Walker claims men's elite road title
 The winning break of Elkins, Walker and Innes. Photo Casey B. Gibson |
As a lead-in to Thursday’s time trial event and Saturday’s road race that will result in three nominations to the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, today’s elite men’s national championship gave onlookers a first-hand look at the difficult and challenging terrain that will help to select a trio of worthy Olympic athletes. Chris Walker (Goleta, Calif.), a 42-year-old veteran rider for the Labor Power squad, claimed the elite men’s title today by attacking his two breakaway companions in the closing kilometer of the 157 km race.
After a 7km neutral start loop, the field of 127 riders set out for 10 laps of a 15km loop that featured a 2km ascent to Panorama Point on each lap. The stretch of road that topped out with a 20% grade, along with several other short climbs throughout the loop quickly separated the field as a break of five established itself early in the race. Evan Elken (Portland, Ore.), John Osguthorpe (Salt Lake City, Ore.), John Hunt (Fairfax, Calif.), Chris Peck (Southbury, Conn.), and Steve Tilford (Topeka, Kan.) distanced themselves from the remainder of the field and eventually increased their advantage to over a minute. Behind, a chase group of Curt Davis (Sandy Hook, Conn.), Michael Hutchinson (Napa, Calif.) and Walker bridged up to the leaders with six laps remaining. With an advantage of 1:30, the selective course continued to take its toll on the field as the main peloton splintered into several groups and riders in the break began to fall off the pace.
 Walker used a last km attack to win. Photo Casey B. Gibson |
From one of those groups behind, William Innes (Menlo Park, Calif.) managed to make his way across to the leaders and with three laps remaining, Innes, Walker and Elken would emerge as the winning move. With two laps remaining, what was left of the field was over four minutes off the pace as the leaders worked together to increase their advantage. In between, a couple of chasers lingered one minute behind but would not threaten the leaders.
As the race wound down to the closing kilometers, a series of attacks began as Elken was the first to try his hand at opening up a gap. Walker fired next with 3km to go, followed by another effort from Elkin as Innes looked content to let it boil down to a sprint. As the race neared the finish line inside of one kilometer to go, Walker tried one final attack. As Elken looked for Innes to respond, Walker continued to roll on towards the finish line claiming his national championship in solo fashion.
In the ensuing sprint, a fresher Innes easily took the sprint from Elken who spent himself in the final few attacks. “I knew that guy (Innes) had a big sprint so if I would have pulled him up after Walker attacked, then he would have won, it was the only thing I could have done.”
“I can’t sprint,” Walker admitted after the race explaining his eleventh hour tactic. “I just took off with about 1km to go and they sort of just looked at each other and that was it.”
Earlier in the day, Zach Taylor (Marietta, Ga.) won the junior men’s selection race. One of five in a series of events that factors into selection of the world championship team, this morning’s event covered the same 7.6km start loop followed by four laps of the circuit for a total of 67.6km.
 Taylor drew first blood in the Junior Selection Series. Photo Casey B. Gibson |
The first significant move of the day occurred when Taylor and Erek Riggs (Antelope, Calif.) amounted a 50-second gap on the field of 39 riders. As Taylor suffered up the climbs, Riggs opened up a slight gap, but as the bunch approached the base of the climb to Panorama Point for the third time the field was fully intact. With opportunities to create a selection dwindling, the pace up the climb intensified, and a group of 13 riders found itself with a slight advantage over a chase group of 12. Just before the start of the final lap, the two lead groups came together and Taylor made his move. By the time he made his way around to the final ascent up Panorama Point, Talyor had put a minute between himself and any challengers. As Riggs attempted to bridge across, Taylor managed to reach the summit with his one minute advantage secure.
With the field feverishly chasing from behind, it looked as though Taylor would be caught in the closing kilometers, but a strong final effort by Taylor, coupled with a breakdown in the chase behind, allowed Taylor to easily cruise in for the win 1:15 ahead of Luke Pennington (Hood River, Ore.) who took the sprint from the final group of 11 riders.
“I had trouble on the climbs all day long,” explained Taylor afterwards. “At the end of the third lap, I figured I was either going to help one of my teammates win, or get away before the climb. I got dropped on the little climb before the start of the last lap and when I finally caught up, I just went right by the field and time trialed all the way home.”
Racing continues and the stakes increase on Thursday with the USCF Elite Men’s and Women’s time trial events. The winner of each is crowned USCF National Time Trial Champion, but the winner of the women’s race also earns a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team.
This Article Published June 16, 2004 For more information contact:
