Fly V lands one-two punch

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Ben Kersten (Fly V Australia) blasted through a crash-filled sprint to take victory ahead of his teammate Alessandro Bazzana at the Tour of Somerville on Memorial Day Monday. Clayton Barrows (AXA Equitable Cycling Team/CRCA) rounded out the podium in third.

"I was keen on doing this race because I had heard about it, it catered to my track background," said Kersten. "The team did a great job; David Tanner kicked it with about 600 metres to go and Alessandro Bazzana went with 400 metres to go and he held on for second and I got the win.

"It was a very interesting course and 800 metres from the last corner to the finish line," continued the Australian. "It was slightly uphill with a head wind and I think a lot of people got it wrong. Judging the line was hard and it was easy to go early because you get excited seeing the banners but it was a really long straight."

The Lantus Tour of Somerville celebrated its 70th anniversary with some 150 riders in the professional men's Kugler-Anderson Memorial criterium, an 80km race worth $15,000 in prizes and well known as the Kentucky Derby of cycling in America.

The event takes place annually in New Jersey and title sponsored by Sanofi Aventis and Lantus, which also sponsor the Team Type 1 squad. The event's location is also home of Jamis-Sutter Home p/b Colavita sponsors Colavita USA and Jamis Bicycles, giving the race added importance for both professional teams.

The event's four corner circuit started on West Main Street, took a left onto Grove Steet, another left onto the back stretch on West High Street, rounded a left onto Mountain Avenue before blasting through the final corner for a 800-metre dash to the finish line.

"We had a tactic that we had discussed a couple days ago with [Ed] Beamon, our directeur here, who has done this race a thousand times and knew exactly what was going to happen," Kersten said. "We only had five riders so we couldn't take full control of the race.

"We had to make sure that the two major teams, Team Type 1 and Jamis, weren't both in a move without us. If they weren't in a move, then it was up to them to chase on their own home turf. We had a lot of confidence in our sprint finish and as soon as we saw the course we thought that I would most likely win."

The race got under way with a flurry of attacks however, the natural momentum of the course coupled with the speed of a sprint-hungry peloton held the field together for most of the race. With 10 laps to go, National Racing Calendar (NRC) individual standings leader Luis Amaran and Alejandro Borrajo (Jamis-Sutter Home p/b Colavita), attacked the field and worked together to try to maintain a 30-second lead ahead of the peloton.

"Somerville is a hometown race for me so there is a little bit of pride there," said Fly V Australia's technical director Ed Beamon. "We had to come here with a small crew but one that we had a lot of confidence in. We hoped that Team Type 1 would take some control and they did, so we sat back because they had so many guys. They did most of that work to bring those two guys back."

Team Type 1 took on the responsibility to reel in the pair of threatening contenders who were reabsorbed into the field with five laps to go. The two riders stayed near the front of the field to set up a lead-out train for sprinter Ivan Dominguez, who crashed with 200 metres to go.

"We rode the last four laps on the front and the last lap was crazy, as always," said the squad's directeur sportif, Sebastian Alexandre. "Luis, Alejandro and Ivan were together and someone took Ivan's wheel from Ale so he lost the train with two corners to go and they sprinted separately. Luis and Ale were doing the lead-out on one side and Ivan was on the other side of the road.

"We know that Somerville is a hard race for breakaways but we tried to make the race hard," he added. "That is what we did so we are happy. We gave it a shot. Having Ivan sitting in today was a good card. Unfortunately he crashed."

Jamis-Sutter Home riders were the first through the last corner followed by the Fly V Australia's crew of sprinters who timed their sprint to perfection, outpacing their rival fast-men in the gallop to the line to take the top two places of the prestigious podium with Kersten and Bazzana.

Colavita-Baci makes sponsors proud in Somerville

Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light) won the women's Kugler Open in front of a sponsor-filled audience at the finale race of the Tour of Somerville. She outpaced runner up Kristy Broun (Verducci Breakaway Racing) and former US Criterium Champion Brooke Miller (Tibco) in third.

"We were riding for a sprint today and our main goal was to keep everything together," Cliff-Ryan explained afterwards. "We weren't stressing trying to get away because we were confident we could win a sprint. The girls kept it together and did a huge lead-out, it was perfect."

"Of course this race is very important to us," she added. "Colavita and Jamis groups are really good and supportive and they understand bike racing. We always want to win this one for them so we are happy to pull that off."

The women's Kugler Open, a 32km criterium, offered $7,000 in cash prizes and was contested by some 50 Pro and Elite racers. Verducci Breakaway Racing were arguably the most aggressive riders in the bunch; however, the fast course design has traditionally left little opportunity for a breakaway to succeed to the line.

"It was roasting hot today," said Rachel Heal, Colavita-Baci directeur sportif. "But it is a hard course to get away on and a break never seems to stick. There was a lot of attacking but no break got any distance. We wanted it to come down to a bunch sprint because that suited us well. This is also an important race for us because it is in both our sponsors, Colavita and Jamis' backyard in New Jersey."

Colavita-Baci's seven-woman team proved to have the strongest lead-out train with two laps to go. They ramped up the speed on the final lap and Cliff-Ryan sat protected behind two of her teammates Modesta Vzesniauskaite and Kelly Benjamin. As the trio exited the last corner, they were followed closely by Miller and Broun. Cliff-Ryan jumped early and held her sprint the line for the victory.

"Brooke, Kristy and Laura Van Gilder were behind me," Cliff-Ryan said. "Kelly was the last lead-out for me and I left a gap on her because I didn't want to get boxed in. I wanted to wait as long as possible because it was a head wind. As soon as I heard Brooke coming at me I got a run at Kelly and was able to hold on to the line. I started it with 200 metres to go."

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