Rob’s Report - Perinton Classic

Hey for the Hometown Boy!!!
The morning test ride had me thinking this was another Giro with the cool weather, but it was dry out (for the moment). The CAT 3 field rolled out and was setting a pretty relaxed pace hitting the start/finish line the first time with 8 laps to go on the 6 mile circuit course. I sat in the field early as Dwight Roth (JW Dundee’s) covered a few attacks on lap 2, after Volodymyr Spantchak was brought back from his solo effort off the front. The action started to heat up & soon a group started to formulate a gap with many of the big players in the race. I jumped to get across quick and we were off with a break of 7 guys. Thru laps 3 & 4 our group had a pretty good tempo going & put a huge gap on the field. However, hanging in between the field and us was a hard charging group of 4 that included Taylor Hogan (JW Dundee’s). Our break grew complacent and soon the trio of Chris Riley (Preferred Care) Mike Minerva (Nalgene) and William Nicholson (Colavita) joined the break. This was about the time we felt like it was a Belgian classic, 50 deg, rain, rolling hills. The break really lost its organization to keep the pressure on and Brian Cardona (Nalgene) seized the opportunity to make the bold race-winning move with 3 laps to go. Brian rolled off the front of the potent break and no one responded. I think everyone, including myself, figured we had a strong enough group to bring him back when the time came. Well, after some confusion with the lap counter, and a lot of conversation among the group on how many laps were really left, Brian hammered out a big gap. With one lap to go he was in sight, but the chase never got going. Everyone got to looking at each other & were more worried about who was going to finish 2nd than winning the race. The final time up Furman I could see Brian at the top as we started up the climb. I punched it fairly hard going up the climb to try & excite a chase, but no one responded, so I was left in no-man’s land, 100 meters ahead, but not close enough to bridge across. So, I tempo’d my way down the hill knowing the group would be on me quick. At this point, the race was over & we were indeed racing for 2nd. I jumped on the back of the train & waited for the finish. After a really hard attack by the Canadian guy, the group crested the final hill single file & really rolling! I sat in the cat bird’s seat & pounced with 250 to go to take 2nd in the small field sprint. A good result for the JW Dundee’s CAT 3 squad and a well deserved win for Fairport’s Brian Cardona!

In the CAT1-3 womens race JW Dundee’s Yvette LaBombard joined a break of 5 riders that was controlled by 3 riders from Terry Precision cycling. They launched one rider off the front of the break and left Yvette and Kerry Traynor (Handlebars) to chase. In the sprint for the podium, Yvette finished a fine 4th for JW Dundee’s.

Rob Dietrick 4/23/06