AUBURN – Amy Wallace had been advised that if she wanted to win, she better have the lead after the final turn on Sunday.
Those words of wisdom echoed in her mind as the Women’s Pro 1/2/3/ race in the Great Falls Criterium became a two-person battle of wills. Wallace and Portland’s Marianne Stover burst ahead of the pack and spent much of Sunday’s 20-lap race awaiting each other’s move.
Wallace had the lead coming down the sprint on Main Street, but it didn’t last long. Stover had been waiting for her chance, and 20 meters from the corner was the opportune time.
“I knew when I had to go,” said Stover, who won the Category 4 and 3 races in recent years. “I knew I had the legs. I was very aware of what gear she was in and what gear I was in.”
By the time the two hit Court Street, Stover took the lead and there was little Wallace could do about it.
“She just came around me with a lot of momentum, and it was over,” said Wallace. “Once I got around the corner, she was way too far ahead of me.”
Wallace managed a pair of second-place finishes over the weekend, taking second in the Lake Auburn Road Race on Saturday.
“I’d never done this race before, but my teammates and friends who have told me that you have to be first coming through that last corner,” said Wallace. “That was definitely true. You want to start sprinting, but you usually have more than that distance to sprint. Coming through the corner, you can’t stand up and start sprinting.”
While Stover added her third win in four years, Robbie King won his second straight in the Men’s Pro 1/2/3 race. He held off New Hampshire’s Ryan O’Connor in second while Scott Plante took third.
“It definitely gives your confidence a boost,” said King, from Brentwood, N.H. “You feel good when you’ve won it before, and you know you can do it.”
King got a little help from his friends Sunday. Riding for the Louis Garneau team, King and his teammates set the tone early, allowing for King to make his move on the final lap.
“If I were a marked man without a team here, I really doubt it would have happened,” said King. “Everyone was being aggressive. We set the tone right from the gun.”
The men’s 35-lap race had a variety of leaders. While an early group pushed the issue, they were quickly reeled in. From there, nobody was able to open up a significant lead despite numerous efforts.
“Any time another member of another team went off, if I wasn’t able to chase him myself, someone else on the team was right there,” said King.
Dan Greenfield, another Louis Garneau rider, took the lead late in the race, but the pack surged in the final lap. King had success cutting the corner on the third turn onto Main Street. So he hoped to try it on the final turn.
“Coming around that third corner, I just sprinted up the inside,” said King. “I’m pretty good at cornering. So I took that corner on the inside and pedaled as long as I could into the corner and just drilled it up the outside. That worked really well. So I decided to repeat that for the finish.”
With a strong head wind as the group went into the final corner, King thought he could use that to his advantage. He had the lead coming onto Court Street and hoped to hold off the pack during the short sprint to the finish.
“I found myself at the front a little before I wanted to be,” he said. “I sprinted with all I had and went as fast as I could to the line and took it by like half a bike length. You just hope to hold it.”
The Criterium was the climax of the Lewiston-Auburn Wellness Weekend. It featured nearly a dozen races and nearly $1,800 in prize money.
In the Category 3 race, New Hampshire’s Dave Mitchell was the winner. Maine’s John Meerse, of the Fastsplits Cycling Team, was fourth. Edward Sebok, of the Portland Velo Club, took the Category 5 race. Nathanial Smith, of the Maine Cycling Club, was third. Maine riders took the top two spots in the Category 4 race. Ross Brady won the event while Fred Thomas, of Portland Velo Club, was second.
In the Master’s 55 race, Richard Sealey was the winner. Hank Pfiefle, of Gorham Bike, won the Master’s 45 race. In the Master’s 35 event, Patrick Ruane, of New Hampshire, took first. In the Women’s Category 4 race, Kendra Jarratt was the victor. New Hampshire’s Alessio Bares won the Junior race.
In the Women’s Pro race, Stover burst out to the early lead, but Wallace soon caught her.
“I crested the hill and saw that she was off the front,” said Wallace, of Dalton, Mass. “So I spent the next lap working my way back up the field. The next lap, I was able to catch her.”
By the midway point, Wallace and Stover were far ahead of the pack. Kristina Easton, a Verizon Wireless Wheelworks’ teammate of Wallace, made a late surge to take third.
“It wasn’t really the plan,” said Stover of the early lead. “Anytime I can get out there and make other teams chase, I want to do that. It just stuck. It wasn’t in the plan, but I wasn’t going to back it off.”
Wallace and Stover stayed together for the final half of the race before Stover made her move.
“I knew she was a good sprinter,” said Wallace. “She has more race experience than I do. I knew she’d be wily on that last lap, and she was.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
