By Dan Vinson
The third annual Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix (NRC 1.5), held in beautiful Ojai, California, was the fifth stop on the National Racing Calendar in 2006. Among the professional teams represented in the 120 rider Pro 1 field were Toyota-United Pro, Healthnet, Successfulliving.com, Kodakgallery.com, Monex, and Targetraining. Lance Armstrong was not here this year, but it would surely be a competitive race. The course, just over a mile in length, featured a winding descent which led a challenging sprinter climb (55' rise). Then, we made a sharp right followed by a quick left where it opened up onto a long drag to the final right turn to the flat finish. We were scheduled to do 55 laps - nearly 100 kilometers.
The race started right away with accelerations which were encouraged by a few primes. A few laps into the race we were single file and flying up the sprinter hill. After about 20 minutes of racing, gaps began to open up throughout the field - front, mid and back field - which caused a break of around ten riders to get away. Our team not being represented, I went to the front, made a huge effort to reduce the gap, and then dropped back through the field like a rock. Thankfully, a few laps later that break was brought back but the speed of the race had taken its toll and the field had been reduced to about 60 or 70 riders. Then, after some more attacks, less than half way through the race, a group of ten riders rolled off the front in what would be the winning move of the day.
With less than 20 laps to go the break had been reduced to 9 riders including Toyota-United's Mariano Friedick and Heath Blackgrove, Health Net-Maxxis' Tim Johnson and Garrett Peltonen, Targetraining's Frank Pipp and Alejandro Acton, Caleb Manion (Jelly Belly), Jackson Stewart (Kodakgallery.com) and local amateur Karl Bordine (Labor Power). Their gap on the field remained relatively steady at about 25 seconds - going up to a maximum of around 35 seconds. After a few mechanicals, Victor Ayala and I were the only representatives of Kahala LaGrange left in the race. Successfulliving.com and Monex both had a full squad and took up the chase since they were not represented up ahead. Toyota-United Pro sat on to protect the break which was represented with two of their riders. Dan Ramsey (Successfulliving.com) put in some monster efforts to reduce the damage of the break. At a couple points the advantage of the break had been reduced to under 15 seconds but it was never closed down.
The break was kept within reach as the race began to wind down with 10 laps to go. I was about 30 riders back which was closer to the back than the front since we were down to about 40 or 50 riders in the field. With 5 laps to go Jake Erker (Symmetrics) and Ayala attacked and got a gap. There was plenty of tired legs but the break was not far and still catchable. With three laps to go the speed kicked up and we sprinted up the climbs at full speed. On the last lap, I moved up alongside Ayala (now back in the field) with the intention of pulling us both into a top 20 placing. Unfortunately though, a rider had a blowout right in front of us, causing us to brake and destroying any chance of a top 20 finish. The 9 man break stayed away and Alejandro Acton (Targetraining) took the victory with Jackson Stewart (Kodakgallery.com) in 2nd and Frank Pipp (Targetraining) in 3rd. Erker hung on for 10th. Kyle Gritters (Healthnet) brought the field home in 11th. Chris DeMarchi (Socalcycling.com), just ahead of us and missing the blowout, sprinted to a solid 19th place in his first NRC race. I crossed the line 28th.
For myself, Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix was a great way to cap off my first of three racing blocks which included five extremely tough UCI and/or NRC competitions against many of the best riders in the country. I've quickly learned that the highest level of domestic bicycle racing is pretty dang high! In addition to lots of training, you have to have an aggressive mindset, be willing to take chances, and to suffer more than any mortal ever should! Although I have no impressive victories, I've managed to grab some solid results, including a couple top 10's making my season thus far a success. Now it's time for a little more training (with some races along the way, of course) and preparation for the mid-season calendar. Until the next race. . .
