Tuesday, March 29, 2005
This past weekend was a low profile race for Team Monex with only three riders - Emile, Giancarlo and Carlos. The prologue, like every year for this race was a timing disaster, even this year the race organization tried to correct the problem with timing chips, but it did not work out a hundred percent. Giancarlo caught the 30 seconds rider in front of him, putting in an extra effort to chase his Italian compatriot and ex teammate in Italy and last year’s Monex rider Davide Frattini. However, with no results posted until the next day the official results listed Giancarlo 26 seconds behind Frattini, and Carlos was absent from the results. They corrected what they could, but the team was ultimately not given accurate times and therefore did not have a chance for the overall. So, they started the next with the goal of a stage win or to earn the other two jerseys available – Sprint and KOM (King of the Mountain).
For the second stage, all day it was cold and raining. They told the guys to be aggressive from the beginning and Carlos broke away with Aaron Olsen from Colavita and Eric Wohlberg. With twenty miles to go the three had four minutes on the field, putting the Health Net leader in jeopardy. At that time all ten of Health Net decided to chase down the break. But in the process Carlos took the lead of the KOM jersey. By the end, Giancarlo finished eight in the field sprint, and had a big smile after the race, as a climber he was proud of himself to finish well in a field sprint.
The last day, the sun came out for the technical crit in downtown San Dimas. Right from the beginning a break went away with six guys including Giancarlo and gained 40 seconds, it looked like they might lap the field. With other teams in the back looking for time bonuses the break was caught and the race finished in a field sprint, where Emile got top ten.
Although Team Monex had only three riders for this weekend, they were very proud of the results. The only podium for the weekend was after the crit, with Moninger as overall winner, Gord Fraser in sprint jersey, and Carlos winning the KOM.
Next up is the Redlands Classic.