Nebraska Cycling News

Peterson 29th, Lewis 30th as Only Americans in Main Group After 172-Kilometer Road Race

Stuttgart, Germany - After 172 kilometers of racing, Thomas Peterson (Boulder, Colo./Slipstream-Chipotle) emerged as the fastest American from the 168-rider field in the U23 men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Saturday.  Peterson placed 29th in a field-sprint finish that was won by Slovakian Peter Velits ahead of Wesley Sulzberger (AUS) and Jonathan Bellis (GBR).

Craig Lewis (Spartanburg, S.C./Slipstream-Chipotle), who became the latest American to sign with a UCI ProTour team after inking a deal with T-Mobile on Friday, finished 30th as the only other U.S. rider in the lead group.  Peter Stetina (Boulder, Colo./Slipstream-Chipotle), finished 93rd, 11 minutes, 12 seconds off the pace of the leaders and Max Jenkins (Berkeley, Calif./California Giant) placed 110th at +16:24.  First-year U23 competitor Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo./VMG Racing) withdrew midway through the race after awakening with a fever on Saturday morning.

The nine-lap race was marked by several significant breakaways but ultimately came down to a 50-rider sprint despite the selective nature of the course profile.  Once in the final kilometer, Lewis was the first rider to jump but was quickly overpowered by much of the field in the final dash to the line. Without a pure sprinter on the roster, the team was still able to place Peterson and Lewis in the top 30 as both avoided an eleventh-hour crash in the closing meters.

"I thought our chances were pretty low once the last group came back together," Peterson admitted about the team's prospects in the final sprint, "but you've got to give it a go. On the last lap there was a group of about 13 riders away and I looked at Craig like 'what do we do, they've got 25 seconds?' and he told me there were a lot of strong guys out there and to just see what happens over the next lap and be aggressive and see if we can get to the front and get away or something." 

Once the group made contact with the last break of 13 riders with about five kilometers remaining, the speed of the peloton was too high for any more attacks to succeed.

"It was going really fast. There was no way we were getting off the front there" Peterson recalled.

Compared to previous editions, the intensity of the U23 road race in Stuttgart was heightened earlier than expected according to Noel Dejonckheere, USA Cycling's U23 national team director.

"A world championship race usually happens in the last two laps, so the plan was to go as long as we could," he explained. "Guys started racing hard early and I think by the time the end came around they just didn't have the juice to pick it up that last little bit."

"I think the only major thing we had working against us is that we really didn't have a big sprinter that can climb a little bit.  Tejay was sick this morning, and if you look at Jenkins and Stetina, they are still pretty young and don't have so much experience. I think the other two guys rode as well as they could. They were in the first group but neither of them are true sprinters."

Dejonckheere, who also directs the USA Cycling National Development Team year-round at its home base in Izegem, Belgium, also put Saturday's performance in perspective given the increased level of competitiveness in the U23 category and a young squad that featured three 20-year-olds and a 19-year old (only Lewis loses his U23 eligibility next season).     

"I hope they pick something up from this year. The world championships for Under 23's isn't a world championship like before anymore if you have guys that did the Giro d'Italia already this year racing.  There were maybe 25 or 30 riders who are on European Pro Continental Teams that do the Spring Classics and other major pro races and guys who have won category-1 pro races this year in there. You really can't say it's like an amateur race anymore. It's beginning to reach an extremely high level compared to how it was a few years ago."

The U.S. National Team will have one final shot at the podium on Sunday as the elite men will compete in their 267-kilometer road race.  Representing the United States will be George Hincapie (Greenville, S.C./Discovery Channel), Bobby Julich (Glenwood Springs, Colo./Team CSC), Jason McCartney (Coralville, Iowa/Discovery Channel), John Devine (Dixon, Ill./Discovery Channel), Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee, Wash./Cofidis), David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah/Team CSC) and Christian Vande Velde (Boulder, Colo./Team CSC). 

2007 UCI Road World Championships

Stuttgart, Germany

September 26-30, 2007:

U23 Men's Road Race

1. Peter Velits (SVK) 4:21:22

2. Wesley Sulzberger (AUS) s.t.

3. Jonathan Bellis (GBR) s.t.

29. Thomas Peterson (Boulder, Colo.)

30. Craig Lewis (Spartanburg, S.C.)

93. Peter Stetina (Boulder, Colo.) +11:12

110. Max Jenkins (Berkeley, Calif.) +16.24

DNF. Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo.)