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Henderson doubles up in Philly
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A month ago, New Zealander GregHenderson didn’t know whether or not he would race at the CommerceBank Triple Crown series, which culminated in Sunday’s 156-mile PhiladelphiaInternational Championship. A broken hip, suffered in a crash in March,had sidelined the Health Net-Maxxis rider for most of April and May, missingout on important races like the Ford Tour de Georgia, where he won thepoints jersey last year.
On Sunday, Henderson won one of the biggest races of his career in aphoto-finish field sprint, just beating out former teammate IvanDominguez of Toyota-United. Navigators Insurance rider OlegGrishkine was third. It was Henderson’s second big win in fourdays, following his win in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Thursday.
“I’m not surprised he won at all,” said Henderson’s Health Net teammateTimJohnson. “Last night he said to me, ‘You know, I might just winthat bike race tomorrow.’”
Toyota-United looked poised for the win, taking command at the frontof a 45-rider field with 10 miles remaining. While most teams had one ortwo riders left, Toyota massed at the head of the peloton, with AntonioCruz, Ivan Stevic and defending champion ChrisWherry riding tempo for Dominguez and sprinter J.J.Haedo.
“When I jumped I could see I had a half a bike length gap, and I wasgoing and going, and I could see the finish line coming, and I thoughtI had it,” Dominguez said. “Then I saw a green jersey coming up, and Ithought ‘Aah, I’m second.’ Then I heard Greg yelling and celebrating, soI knew he’d won.”
Just over a week ago, Henderson emailed his team director Jeff Corbettand told him he might want to think about adding Henderson to the team’sTriple Crown roster. After soloing off the front at a localrace in his adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado, Henderson knewhis fitness was coming up, and he wanted to make sure Corbett knew as well.
Instead of sending Henderson to Lancaster to defend histitle from last year, Corbett sent the Kiwi to Oregon to the Mt.Hood Classic stage race to ride in support of eventual overall winner NathanO’Neill. While at Mt. Hood, Henderson won two stages, but was relegatedin one. Henderson then flew to join his teammates at the ReadingClassic, where he won the bunch sprint after a tough final climb over MountPenn.
The team’s gamble of sending “Hendy” to Oregon instead of Pennsylvaniapaid off, even if his missing Lancaster meant he wasn’t able to contendfor the Triple Crown overall, which came with a $10,000 prize and a MercuryMariner SUV. Instead Henderson’s wins in Reading brought the team $6200,and his win in Philadelphia netted $15,000.
“I think it was the right decision,” Henderson said. “I needed hardracing days in my legs. The team told me to go and race, not for results,but just to race. You just can’t simulate those kinds of efforts in training.Sure, I would have loved to try to win again in Lancaster, and it’s easyto look back and imagine I could have won the series, but I’m happy withhow it’s all worked out.”
THE INFAMOUS EARLY BREAK
Sunny skies and blustery winds greeted the peloton for three 1-mileparade laps around Central Philadelphia’s Eakins Oval and Logan Circle,followed by 10 14.4-mile laps that begin and end on Benjamin Franklin Parkwaynear the Philadelphia Museum of Art, incorporating Kelly Drive, the steepManayunk Wall and the short jaunt up Lemon Hill, and finishing with three3.3-mile laps that also include trips up and over Lemon Hill.
Racing began from the gun as the peloton was spread single file afterthe first ascent up Manayunk. At 156 miles, the race is known to producean early, ill-fated breakaway, and this year was no exception. The day’ssubstantial break was established at the end of the first lap, when MikeJones (Health Net-Maxxis), Irish national champion DavidO’Laughlin (Navigators Insurance) and DustinMacBurnie (Target Training) slipped off the front of the field.TIAA-CREF’s Chad Hartley bridged across to the leaders, and the four ridersmotored away to a maximum lead of 9:15 after six laps.
With Jones riding for Henderson, KarlMenzies and KirkO’Bee, O’Laughlin looking to set up Sergey Lagutin, Valeriy Kobzarenkoand Mark Walters, and Hartley hoping to set up either DannyPate, MikeFriedman or WillFrischkorn, MacBurnie began snatching up the KOM points atop Manayunkand Lemon Hill immediately and went uncontested.
But the breakaway’s gap was down to 5:30 by the beginning of lap 8,with the unrepresented teams of CSC, Jelly Belly, Toyota-United and ColavitaOlive Oil-Sutter Home all taking turns at the front. Over repeated tripsup Manayunk, the group started to show signs of distress, as Hartley trailedoff while Jones, coming off a sickness, also looked to be suffering. Onthat eighth lap, O’Laughlin dropped his companions over the Manayunk Wall.
“O’Laughlin was given the go-ahead to break up the group if he felthe could,” said Navigators Insurance spokesman Chris Baldwin. “They couldsee the gap was coming down, so [team director] Ed Beamon wanted O’Laughlinto stay out longer, to prevent counterattacks for as long as possible.”
