Saturn sweeps time trial nationals

Klasna, Bruckner take titles

• Results

By Bryan Jew, VeloNews Senior Writer

Team Saturn continued its mastery of the 2001 U.S. road season on Thursday, sweeping to dual national titles at the national time trial championships in Redding, California. Trent Klasna, on the biggest roll of his career, won the men’s title over defending champion Adham Sbeih (Navigators), while Kimberly Bruckner scored a mild surprise win, beating world time trial champion and four-time national time trial champion Mari Holden (Alfa Lum).

The women took to the road first on a day when high temperatures were to rise into the mid- to upper-90s. The rolling, 34km out-and-back course would provide a tough test in the hot conditions, and only five women would crack the 50-minute barrier, the first being Procter & Gamble’s Mina Pizzini, who started 12th from last and clocked a time of 49:51.

Bruckner, starting fifth from last, would shatter that time, blasting into the lead with a time of 47:33, the only woman on the day to go under 48 minutes. Her time easily withstood the challenges of Elizabeth Emery (Intersports), Pam Schuster (AutoTrader.com) and Holden, who was more than 40 seconds behind the Saturn rider.

“I can’t believe it,” said Bruckner. “I didn’t expect this at all.”

“Going out, I felt horrible,” she said. “I couldn’t get my legs going, I just felt like this wasn’t going to be my day. But then I hit the turnaround, and I started counting the girls coming the other way, and they were kind of further behind me and that psyched me up, and I flew coming back.”

Holden, wearing the rainbow stripes of world champion, said she wasn’t unhappy with the outcome.

“I’m satisfied with this race, this was my first time trial of the year, first effort on a time trial bike this year. It takes a while to get used to things again, but it’s the way I planned my preparation, and I’m not unhappy at all,” she said, emphasizing that she’s aiming toward peaking late in the season again this year, for the world championships in Portugal in October.

Klasna, on the other hand, began the season at the top of his game, and he just keeps on rolling along heading into the First Union USPRO Championships in Philadelphia in early June. The Saturn rider began the year with wins at Redlands and Sea Otter, and last weekend took the win at the 140-mile Housatonic Valley Classic. On Thursday, he added the national time trial title to the list.

Klasna’s ride stole the show from runner-up Sbeih and from 7UP-Colorado Cyclist’s Doug Ziewacz, who set the fast time early on, 43:57, with 40 riders still remaining to finish. Ziewacz kept his fingers crossed as the big guns began to come in, particularly when Mercury’s Scott Moninger fell just two seconds short of Ziewacz in 43:59. Only five riders remained on course, but Klasna ended all suspense when he came in at the untouchable time of 42:10, which would be more than a minute faster than Sbeih.

According to time splits, Sbeih held the lead on Klasna for most of the outbound trip, but in the second half of the race, Klasna held strong, while Sbeih couldn’t match the pace.

“I knew it was definitely false-flat [going out] and I knew it was going to be hard on your head, and it looked like you should be going a lot faster than you would on the way out, and it definitely was that,” explained Klasna. “I just kept telling myself I was going good. I was going 26mph on those false flats, and I figured that was a pretty good pace, and I turned around, and I was going 60k-an-hour [37mph] on the way back

“This is great. I just kind of came out here to see what would happen, and hoping it would happen. I wasn’t expecting it to happen, but it happened,” said an excited Klasna following the race.

After adding the national TT championship to go along with overall stage race wins at Sea Otter and Redlands, and the tough win at Housatonic, Klasna left no doubt that he’s been the best domestic rider of the spring. Now, he hopes he’ll be able to keep things rolling through Philadelphia.

Results

Men
1. Trent Klasna, Saturn, 34km in 42:10.63; 2. Adham Sbeih, Navigators, 43:18.90; 3. Doug Ziewacz, 7UP-Colorado Cyclist, 43:57.44; 4. Scott Moninger, Mercury, 43:59.74; 5. Clark Sheehan, 7UP-Colorado Cyclist, 44:40.90; 6. Albert Dall, Redwood Empire, 44:48.21; 7. Thomas McCallion, Fairway-CYFAC, 45:06.16; 8. Jonathan Heidemann, Monsoon, 45:33.09; 9. Kenneth Zimmerman, KHS.nm, 45:33.37; 10. John Lieswyn, 7UP-Colorado Cyclist, 45:35.84.

Women
1. Kimberly Bruckner, Saturn, 34km in 47:33.24; 2. Mari Holden, Alfa Lum, 48:13.86; 3. Pam Schuster, AutoTrader.com, 49:39.25; 4. Elizabeth Emery, Intersports, 49:39.58; 5. Mina Pizzini, Procter & Gamble, 49:51.51; 6. Amber Neben, Harbour Lights, 50:00.53; 7. Tina Mayolo, AutoTrader.com, 50:30.05; 8. Suzanne Sonye, Saturn, 50:34.91; 9. Dotsie Cowden, Team Earthlink, 50:38.15; 10. Sandra Kolb, Genessee Valley Cycling, 51:08.61.

Espoir women
1. Melanie McQuaid, Davis Biking Club, 52:28.15; 2. Larssyn Staley, Saturn Development, 53:38.12; 3. Allie Warfel, Genessee Valley Cycling, 53:41.77; 4. Janine Verstraeten, Trek, 55:03.86; 5. Allison Beall, unattached, 55:21.64; 6. Lauren Gaffney, Genessee Valley Cycling, 55:37.08; 7. Megan Elliott, Iowa City CC, 1:04:29.52.

Tandem men
1. Larry Shannon-Glenn Bunselmeyer, Excel-DeFeet-Chinook, 43:15.11.

Tandem women
1. Susan Shook-Byrnes, Tamara House-Williamson, Harbour Lights, 48:18.23; 2. Jennifer Whatley-Joy Shaffer, LGBRC-Ciena, 50:25.28

Mixed tandem
1. Doug Grattan-Carol Breed, 45:11.16; 2. Roger Bowersock-Nicole Arner, Trane-BGI, 47:19.02; 3. Michael Hernandez-Jenny Frayer, Bicycle Warehouse, 47:41.45; 4. Kelly Silberberg-Lorraine Jarvis, Napa Valley Velo, 51:20.38; Out of competition: Danial Doornbos-Anita Doornbos, Zia Velo, 46:14.49.