November 27, 2005; Reston, Virginia, USA: Racers from 15 states and the District of Columbia converged on the Washington, DC suburb of Reston, Virginia on Sunday for round seven of the $30,000 Verge Mid Atlantic Cyclocross Series. The Capital Cross Classic presented by The Bike Lane was the largest cyclocross race ever held in Virginia or the Washington, DC area with 250 entries comprised of seven classes competing in 5 events.

The featured “DARCARS Chrysler International” figured to be a wide-open affair with many of the national riders deciding to skip this UCI C2 event for races in Europe or Thanksgiving at home. Stepping into the void were eager racers from as far away as Wisconsin who wanted to make a name for themselves and score some serious international points. At the start of the race, four riders immediately separated themselves by a small margin from the rest of the starters. Defending Verge MAC champion Ryan Leech (FORT/GPOA!), joined three North Carolinians, Roger Aspholm (Westwood Velo), Jon Hamblen (Fior di Frutta) and Charlie Storm (Inland Construction/BTD) in front. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Tristan Schouten (Trek/VW/Michelin) was overcoming a bad start and a last row starting position, but nobody noticed -- yet.

By the end of lap one, the lead group was down to three as Aspholm was dropped. The first bit of drama in the race occurred on the next lap when the previously unnoticed Schouten bridged the gap to the leaders to make another foursome. For the next two laps, Hamblen and Storm unsuccessfully launched attacks, while Storm countered and Leech followed. Then Hamblen crashed. “I just lost the front tire in the turn around the tree,” he said. The lead trio was not working well together, however, and Hamblen put in a massive effort to bridge back up, while Aspholm hammered by himself in fifth place. Several laps of small attacks and ensued until Leech took advantage of the cat-and-mouse play by the leaders as they came up the asphalt finishing straight with three laps to go. Only Storm could respond and the two instantly opened a 100-yard gap on Hamlin and Schouten. Storm counter-attacked on the long hill less than a minute later, opening a huge gap that he would keep to the end. Meanwhile, Hamblen recovered from his earlier effort after is crash and put in another huge effort in a vain attempt to catch Storm. When asked if he was too tired following the effort to rejoin the leaders after his crash, Hamblen said, “Nah, Charlie rode a good race. He just picked a perfect time to go and nobody could follow him.”

In the preceding Women’s Elite Presented by The Bike Lane, Idaho’s Georgia Gould (KONA) took a fast start, stretched her lead with a fast middle and topped it off with a fast finish to completely dominate the race and take over the points lead in the Verge MAC series. As eventual second place finisher Mandy Lozano (Easton/Kona) put it, “Well, (Gould) decided to go off by herself and left us to race.” And race they did. North Carolina’s Lozano, points leader and defending champion Betsy Schauer (FORT/GPOA!), and local favorite Melanie Schwartz (Squadra Coppi/Van Dessel) battled most of the race until Schwartz, racing with a broken thumb, faded. Left with a one-on-one battle, Schauer knew what she had to do. “I can’t sprint,” she said, “so I knew I had to try to get a way. But I couldn’t get far enough ahead.” Lozano’s comment mirrored Schauer’s. “I just followed her and sprinted by at the end,” said Lazano, grinning, “I just go foxy on her.”

Race Notes:

The race benefited “Trips for Kids of Metro DC” an organization that takes urban youth on mountain bike rides to teach them about life, health and nature. Trips for Kids participants represented over half of the Junior field, with all of them in their first race. One, Antonio Phillips, persevered to finish on the podium in fifth place in the race won by Morgan Gerlak of team Alan Mid-Atlantic.

Mike Yozell continued his domination of the Masters division, leading teammate Gunnar Shogren to a FORT/GPOA one-two sweep ahead of Blair Saunders. Randy Root of Team Snow Valley/Sibex was the highest placed 45+ rider in 5th place overall, while Fred Wittwer was the highest-placed 55+ rider.

Peter Rubijono (Harris Cyclery), made his weekend drive from Massachusetts worthwhile by dominating the B race