CRCA riders had an impact in every category race at Fitchburg with several outstanding performances. For the race CRCA had 2 first place finishes. Jon Chodroff in the Pro/1 TT and Cheyne Hoag in the Cat 2 Road Race. Cheyne also won the GC. In all CRCA had 23 top 10 placings.

Following up on Jonathan Chodroff’s win in the TT, Empire’s Matthew Johnson finished 6th in the final GC standings. This was an excellent showing for Empire against the top NRC Pro teams. Johnson, a former top junior rider is showing his old form after a long layoff from racing. He also won this year’s Bear Mountain race. Lisban Quintero of CRCA/Foundation placed 6th in the 4th stage criterium and 20th overall.

Elena Leznik and Maria Quiroga of CRCA/Radical Media showed they can ride with the big girls. Riding in a field including several of the top Pro teams Elena came in 16th and Maria 34th. Elena lost 2:01 in the TT and finished only 3:28 back, beating many Pro team riders. She place 11th in the Road Race. This was an excellent first stage race against higher level competition for both Elena and Maria. Cecilia Pleva also of CRCA/Radical Media got 14th in the Circuit Race.

Cheyne Hoag of CRCA/Sakonnet won the Cat 2 GC. He won the road race by 30 seconds. David Taylor of CRCA/Blue Ribbon who usually podiums in the master’s race, tried his hand against the younger guys and held his own, placing 25th, 2:50 behind Cheyne. Alex Bremer CRCA/Empire placed 4th in the TT and 13th in the road race while Alejandro Guzman CRCA/Foundation came on strong in the last 2 days picking up 3rd in the Circuit Race and 2nd in the Crit.

In his debut Cat 3 race, Colin Prensky CRCA/Sanchez Metro finished 6th in GC. He finished 1:06 behind the winner and lost almost all of his time in the TT, 40 seconds. Greg Olsen of CRCA/Jonathan Adler got second in the TT and finished 8th in GC. His teammates Kyle Peppo and Tony Slokar were 21st and 24th. While 24th Slokar was only 2:03 behind the winner in this tightly contested race. Pascal Sauvayre CRCA/Merrill Lynch was 18th, 1:50 back and Brian Gabele CRCA/South Africa.com was 22nd. In the TT Olsen was 2nd, Gabele 3rd and Chris Chaput 4th.

In a very tough juniors field, Connor Sallee placed 14th capped by a 7th place finish in the Crit. He finished first among the riders competing to be on the Northeast Regional Team that will be competing in the Tour de L’Abitibi at the end of the month. Until getting caught behind a crash on the final days crit, Evan Cooper was fighting for a top 20 placing. He ended up in 39th. Graham Lang finished 36th and rode very well in several stages finishing 21st in the crit. Connor’s next big race is L’Abitibi. From there he will join his teammates in Los Angeles for Junior Nationals.

In the Cat 4’s, Matt Cuttler CRCA/Affinity Cycles finished 8th. Am I imagining things or was there really a fall off in the number of CRCA Cat 4’s heading up to Fitchburg?

There was no lack of CRCA Cat 4 women. Corinne Karmiel CRCA/Nyvelocity was the 2nd 4 and Deb Kilmon of CRCA/Comedy Central was 3rd. They were 12th and 17th overall in the 3/4 race. Ashley Prine CRCA/Radical Media finished 8th overall only 2:07 off the lead and Heidi Reijm CRCA/NYVelocity was the 5th Cat 4 and 19th overall. Ashely finished 7th in the TT, 8th in the Circuit Race and 11th in the Road Race. Corinne finished 8th in the Road Race.

CRCA turnout in the masters was also down from past years. Kurt Gustafsson of CRCA/Axis finished 23rd and his teammate Geoff Bickford 34th.