As lap 8 came to a close, the field split on the descent from ManayunkWall down Ridge Avenue, courtesy of CSC, with about 20 riders breakingfree from the field. The entire CSC squad made the group, as did Toyota-United’sWherry, JoseManuel Garcia and Haedo.
“The whole team was there,” said CSC's Andrea Peron. “It wasn’t planned,it was just planned at the moment. Me and [Michael] Blaudzun were working.The thing is, the other teams were helping, but they were pulling a littlebit, and then they would stop. They weren’t really committed to it, andevery time we were just riding before the climb, they would go fast justto mess up our work. So we saw in that part between the two hills therewas a little bit of crosswind and it was the only part where we could breakit up. So we said we’re all in front here, and now we give gas and we justbreak it up. That way it’s much easier to control it.”
But not everyone was impressed with CSC’s tactics as the race announcersseemed to be.
“I was pretty mad,” Pate said. “That wasn’t a power move, it wasn’tgoing uphill or anything. Someone just pulled out of the line when it wasn’teven going that hard and they let the gap go. It was annoying. Those Dutchguys were doing it all day. It took a lot of guys by surprise.”
The biggest loser was Navigators, which missed the move and was forcedto take to the front of the second chase group. Shortly after, the threeremainders of the breakaway were absorbed. Coming through the start/finisharea, O’Laughlin held a 3:10 advantage over the 25-man field, with therest of the field another 30 seconds back. Needed in the second chase group,Jones dropped back to help his Health Net teammates, who had teamed theirefforts with Navigators. Two long laps and three short laps remained.
BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE A FIELD SPRINT
While the gap between the CSC group and the Navigators/Health Net grouphovered at 30 seconds, the gap to O’Laughlin dropped to less than one minuteby the ninth trip over Manayunk. Again the lead group split on the steepclimb, until only 12 men were left, including CSC’s Luke Roberts, MattiBreschel, Lars Michaelsen and Andrea Peron. Also in the group were Wherryand Haedo, Health Net’s Jeff Louder, Colavita’s Viktor Rapinksi, JairoHernandez (Colombian National), Christian Valenzuela (Monex), TIAA-CREF’sFriedman and Glen Mitchell (Priority Health). The rest of the field hoveredbehind at one minute.
The second chase group caught the break on the regrouping off Manayunk,bringing together approximately 45 riders, with a group of 20 riders oneminute down, and another group of 40 riders at 1:45. After the catch, thelead group contained Francois Parisien, Rahsaan Bahati, Pate and Friedman(TIAA-CREF); Grishkine, Lagutin and Kobzarenko (Navigators); O’Bee, Menzies,Louder and Henderson (Health Net); Cruz, Stevic, Wherry, Garcia, Haedoand Dominguez (Toyota-United); Jairo Hernandez (Colombian National); ChristianValenzuela (Monex); Brent Bookwalter and Glen Mitchell (Priority Health);Justin Spinelli (Nerac-Outdoorlights.com); Gustavo Artacho, Mark McCormack,Viktor Rapinski, Tyler Wren and Davide Frattini (Colavita Olive Oil-SutterHome); Andy Bajadali, Alex Candelario and Caleb Manion (Jelly Belly); AndreaPeron, Kasper Klostergaard, Matti Breschel, Michael Blaudzun, Luke Robertsand Lars Michaelsen (CSC); Scott Zwizanski (Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada);and Frank Pipp (Target Training). (Each of whom you can look up on VeloBios.com-Editor)
“We did a perfect job until the next time up the climb. On the Wall,10 guys got away,” Peron said. “That was the perfect situation for us.But Navigators was caught behind, and the two Russian guys were so strong,and they bridged over. That made the situation more difficult for us. Ourperfect situation would have been the three or four of us in that groupof 12.”
One large lap remained. Looking to avoid a field sprint, TIAA-CREF’sBahati tried to launch Parisien before the last trip up The Wall, but thefield quickly pounced on the move. Frattini was next, attacking up theManayunk climb, but the Italian was also caught, this time by a group offive riders that spent too much time looking over their shoulders to stayaway down Ridge Avenue.
The remainder of the race included four more trips over the short, windingLemon Hill, which, like Manayunk, was covered with fans.
Heading back down the flat Kelly drive towards Lemon Hill, Zwizanksi,Wherry, Bajadali, Stevic, Frattini, Breschel, Lagutin and Pate all flirtedat the front of the field, morphing into different small groups hopingto get away from a strung-out field.
After Zwizanski made a solo move and was caught, Menzies tried his hand.But Stevic, Cruz and Wherry united at the front and soon their decisionwas clear: Toyota-United would to try to keep the race together for a fieldsprint. At the end of the 10th lap, Toyota-United was amassed at the frontin a leadout formation, with Cruz, Wherry and Stevic rotating through forDominguez and Haedo.
“J.J. and Wherry both came up to me in the last laps and asked me howI was feeling,” Dominguez said. “I said, 'Let’s go for a leadout, I feelgood.' So they rode fast. Not too fast, but fast enough to keep guys fromattacking.”
