Dionne's No. 1 in San Francisco
7UP pulls upset by the Bay
In just two years, the San Francisco Grand Prix has established itself as the biggest race in America. It may not have the biggest prize list – that belongs to the USPRO Championships in Philadelphia – but San Francisco draws the biggest crowds and the biggest stars. But amidst the huge fanfare, it was the littlest team in the field that came away with the day’s win. 7UP-Nutra Fig may have brought only six riders to San Francisco, but they came out on top, as Charles Dionne sprinted away from a group that included U.S. Postal’s Lance Armstrong and Viatcheslav Ekimov to take the $10,000 first prize.
"We fielded the smallest team of any out there, but every one of us has been riding really strongly the past few weeks," said 7UP’s John Lieswyn. "In our meeting, we were definitely looking to get a podium spot, and fortunately, we got our fastest sprinter in the lead group at the end."
With only six riders on the start line, due to an assortment of injuries and budgetary concerns, 7UP needed to make sure it didn’t miss out on any big moves, and Lieswyn was among the early escapees on the 10-mile circuit beginning in front of the Ferry building and winding through North Beach, the Marina, the Presidio, Pacific Heights and Russian Hill in the north part of San Francisco.
Joining Lieswyn on lap 2 in the early 11-man patrol were Postal’s Pavel Padrnos, Mercury’s Gord Fraser and Mike Sayers, Saturn’s Mark McCormack and Eric Wohlberg, Prime Alliance’s Danny Pate and Alex Candelario, Navigators’ Vassili Davidenko and Burke Swindlehurst, and Jittery Joe’s Cesar Grajales. They would be joined on the next lap by four more riders — Chris Baldwin (Navigators), Trent Klasna (Saturn), Ben Jacques-Mayne (Sierra Nevada-Cannondale) and Floyd Landis (U.S. Postal Service), but Landis’s presence may have spelled trouble for the break.
"When Landis caught up, that kind of put the damper on my group. Everybody said, ‘Forget it, we’re not going to tow Floyd around,’" explained Lieswyn.
With the dynamic not quite right, and with the Italian Acqua e Sapone squad doing much of the chase, the gap, at one point 1:40, began to tumble, and by the fifth of the eight main circuits, the field was all back together again.
Just as quickly, though, a countermove took shape on lap 6, this time eight riders strong: Chann McRae (U.S. Postal Service), Plamen Stoyanov (Mercury), Lorenzo Cardellini (Acqua e Sapone), Pate, Siro Camponogara (Navigators), Ivan Dominguez, Harm Jansen (both Saturn), and Jason McCartney (Jelly Belly). Despite the presence of USPRO champion McRae, Postal didn’t like the numbers, and began to chase on lap 7, 70 miles into the 109-mile race.
By lap 8, heading onto the brutally steep Fillmore St. climb for the final time, the main field was all together once more, but to the delight of the thousands of fans lining the climb, defending champion George Hincapie (U.S. Postal Service) chose Fillmore as the launching pad for a bold attack.
When no one followed, Hincapie was on his own, but with 29 miles still remaining, including five laps of the shorter 5-mile circuit that included the equally hard, and rambunctious, Taylor St. climb.
Behind, Postal seemed to have contained a chase group of about 40 riders, and Hincapie’s lead hovered around 30 seconds. But with two-and-half of the 5-mile circuits remaining, his move was closed down.
When Hincapie got caught though, things still looked rosy for Postal, as Hincapie was joined by teammates Ekimov and Armstrong, as well as Dionne, Henk Vogels (Mercury), Massimo Giunti (Acqua e Sapone) and Navigators’ Tom Leaper.
That group would get caught from behind by Saturn’s Harm Jansen and Will Frischkorn and Prime Alliance’s Chris Horner, while Hincapie was dropped on the second-to-last climb of Taylor St.
With one lap to go, Armstrong and Ekimov looked to be waiting to make a move on Taylor St., but when Ekimov went, the on-target Dionne matched him move for move. Cresting the top, the lead group of eight was all together, and they dropped down Columbus and Broadway onto the final out-and-back stretch along the Embarcadero.
Heading onto the Embarcadero, Armstrong and Ekimov began to launch attacks, but it was too little, too late, although they raised the concern of men like Vogels. "I was actually scared when Lance and Ekimov were sitting on the wheels," said the Australian. "I thought they were going to one-two us all the way to the finish. Lance said he had bad form, but that shows you how his bad form is – his bad form is still our best."
Armstrong admitted afterward that, "Eki and I aren’t fast enough in a group like that."
The four-time Tour champion also said that he had only been doing "maintenance" training, and that he was pleased with his performance in front of the huge San Francisco crowd. "I was surprised to be in front," he said. "It was a great race … the people kept me motivated."
With neither Postal star able to break free, the leaders set up for a sprint as they made the final left-hand turn back onto the Embarcadero for the finish. Vogels jumped with about 300 meters to go, but found himself slightly overgeared when his gear slipped from the 12 to the 11 cog.
"I should have won," said Vogels. "I’m really disappointed that I didn’t win today. But, you’ve got to give [Dionne] credit, he was the only one that covered Ekimov when the shit went down."
In the closing meters, the 23-year-old Canadian burst past Vogels to take the win, with Vogels second and Giunti taking third for Acqua e Sapone.
"It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done," said a bubbling Dionne in his rapid-fire French Canadian accent. "My goal this year was to do the Tour de l’Avenir, but I didn’t have a team, so my only chance to prove myself was today in San Francisco. I wanted to prove that I just wasn’t a sprinter.
"It’s a wonderful day for me for sure."
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