
As the peloton approached Columbus’s closing circuits, Health Net slowly upped the pace, bringing the gap to two minutes at mile 86 and one-minute as they entered the city limits. At 105 miles the breakaway was absorbed and the racing began. Joining Health Net and Domina Vacanze at the front were the sprinter’s teams of Enrico Degano (Barloworld) and Kirk O’Bee (Navigators) as well as opportunists such as Sierra Nevada, CSC and Landbouwkredit-Colnago.
A fast pace over the first three finishing circuits slowed considerably on the final lap as the Domina Vacanze and Health Net lead-out trains put themselves in position for the sprint.
“The sprint was pretty crazy,” Fraser said, “but luckily Domina Vacanze was up there pretty much controlling things, and that made things a little safer. I was on Degano’s wheel in the last corner, and I just took a chance that he would jump and get a run, and he did, but he just didn’t have the power of Cipo and Ivan. When I saw Ivan out of the right corner of my eye I really should have shifted across to him, but when you’re past threshold your brain doesn’t work very well.”
While Fraser was stuck between the Italian and the Cuban, Dominguez was poised to take one of the biggest victories of his career, but he misjudged the finish line and slowed before the line. Still, the performance reassured Dominguez that he’s got what it takes to sprint against the world’s best.
“There are two or three lines there, before the finish,” Dominguez said, “and when I saw the line I stopped, and Mario put a half a bike length on me, and I looked up and saw the real line and said, ‘Okay,’ and I went again but it was too late. I got confused there.”
Cipo agreed that Dominguez could well have a future racing at the European level. “Dominguez is very, very fast,” he said. “I was very surprised by Dominguez. In the final lap [Massimiliano] Mori and [Giovanni] Lombardi started to work, but from very far back, and they didn’t manage to give me a perfect launch. At 200 meters to go Dominguez started to accelerate, and at 100 meters he was still at the front, but I was able to catch him before the line.”
It was a bittersweet day for Fraser, who felt he had what it took to win the stage, but still remains in the leader’s jersey.
“Obviously I’m pretty disappointed for not winning, but he’s the best,” Fraser said. “You can’t make mistakes against this guy, he’s just too good. Third-place for a sprinter is a little like kissing your sister, but to be third behind Ivan and Mario, you can’t hang your head on that, because these guys are amazing sprinters.”
For Cipollini, who has made a point to be extremely accessible to fans and supporters during his stay, the win complimented what is looking more and more like a diplomacy tour for the veteran.
“In Europe there are the same races every year,” Cipollini said. “The Tour of Romandie, the Tour of Aragona. I wanted a change and after I heard Armstrong was racing here, I wanted to race here. I’ve been very impressed by the courtesy of the people and also the countryside landscape. Today we went through a park that was beautiful and I’ve probably only seen something like that in the movies. I’ve also been very impressed by the number of kids cheering on the side of the road, cheering the cyclists. It’s a very good experience for them, and good for a sport like cycling here in the United States, something that is actually growing. Probably among those kids is a potential champion for the future. I’m sorry I haven’t discovered this sport in America sooner.”
THE JERSEYS
YELLOW: Gord Fraser, Health Net-Maxxis. “Health Net-Maxxis isvery happy to have the jersey again for tomorrow’s stage, but I don’t wantto be in yellow for the time trial tomorrow. I don’t want to embarrassmyself by being the last rider to go out."
POINTS: Fraser (The points jersey will be worn by Dominguez)
MOUNTAINS: Scott Zwizanski, Ofoto-Lombardi Sports. “For me,I probably don’t have much of a chance after tomorrow to hold on to thisjersey. Once we get the mountains my role will probably change, possiblyto help Nieko hold on to his jersey throughout the race once we get intothe harder climbing stages.”
BEST YOUNG RIDER: Nieko Biskner, Ofoto-Lombardi Sports. “I’dlike to be able to hold on to this jersey throughout the whole race. It’sgoing to be difficult through the climbs and time trial, but we’ll seehow that goes. For Ofoto that would be great, we’re a small Division-3team and this is really great for us.”THURSDAY’S DOUBLE-DAY STAGES
Stage 3 is a expected to be a fast 77-mile day, with an elevation-lossprofile and a flat finish into Rome, setting riders up for the evening’stime trial, an 18.9-mile course with a hill at mile 11 that offers 750feet of elevation gain in just over one mile, followed by a fast descentthat flattens out two miles from the finish. By the end of stage 4 theGC should begin to take shape — just in time for the hills.
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