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Armstrong, Cooke claim elite U.S. road crowns
Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) and Matt Cooke (LSV-Kelly Benefit Strategies) claimed the women’s and men’s elite road race titles Saturday at the USA Cycling National Festival at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Champion, Pennsylvania.
Armstrong, Thursday’s elite women’s national time trial champion, took the title at the line ahead of five riders in a sprint finish. Just one second behind Armstrong, Christine Thorburn (Webcor-Platinum) took second and Amber Neben (Buitenpoort/Flexpoint) took third in a photo finish.
The final kilometer of the course featured a 250-meter climb before a slight descent to the finish, so in a lead group that featured strong climbers such as Neben and Thorburn, Armstrong waited until the end to make her final attack.
"I had a feeling the climbers were going to go with three or 400 meters to go on this climb and I knew that was too far – sprinters don’t even go that far – and so I waited for them to go and got in from behind," Armstrong said. "I know my sprint is just a little bit stronger so I knew it was to my advantage to have it come down to a group of climbers."
But those final six riders spent much of the race exchanging attacks to little avail. About 60km into the 132km contest, a chase group including Armstrong, Thorburn, Kimberly Baldwin (T-Mobile), Kimberly Anderson (T-Mobile), Neben, under-23 rider Mara Abbott (Rio Grande-Sports Garage) caught a group of three riders who took the lead early in the race.
But as each kilometer passed, the field of 68 riders was whittled down, and only 15 contenders took off on their third and final lap. With 2km left, Armstrong, Thorburn, Baldwin, Anderson, Neben and Abbott had put more than three minutes between their break and the peloton.
"I think we knew where we were at and that it was going to come down to the end," Armstrong said. "I think we had our separation and there was nothing else we could do. We could attack each other, but we weren’t going to get anywhere."
Armstrong’s ride could have earned her an automatic nomination to the U.S. team that will compete in the 2006 UCI Road World Championships in Salzburg, Austria, but Armstrong was already qualified because of her third-place finish at last year’s World Championships in the time trial event.
Baldwin was the last elite woman to claim the time-trial and road-race titles in the same year when she won them in 2001.
Abbott earned herself a spot on the women’s elite podium in fifth, and was also crowned the champion of the women’s under-23 category.
"I just set little goals, like ‘I‘ll make it to that tree and I won’t get dropped,’ or ‘I’ll make it to the road and I won’t get dropped,’ and then I didn’t end up getting dropped!" Abbott said. "My main goal was to win the U23s, so I’ll go win the U23s and everything else is just for fun and whatever else I can do is cool. I wanted to stick on as long as I could and put as much time between me and the other younger people. It just worked out really well."
Cooke solos to men’s win
In the men’s elite category, Cooke, a newcomer to the sport, claimed the biggest win of his two-year career on the final ascent before the finish line.
"I’m not really a sprinter, but uphill sprints I can do in a small group and I’ve been feeling sharp all day - I have had a pretty good kick going and I was playing those cards," Cooke said of his final attack. "I waited until the end - I was thinking about going earlier, but I decided not to. I figured going earlier would have been too risky so taking it to the finish would have been really difficult."
Cooke and Reid Mumford (ABD Cycling Team) rode with the peloton for much of the race and didn’t chase leader Daniel Vaillancourt (CCB-Volkswagen) down until about 140km into the 176km contest. The three exchanged pulls through their final lap until Cooke attacked midway through the final uphill stretch. Neither of the other lead riders responded, and Cooke rode across the finish line alone to secure the win.
Also finishing on the podium was Cooke’s teammate Nick Waite, a graduate of the USA Cycling under-23 national team, who finished fourth.
