Sept. 14, 2003
UCI 1.3 race
Ken Papai, updated 9/16/03, 1:25 PM PDT
Adam Livingston (Schroeder Iron) is the first one to summit Fillmore! He gets the first KOM points.
Scottie Weiss (West Virginia Cycling) is right there too. What a superb effort.
John Peters (Prime Alliance) at far right, with Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal) close behind,
at the far left in this image. The most prominent WebCor racer is the ex-Postie Darren Baker.
Darren completed the 1998 ('97?) Tour of Spain (la Vuelta). Where is Webcor's Steve Larsen?
Baker and Peters are neighbors up in Sonoma County. The Wednesday rides feature these guys pretty often.
Mike Sayers and Levi Leipheimer have been known to join too.
Lance Armstrong (USPS) summits Fillmore. Lance was still recovering from the flue or something he had the previous few days; like a flashback to this race's 2001 inaugural event where Lance was sick then and played the super-domestique role.
Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) summits along with teammate Jonathan Vaughters. Vaughters is a skinny mountain goat and Jonas is a super swift sprinter who wins a dozen races every year. Jonas played an excellent domestique role today as well. What a guy! At the right are Health Net's Mike Sayers and Gord Fraser (sneaking in next to the fence), thinking abut next lap's attack already I am sure.
Giuseppe Guerini (Telokom) and "Slava" Ekimov (US Postal) at far left about to "mow me over" if I don't get out of the way of that Diesel. Guerini won the most famous Alpe d'Huez stage at the Tour de France in 2000 when a photographer mowed him down. Who can ever forget "Eric the Moron" (the photog) from that incident?! Chris Baldwin (Navigators) #41, is also most prominent in this picture.
Gabriele Colombo in the zebra-stribed uniforms of Domina Vacanze (Mario Cipollini's team). Isn't that Saturn's Ivan Dominguez in this frame too?
Sterling Magnell (Sierra Nevada brewing co.) is the youngest guy in the field. Sterling is 19 years old now?
The day's first real attack and it's Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joe's Coffee), Chris Wherry (Navigators), and Gord Fraser (Health Net).
Two more will join them:
Jason Lokkesmoe and the old guy, Rolf Aldag. Jason and Rolf bridged up to the leading three very quickly.
Lap Time from previous lap took just 25 minutes!
Rolf Aldag (Telekom) showing off his steep hill strength.
Matt DeCanio (Prime Alliance) has tattoos that resemble muscles. Behind him is Telekom's Stefan Schumacher and Navigator's Jeff Louder. These guys are forming the chase group. DeCanio is an animated racer -- maybe it's his tattoos that give him a slightly comic book appearance. You cannot doubt his determination because this guy shows up TO RACE.
Jeff Louder showing off excellent power climbing form with a little pained facial expression happening. If your smallest gear was a 39x25 then you're going to be in trouble on Fillmore -- maybe not on the first or 2nd lap but just wait for laps 3, 4, 5, ... !! Gord Fraser sported a triple even. Just like the Vuelta's cruel, mean, harsh, and steep Angliru where triples are on most pros' front chainring setups. What if it rained? What if the fog were so thick the road was wet and slippery? These guys are PAID to race so no complaining.
David Clinger climbing Fillmore. Clinger is attempting to bridge to the main chase group and become part of that important chase, so early on in the race. At this point just 20 miles have been ridden and the race is 47 minutes old.
Tim Johnson climbing Fillmore -- this is how steep it really is, 21% pitch. Insane. It never snows in San Francisco, otherwise this would be illegal.
Greg Drake is back for more suffering. Just look at the effort his face shows. Drake has cycling in his genes. It's embedded in his DNA. Does he live near Palo Alto? Is there a cyclist gene factory near there? I bet Greg has a software job that allows him to train for 25 hrs./week in the two months leading up to this race. In a way I am envious and in awe.
Alexandre Vinokourov climbing Fillmore, in front of the peloton.
Vinokourov climbing Fillmore with his typically expressionless, stoic (and pain-free) face.
John Lieswyn (7Up) (far left) climbing and looking for room to avoid being squeezed out. Check out the road rash on Ciaran Power's (Ireland, Navigators) leg! He must have crashed yesterday in the San Rafael crit. It's weird it's not covered up and bandaged. You do not want to let hard scabs form because scarring gets so much worse and longer lasting. Where is his team doctor? I call this the poorest move of the day.
Jon Vaughters showing the effects already on how tough this race is. Then again, this is mostly Vaughters concentrating and focusing to get up this climb OK and pick his way through the outside with as little effort as possible.
This lap took just 24 minutes.
743 - the 5 leaders.
744 - Grajales
750 - the Chasers
Erik Saunders giving it his all! Can there be any doubt?
759 - Saturn #5 - Trent Klasna
764 - SportsBook.com - Larry Perera
768 - The Peloton - Bay Drop off
770 - Stefano Garzelli
773 - Lance & Eki
775 - Mark McM.
779 - John Hunt
This lap took 25 minutes, very consistent.
788 - the 5 leaders again.
"IMG_0805.jpg" Lance Armstrong
"IMG_0818.jpg" Lead Group of 5 - Aldag (Telekom), Grajales (Jittery Joe's), Lokkesmoe (Health Net), Fraser (Health Net), and Chris Wherry (Navigators) This is at the Chestnut St. Hot Spot prime sprint.
"In past years Armstrong has been content to pay back his team-mates for their support during the year ... Armstrong seems likely to ride in support of super-domestique Viatcheslav Ekimov."
"Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich won't be in San Francisco but the Tour podium's third man, Alexandre Vinokourov will. He'll be joined by Giro d'Italia winner Gilberto Simoni and runner-up Stefano Garzelli, making for far and away the highest quality field that has ever taken the start in San Francisco. "
"The visitors are unlikely to have everything their own way if the impressive line-up of top local talent has anything to say about it. Last year's winner Charles Dionne will be looking to defend his title [except he got hurt too many times this year], and he will have a strong Saturn line-up behind him. Also chasing the glory that comes with a win here will be Chris Baldwin's Navigators team, Jonathan Vaughters and Prime Alliance and Cyclingnews diarist John Lieswyn and his 7UP/Maxxis squad."
"The T-Mobile International also features a women's race for the first time this year and riders to watch there include ... [Nicole Cooke], three-time USCF Elite National Champion Dede Demet-Barry (T-Mobile), and 2003 Housatonic Classic winner Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite)."
Course description
"The men's 109 mile road race starts and finishes on the Embarcadero at the end of Market Street, near the city's famous Ferry Building in San Francisco. The women's field will race 49 miles. From The Start/Finish, the course winds through North Beach, along Fisherman's Wharf and the Marina. Halfway through the 10 mile circuit, the flatlands along the beautiful bay give way to the gut-busting climb up Fillmore Street. Once the riders reach the top of the steep 3-block climb; they will race through Russian Hill, back through North Beach, and to the Embarcadero."
Lap Length: 16.65 km/10.3 miles Climbing per Lap: 215.25 meters / 706.25 feet Maximum Elevation: 73.40 meters / 241.80 feet (from www.Cyclingnews.com)
The Women's Race - first time the women did this course (4 big laps-worth) Mark VandenBerghe's excellent SF 2003 race photos and report web site. He took over a thousand shots!!
2003 Event website - official site.
CONTACT INFO:
Please email me (ken@kenpapai.com) with any corrrections, additions, questions, speculations or whatever.
Most of these photos I have in 3 or 6 megapixel mode so they make great 8x10's or 11x14's.
I also make available for download the image original for a small fee.
I am located in Marin County, California and am more than reasonable.
Keep cheering! Ken.