Not liking his chances in a field sprint, Pate, the second-place finisherlast year after a bold solo move, tried in vain to escape. Toyota let himdangle off the front by a handful of seconds as the race again traveledover Lemon Hill. When Pate was caught, he tried again, and this time Mitchellrode across to the TIAA-CREF rider, but it was, as Pate would say, “too little,too late.”
“The race just wasn’t hard enough,” Pate said. “We still had a lot ofsprinters there, and we still had Friedman in the field, so it wasn’t abad situation.”
With Stevic, Cruz and Wherry sharing pulls, the peloton resigned itselfto a field sprint. As the peloton wound its way around Logan Circle a finaltime, Toyota-United maintained its leadout-train formation.
But with the wide finishing straight into a headwind, and with an assortmentof rested and weary legs in the field, chaos ensued in the gallop to theline. A crash in the field took down Candelario, Louder, Bookwalter andRoberts, while those at the front spread like shotgun fire.
Barreling down the center of the road, Dominguez appeared to have thesprint locked up, and almost seemed to ease up, ready to throw a celebratorysalute that might match the silhouette figure on his Toyota-United jersey.But coming up the barriers on the far inside, Henderson timed his approachto the line perfectly and threw his own arms in the air, identifiable bythe world-champion stripes on his sleeves that were earned at the worldtrack championships in Melbourne in 2004.
Dominguez could only look to his left and shake his head. Although raceofficials called it a photo finish, Dominguez said he knew immediatelythat Henderson had taken the win.
“At one point I thought I had it, but I knew Henderson was right behind,somewhere there,” Dominguez said. “I saw him coming on the inside, so hehad a good draft. He was coming fast. He showed everyone the other dayhow well he’s riding, and I knew that in that group, the only guys thatcould pass me were him and J.J. The last 150 meters felt like 150 kilometers.But I have no excuses. The team rode great, but Henderson was super. Hewon. He was the fastest today.”
“I had Kirk, Jeff and Karl there,” Henderson said. “They kept sayingto me, ‘What do you want me to do?’ and I just kept telling them, ‘Justrelax. Just wait. Don’t panic.’ It’s so far from that last corner.
Menzies kept coming to me, and Big Karl was pretty excited, and I hadto scream at him to wait. Then the swarm came and it was right at the bottomof the roundabout, and Karl put me in a perfect position. I freelanceda while, I went from wheel to wheel, and when I opened it up I was stillabout four or five bike lengths back. It was a drag race with Ivan, andI came up the inside. I didn’t even get to a wheel. I saw the line, andI could see everyone around me, and I could see myself catching Ivan slowlybut surely. Sprinters know on the line who’s won it, and I was lucky enoughto get by Ivan today.”
After CSC’s dominating display in the closing laps, the team left notjust Philadelphia but the entire Triple Crown series — and the warm-upJune 3 CSC Invitational — empty-handed, without so much as a podium appearance.The team’s best result in those four races was Matti Breschel’s fifth placeat the CSC Invitational.
“Breschel was the sprinter for us today,” Peron said. “But it’s kindof difficult to race here. It’s much more individual, you don’t have ateam that just works for one guy. So at the end there was a crash, becausepeople were just risking too much. Some of our guys were involved, andthat messed up our sprint.”
Meanwhile, Navigators leaves the Triple Crown with podium appearancein each race and, with Lagutin, the series prizes of $10,000 and the MercurySUV.
“Of course we’re happy to win the series,” Lagutin said, whose biggestresult was the 2003 world under-23 road championship. “But we’ve been soclose, and we’d like to have more first-place finishes.”
The race also was a strong showing for Wherry, who had the ride of hislife one year ago, only to be felled by an intestinal parasite at the startof this season. After making the final selection in Reading on Thursday,Wherry’s ride confirmed that he’s back on form. In 2005 Health Net-Maxxisswept the three races known as Philly Week, with Henderson winning in Lancaster,Canadian Gord Fraser winning in Trenton, New Jersey, and Wherry takingthe national title at the USPRO Championship in Philadelphia. When Wherrytook to the start line Sunday, he was the first rider to start the racein Philadelphia wearing the national champion’s stars-and-stripes jersey.
“It was a perfect break,” Wherry said. “The team rode phenomenally.We were one of the strongest teams out there. It’s disappointing to comeup short when you have a great race like that. This is one of the mostchallenging races of the year, and I was happy to be able to help the guysin the finish. My form isn’t 100 percent, but being able to be there and workfor the guys is a big confidence booster.”
But the biggest confidence boost of all came to Henderson, who addedthe Philadelphia win to his other metropolitan East Coast win in New YorkCity in 2004. Though it wasn’t his biggest win ever — Henderson reserveshis world scratch-race title for that — it was still satisfying.
“I’ve hardly done any racing this year, and I’ve been unproven in raceslonger than 160km,” he said. “This is 260km. I think I’m proven now.”
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