DEVENS, Mass. -- The McCormack brothers' reign in cyclocross proved
unimpeachable yesterday, as Frank McCormack of Leicester took the national
championship crown back from younger sibling and Saturn teammate Mark on a fast,
slippery course.
Steve Larsen (Schwinn-Toyota) of Bend, Ore., came in
second, sprinting ahead of former espoirs (under-23) champion Jonathan Page
(Head Shok-Cannondale) of Northfield, N.H., a McCormack compatriot who used to
live in Leicester.
The McCormacks were out front from the start,
along with Jonathan Sundt (Redline-JogMate) of Bellevue, Wash., who became an
instant crowd-pleaser by riding instead of hoofing it up the steepest run-up and
then bunny-hopping the hurdles instead of carrying his bike.
Frank
McCormack, 29, opened up a solo gap that would grow to about 30 seconds when he
took the same outside line Sundt needed for his stunt. The leader's transition
from wheels to feet caused a traffic jam behind him, forcing Sundt to slow down,
dismount and scramble up the hill.
"I was just trying to stay in
front of him," Frank McCormack said. "I used to take those chances, too, when I
was younger; now I just get off and run." McCormack changed bikes at every
opportunity -- twice per lap -- to get a mud-free machine that was already in
the right gear for the next hill.
Mark McCormack, who lives in North
Easton, aided and abetted Frank's escape from Sundt by running up the slope with
his bike shouldered sideways in a blocking maneuver.
The crowd, which
announcer Richard Fries estimated at more than 3,000, greeted every run-up with
cheers and clanging cowbells.
Marc Gullickson (Team GT) of Durango,
Colo., briefly spiced up the battle behind Frank McCormack, but only Larsen and
Page made it through the Saturn defense, which landed Mark McCormack in fourth
place and Bart Bowen (Saturn) of Albuquerqe, N.M., in fifth.
Page's
final sprint, putting him one second behind Larsen and one second ahead of Mark
McCormack, made up for Page's disappointment Friday in the espoirs race when he
blew a tire in the last lap. Tim Johnson (CCB-Volkswagen) of Middleton led a
four-man breakaway to win that race, fighting a frosty headwind on the
cinder-track backstretch with runner-up Justin Spinelli (NECSA) of Nashua, N.H.,
falling back and then bridging the gap several times. Page still got on the
podium Friday, in fourth place.
Yesterday, Mark McCormack said,
Bowen's failure to get up front in the first lap left him in a "kind of awkward"
position to protect Saturn's lead. Frank McCormack, who was 1996 national
cyclocross champion and also held the national criterium title in 1995 and 1996,
"helped me last year, and it's always a privilege to help a teammate," Mark
McCormack said.
Mark McCormack, 28, leader of the Saturn SuperCup
cyclocross series, said the seventh and final race in the series today, also at
Devens but on a different course, is "not sewn up."
Dale Knapp
(Control Tech-Kona) of Tacoma, Wash., who was eighth yesterday, "can beat me by
one place" for the SuperCup title, Mark McCormack said. "If he wins, I have to
get second. If he gets third, I can get sixth" and still win the series. "But
I'm going to race tomorrow to win."
Today's racing begins at 10:30
a.m., with the elite men's category starting at 2:15 p.m.
In the
women's race yesterday, defending champion Alison Dunlap (Team GT) attacked
early on the flat, straight backstretch and stayed ahead of SuperCup series
leader Ann Grande (Redline) of Seattle to win. Grande fended off Carmen
Richardson (Head Shok-Cannondale) of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Mary Hearn
(Polo Sport) of Menlo Park, Calif., to earn second place.
Collegiate,
espoirs, junior and masters women were on the course at the same time, with
36-year-old Katie Blincoe (Redline) of Mercer Island, Wash., finishing fifth
overall to win two medals: one for the top-5 finish with the elite women and one
for first place among masters women 35 and up.
Liz Begosh
(NECSA-Richard Sachs) of Providence, a student at Rhode Island School of Design,
was also a double medalist, leading both the collegiate and espoirs fields after
passing Katherine Greenia (UMass-Amherst) of Northampton and Cori Book
(Celestial Seasonings) of Northfield, N.H. Sarah Uhl (NECSA) of Perkasie, Pa.,
sneaked ahead of Alicia Genest (NECSA-Richard Sachs) of Jamestown, R.I., for the
juniors' gold medal.
In the men's masters (45 and up) race, Dan
Norton (Redline-JogMate) of Seattle won his fifth consecutive national
cyclocross championship, 32 seconds ahead of Mark Hagen (CCB) of Natick. The
real battle was for third place, with David Rath (Green Mountain Bike Club) of
North Ferrisburg, Vt., edging out Eddie Quinn (Portland Velo Club) of North
Yarmouth, Maine, in a sprint to the finish line.
~~~
U.S. Cyclocross
National Championships
Dec. 20, 1998, at Devens, Mass.
Elite men: 1, Frank McCormack (Saturn), Leicester, Mass., 1:03:48. 2, Steve Larsen (Schwinn-Toyota), Bend, Ore., 1:04:07. 3, Jonathan Page (Head Shok-Cannondale), Northfield, N.H., 1:04:08. 4, Mark McCormack (Saturn), North Easton, Mass., 1:04:09. 5, Bart Bowen (Saturn), Albuquerque, N.M., 1:04:10.
Elite women: 1, Alison Dunlap (Team GT), Colorado Springs, Colo., 40:55. 2, Ann Grande (Redline), Seattle, 41:09. 3, Carmen Richardson (Head Shok-Cannondale), Colorado Springs, 41:26. 4, Mary Hearn (Polo Sport), Menlo Park, Calif., 41:39. 5, Katie Blincoe (Redline-JogMate), Seattle, 42:09.
Collegiate women: 1, Liz Begosh (RISD), Providence, 45:08. 2, Katherine Greenia (UMass-Amherst), Northampton, Mass., 45:44. 3, Heather Peck, 46:44.
Espoirs women: 1, Liz Begosh (NECSA-Richard Sachs), Providence, 45:08. 2, Cori Book (Celestial Seasonings), Northfield, N.H., 46:02. 3, Nicole Reinhart (Shaklee), Topton, Pa., 47:31.
Junior women: 1, Sarah Uhl (NECSA), Perkasie, Pa., 47:33. 2, Alicia Genest (NECSA-Richard Sachs), Jamestown, R.I., 48:19. 3, Allie Warfel (Red Rose Rockets), Millersville, Pa., 49:18.
Masters women (35 and up): 1. Katie Blincoe (Redline-JogMate), Seattle, 42:09. 2, Kathi Riggert (Independent Fabrication), Concord, Mass., 42:43. 3, Jodi Groesbeck (Heart of New England), Sharon, N.H., 43:12.
Masters men (45 and up): 1, Dan Norton (Redline-JogMate), Seattle, 44:40. 2, Mark Hagen (CCB), Natick, Mass., 45:12. 3, David Rath (Green Mountain Bike Club), North Ferrisburg, Vt., 46:23.
Men's "B" race (non-championship): 1, Paul Pontene, 46:29. 2, Scott Plante,
46:36. 3, Sandy Perrins, 46:46.
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