by Tim Henry, Professional Cyclist (West Virginia)
Date: 6-4-2003
Place: Lancaster, PA
Lancaster is that start of the fastest week of racing in the US. I got my first taste of really being a pro
because we had a team mechanic, manager, and soigneur. Everything was taken care of and all I had to do was race my bike. Living the bike racers dream is pretty cool. This race is notoriously the toughest of the entire week. The course is a 7 mile loop with four climbs, one quite steep through a park. The start is in downtown Lancaster and it winds through the town with lots of tight turns and bumpy roads. We were doing 13 laps for a total of 91 miles. The field was also a bit intimidating with every domestic pro team (except for Healthnet) and several euro teams in attendance. To make matters worse, the weather could not have been much worse. It was raining all day and the temperature at the start was 57 degrees. Hard to believe it was June...
The start was very fast and I tried to move up because I started at the very back. The whole thing was like
an assault on my senses. Then, in the first mile of the race I hit a pothole that knocked my rear wheel
horribly out of true. I loosened my brake and the wheel was still rolling so I kept going. We then hit
the first hill into the park. This hill was pretty tough. It was about 1k from the bottom to the very
top with one short downhill in the middle. It was not so bad at first. I even managed to big ring the whole
thing. After that climb we descended onto a flat road and stepped it up to about 35 mph. The field strung
out for the next three climbs and the pace never let up. Through the start/finish I tried to rest but had
to move up at the same time. When we hit the climb through the park the second time it was twice as bad.
I passed several big names over the top including Chann McRae and Freddy Rodriguez so I thought I was
doing well. This just about put me over the limit but
I moved back into the middle of the group on the descent. When we hit the flat road the pack strung
out and accellerated up to 35 again and that was it for me. I could not close the gap and shook my elbow
for the guy behind to pass me. This is where McRae and Rodriguez showed why they are both US National
Champions because they closed the gap easily. I moved to the back of the pack and got popped on the next
climb. I did not feel too bad about it because I saw
Jeff Hopkins and Cesar Grajales of Jittery Joe's and Kenny Labbae of US Postal drop off as well. When I
got back to the car I saw three other teammates so I know it was a fast race. In the end only about 25
riders finished and Jakob Piil of CSC won. It was probably not even cold for him. Scottie was the last
of the team to drop out and he did so only to avoid
getting sick. He is feeling strong and wants a good ride at Philly so that is all that matters. Trenton
is on Thursday and that is supposed to be super fast. There is only one small hill on that course though. That is about all for now, thanks for reading.
Tim