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Eisel flies in for Lancaster Classic win
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T-Mobile’s Austrian sprinter Bernhard Eisel, fresh off his flight from Europe, shook off his jet lag by winning the first race of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown series, the Tom Bamford Lancaster Classic in Pennsylvania.
Riders were greeted by rain as the remains of a tropical storm passed through the area, leading to numerous flats and a few tumbles over the early stages of the 13-lap race.
Eisel first emerged with 3 laps of the 6.5 mile circuit remaining, going clear of the field in a seven-rider move that rolled away following a series of brief attacks. With Sergey Lagutin (Navigators), Frank Pipp (HealthNet), Frank Travieso (AEG-Toshiba-JetNetworks), David Vitoria (BMC), Trent Wilson (Jittery Joe’s), and U.S. Open winner Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) also in the move, most of the big teams were represented and the break quickly gained time.
Alejandro Borrajo (Rite Aid) and Danny Pate (Slipstream-Chipotle) quickly recognized the danger and mounted a chase, arriving in the break with 2 laps remaining, and taking two more teams out of the chase.
The nine riders worked smoothly to push the gap out to an insurmountable two minutes over a soggy and largely uninterested peloton. From there, the final shakeout began on the final ascent of the steep, winding feed-zone hill through Lancaster’s Rockford Park, when Lagutin put in a surge that momentarily shed Vitoria.
The young Swiss had just enough time to latch back on before Eisel made his own move on a short, straight rise after the park exit. Lagutin was the first to respond, and Eisel eased back on the throttle a bit to wait for the Uzbek, who was third at Lancaster last year on his way to winning the series overall title.
“I wasn’t sure it was the right timing, I just knew I had to break up the group,” said the Austrian, who speaks with an Australian accent. “It was pretty hard for me to get away, and then I saw a blue jersey behind me and I was sure it was [Lagutin], mister time trial, so I waited for him.”
Borrajo was the next to try his hand, setting off a series of attempts from the remainder of the break, now without Travieso, who had crashed on a slick downhill corner but quickly remounted. But ahead, Eisel and Lagutin had wrapped up the first two podium spots, with Eisel jumping Lagutin to take his second win of the season.
Pipp outkicked the remnants of the break to secure the third spot on the podium, the biggest result of the 30-year-old’s career.
Only ProTour team CSC was notably absent from the stacked final move, having worked without much help to control the day’s earlier 11-man move, which went away just four laps into the race, hovering at a maximum advantage of 1:30 over the field.
Initiated by Tim Johnson (Health Net-Maxxis), Christian Meier (Symmetrics), and Mike Creed (Slipstream-Chipotle), it was soon clear that this was to be the early move, and Valeriy Kobzarenko (Navigators), Keith Norris (AEG-Toshiba-JetNetworks), Brice Jones (Jelly Belly), Tuft, Nick Waite (Kelly Benefits Strategies), Stephan Kincaid (Rite Aid), Eric Baumann (T-Mobile), and Caleb Manion (Colavita) all jumped across the gap.
CSC took the initiative in the chase and received more assistance once riders began to drift back from the move and their squads re-entered the chase, but the work cost the squad in the finale.
With riders spent after their earlier efforts and a series of flat tires, CSC finally lost its motivation for good when sprinter J.J. Haedo, second here last year while riding for Toyota-United, dropped from the main field with five and a half laps remaining.
Haedo’s former Toyota-United team also suffered its share of setbacks, with Henk Vogels hitting the deck with Baumann with three laps remaining, and all-rounder Ivan Stevic stopping by the side of the road before the halfway point and being tended to by an ambulance a lap later. Stevic’s condition was unknown as of press time.
After what he calls an “up and down” season, Eisel was pleased with his first race in the United States, in spite of the weather.
“I feel like Pinocchio,” he remarked. “Just like I’m made of wood when it’s raining.” Fortunately, the wood that Eisel is made of floats just fine.
Commerce Bank Tom Bamford Lancaster Classic
June 3. Lancaster, PA
1. Bernhard Eisel (Aut), T-Mobile, in 3:18:41 (41.38kph)
2. Sergey Lagutin (Uzb), Navigators, s.t.
3. Frank Pipp, HealthNet-Maxxis, at 0:15
4. Danny Pate, Slipstream-Chipotle, same time
5. Svein Tuft, Symmetrics, s.t.6. Trent Wilson, Jittery Joe’s, s.t.
7. Alejandro Borrajo, Rite Aid, s.t.
8. David Vitoria, BMC, s.t.
9. Frank Travieso, AEG-Toshiba-JetNetworks, at 1:23
10. Jorge Martinez, Caico, at 1:59
