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Barclays GP: Tough course, top field, and anybody's race

By Kip Mikler, VeloNews editor
Published: Sep. 3, 2005

Though its relationship with the city of San Francisco has occasionally shown signs of strain since its 2001 debut, the annual late-summer race here has gotten nothing but love from the tens of thousands of spectators who come out to watch each year. With a charming Golden Gate city backdrop and ladder-steep climbs, the race that took on the name of its new sponsor a few weeks ago to become the Barclays Global Investors Grand Prix has quickly earned a distinguished place on the American cycling calendar.

Or, in the words of the Jittery Joe’s-Kalahari rider Tim Johnson, a veteran of all four previous San Francisco races, “This is the coolest race in the world.”

This year some of the world’s best are here to find out, some for the first time, what it’s like to tackle the notorious climbs up Fillmore and Taylor streets. Leading the list of international attractions is Italian Ivan Basso of CSC. The two-time Tour de France podium finisher may be better suited to chugging over the high mountain passes of Italy and France, but on Saturday, as he relaxed near the Embarcadero Center across the street from Pier 1, where the 108-mile starts and finishes, Basso said he’ll do his best to put on a show at his first race in America.

“I expect to feel good for the race tomorrow, but it’s not going to be easy for me,” said Basso. “It’s been a long season with the Giro and the Tour de France.”

The Italian added that he hasn’t raced in 20 days and said it’s likely that he could end up playing a support role for CSC, which also brings American David Zabriskie to the start line.

With nine climbs up Fillmore and 14 up Taylor Street, the San Francisco race is difficult to predict. Unlike America’s other tough big city classic, the USPRO road championship in Philadelphia, this one carries the feeling that nearly anything can happen.

“It’s always a tricky race to call with the tactics,” said 2003 USPRO road champion Mark McCormack, a San Francisco veteran with two top-five finishes here, including second in 2003. “This race has been different every year. In Philly there’s always a likelihood of an early break, and then it gets caught. It’s pretty typical. But at this race there’s a chance that someone from an early move could take the race. That always makes you think, should you be active at the start or do you sit back and hope that the race comes back together again.”

Domestic threats

While New England native McCormack said he enjoys the cool conditions that characterize the San Francisco race, he’ll be going up against a list of American favorites that makes this the most stacked one-day race to be held on U.S. soil this year. Included in that list are European-based riders making rare appearances at home: Tour of Switzerland stage winner Chris Horner (Saunier Duval), recent Tour of Germany winner Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), 2004 San Francisco runner-up Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) and perhaps the top favorite, George Hincapie (Discovery Channel), who showed his form by winning the GP de Plouay ProTour race in France last week.

Horner, who just arrived back in the States on Monday after a successful season in Europe that resulted in a contract with the Davitamon-Lotto team for 2006, said he’s in a different position this year than in years past, when San Francisco was one of his prime season goals.

“It’s interesting to be back in the States. I’ll be curious to see who’s going good and who’s not going good,” said Horner, who won here in 2003 when he was racing for the Saturn team. “It’s a wait-and-see for the first part of the race.”

Though he said he has already accomplished what he set out to this season in Europe, Horner, who was bundled up against the San Francisco chill and fighting off a cold on Saturday afternoon, said he’s here to race.

“It’s an American race and it’s one of the biggest,” he said. “Once they start us, you gotta be there.”

Echoing McCormack’s view that the tactics can be unpredictable, Horner said there are a lot of unknowns. “This time of year it’s hard to tell,” he said. “With some of the European teams, you don’t know — are they taking it serious, or are they on vacation? The U.S guys, it’s hard to tell who’s going good, who’s not. With this race you always have a bunch of different factors. When you get about halfway into the race, you figure out how everybody’s going to race it.”

While most of the Europe-based Americans are winding down long seasons, there are also a group of motivated domestic pros including current USPRO champion Chris Wherry, who leads the multitalented Health Net-Maxxis team.

“I’m totally looking forward to representing the [USPRO champion] jersey tomorrow, and [Health Net] has some guys who are riding well,” Wherry said. “We haven’t sat down and made the game plan yet, but all the big Americans are here so I’m going to be keying off those guys.”

Those nasty climbs

Of course the thing that separates San Francisco from any other race in the world is its climbs. The image of top pro riders zigzagging up the relentless steeps is common, and nearly everyone uses a different gearing setup to get over Fillmore and Taylor streets.

“The course takes its toll,” said McCormack. “These climbs are the hardest. They’re not very long, but there aren’t any other races I do where my forearms are cramping and my fingers are locking on me by the end. We’re using muscles in our bodies that we normally only use when we’re doing a field sprint.”

While some riders will use triple chainrings, McCormack is opting for a more standard gear, his lowest option being a 38-tooth chainring and 25-tooth rear sprocket. “I’m not known as a spinner, so I don’t mind doing 40 rpm’s up the climb,” he said.

Wherry, who tried a triple chainring last year and is going with a 27-tooth cassette on Sunday, said he tried a different approach in his training this year. “I’ve been training a lot in Colorado, and I’ve actually been riding a ton on the mountain bike,” Wherry said. “I’ve been climbing up the steepest things I could possibly find in Durango, which is not hard to do. It’s good training because it’s really hard on the arms.”

While little is certain in this race, one thing Wherry and the other 170 starters can count on is plenty of support from the massive crowds that will gather on those fearsome climbs.

Barclays Global Investors Grand Prix

Official start time: 10 a.m., Sunday, September 4

Estimated finish time: 2:25 p.m. Pacific

Course description:
3x1.3-mile laps =3.9 miles
9x8.8-mile laps=78.2 miles
6x4.2-mile laps=25.2 miles
total distance: 108.3 miles

Purse: $50,000

Previous winners
2001: George Hincapie (U.S. Postal Service)
2002: Charles Dionne (7UP-Nutra Fig)
2003: Chris Horner (Saturn)
2004: Charles Dionne (Webcor Builders)