The Cycliste Moderne, June 6, 2005

USPRO Championship Recap

Health Net concluded a dominant week by winning the third Wachovia race, and by far the most important, the USPRO Championship Sunday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Health Net’s performance was most impressive: not only did they win three races with three different riders but American Chris Wherry became the USPRO Champion by winning Sunday’s finale.

This year’s USPRO Championship did not follow the script from the past few years. Either a small European lead breakaway goes off with a few Americans in tow and rides to the finish or the big teams pull the race back together for a field sprint where Fred Rodriguez manages to hold off the domestic American sprinters.

In an unusual turn of events, a large break went away early and stayed away for most of the race. The break had about 35 riders in it and all of the European teams were well represented with multiple strong riders in the break. Unfortunately, Bobby Julich and Fred Rodriguez missed that break were left in the unenviable position of sitting back and waiting, knowing they had teammates ahead. By the time they actually started to attack, the race was pretty much over. Danny Pate of Jelly Belly attacked and got a gap over the leading group just as it was caught by the chase group. Only Chris Wherry and Chris Horner of Saunier Duval-Prodir managed to get across to Pate. The three worked hard to stay away and then aggressively attacked each other all the way to the finish. In the end, Wherry took a very deserved victory that clearly was not unexpected by Health Net, which had come to the race with its own national champion jersey printed in hopes that one of its American riders would be able to use it.


Chris Horner Returns.

Chris Horner of Saunier Duval-Prodir had a great week. He finished third on Sunday after coming back from a pelvic fracture that has kept him out of action for several months. He was strong in all three Wachovia races and should be able to get some European results this season. His hope is to ride the Tour de France for his team, however, it is unclear if he will have sufficient form for a three week race starting just a month from now.


Americans Dominate America’s National Championship.

Unlike the national championships for virtually every other country in the world, the USPRO Championship is open to professional cyclists from all over the world. The first American finisher during the USPRO Championship is given the stars and stripes national champion's jersey. Some years the US National Champion has been the fifth or sixth finisher. The most impressive thing about today’s race was not that Health Net’s Chris Wherry won, or that Chris Horner had a good day, but rather the fact that the first five riders across the line were Americans. That has not happened for some time as European pros have had significant success over the years at the USPRO Championship. It is much more meaningful when the winner of the USPRO Stars and Stripes National Champion Jersey has won the race outright and is not just the first American across the line. In fact, of the first nine riders, six were Americans and three more rode for teams sponsored by American companies.

Dauphine Libere Recap.

Sunday was a good day for Americans in Europe as well. George Hincapie did not contest the USPRO Championship as he typically does on Sunday. Instead, he won the the prologue of the Dauphine Libere. It is clear that he will likely take on significant responsibility for Discovery Channel in the wake of the injury to Slava Ekimov which will leave Ekimov out of Discovery’s Tour line up. Americans Levi Leipheimer of Gerolsteiner, Floyd Landis of Phonak and Lance Armstrong of Discovery Channel finished second, fourth and fifth respectively, all within six seconds of Hincapie’s winning time.

The Dauphine is an excellent test of fitness prior to the Tour de France due to its mixture of stages and disciplines over seven stages and a prologue in and around the Alps. The Dauphine runs through the week with a difficult time trial on Wednesday, a finish on Mont Ventoux on Thursday and four climbs on the way to Friday’s finish in Morzine that are either Category 1 or Hors Category. Armstrong is not likely to show all of his cards during this week’s race. However, if he fails to finish in the top ten it may portend bad things come July as there is not much time left to get the type of form he will need to win a seventh Tour de France.