Bessette and Horner tops at Fitchburg-Longsjo
The 43rd Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic came to an end on Sunday with Chris Horner (Prime Alliance) and Lyne Bessette (Quebec Selection Team) wrapping up the overall race titles while team Saturn swept the final day with Kim Davidge winning the women's race and Ivan Dominguez taking the men's.
Bessette headed into the criterium with an overall lead of 5:21, having already taken care of her weekend's work with wins in the time trial, circuit race and criterium. That left it for teammate Clara Hughes to make the decisive move of the day on Sunday afternoon, with temperatures in Fitchburg topping 90 degrees.
After several early combinations failed to make any headway off the front, Hughes made a forceful attack on lap 13 of the 28-lap race, quickly opening up a 10-second gap. A lap later, Davidge bridged across, with Saturn hungry to finally score a stage win on the weekend.
Back in the pack, the primary chase came from Tina Mayolo-Pic and her Diet Rite teammates and Trek Plus's Laura Van Gilder before Rona took up the brunt of the chase trying, unsuccessfully, to prevent Davidge from jumping past Manon Jutras into fourth on GC.
As the laps wound down, the lead shot up to over a minute as Davidge tried to match Hughes pull for pull. At the finish, Davidge took the win for Saturn with Hughes second. Mayolo-Pic lead in the field for third.
Back in the pack, Bessette came across to record her fourth consecutive Fitchburg-Longsjo win, a win taken in convincing fashion.
Equally convincing was the work of Horner and Prime Alliance. After winning the stage 2 circuit race, Horner trailed Navigators's Chris Baldwin in the overall, but the following day Prime Alliance delivered Horner into the orange leader's jersey with its textbook ride in the 104-mile road race.
Entering the criterium, Horner and teammate Danny Pate sat one-two in the overall, with the Navigators Tom Leaper and Baldwin the closest threats to Horner at over a minute back. Prime Alliance took no chances though. With the exception of Wheelworks-Cannondale controlling the sprint points laps to put Jonathan Page into the sprinter's jersey, Prime Alliance rode the front for almost the entire 50-mile race, keeping in check any attacks by danger men like Baldwin, 7UP's John Lieswyn (fifth overall), Mercury's Phil Zajicek (sixth) and Mike Sayers (seventh).
The last real threat came when Baldwin escaped with teammate Mark Walters and Zajicek with under 20 laps to go, but Pate was right with the move, which stayed away until 10 to go.
Prime Alliance continued to control until two to go, when the Saturn team massed at the front for Dominguez. Prime Alliance wasn't done yet, though, as Pate, Horner and Alex Candelario tried to move in with a lap to go. In the finish, though, Dominguez delivered, beating out Candelario and 7UP's Charles Dionne in the sprint finish.
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