Fraser takes men’s criterium, wins overall title at Joe Martin
Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006
A natural sprinter, Gordon Fraser was right at home Sunday.
A first-place finish in the 29 th annual Joe Martin Stage Race’s criterium Sunday maintained Fraser’s lead and boosted him to the General Classification (overall) title Sunday.
Fraser, 37, of Team Health Net presented by Maxxis peddled the 1.2 mile course on the Fayetteville downtown square for 80 minutes plus five laps in 1:30.52, finishing eight ticks ahead of Team Navigation Insurance’s Shawn Milner (1:32:00). Team Priority Health’s Richard England (1:31:03) finished third and Fort Smith native Brice Jones (1:31:06) came in fourth. "I very rarely win the overall in stage races because I am a sprinter geared toward flatter stages,"Fraser said. "I was wasn’t thinking about winning the criterium because I just don’t win overalls much."
Fraser said a strong cadre of his teammates helped facilitate Sunday’s output. "When you have strength in numbers like that it can take away momentum from other teams."Fraser said. "And gives us confidence.
"My Health Net Maxxis team did a great job of enabling me to get the bonuses and build a gap to where I could have enough of a pad in [Saturday’s] time trial that I could limit my losses and set me up for a strong push in the criterium. The more my teammates were able to come back from these barrages, it made my job very easy. "
Fraser won Sunday’s criterium on the final leg, which features a steady uphill climb all the way to the finish line.
"I really wanted this and just turned it on," Fraser said."I was seven or eight back and just went at it on the last corner. There was a lot of wind and I was able to get a good run at guys in the draft. I was able to find a hole and being a sprinter I was able to get through it and pull ahead. "
Fraser said it wasn’t easy.
"This is a very, very tough course and it really wears on you," Fraser said."That last uphill stretch just keeps going up and around the first corner and you just don’t get much recovery time because you’re working uphill for half a lap. "Arkansas is a great race for us to get ready for our races in Philadelphia in the next few weeks. We use this race and this preparation as a training camp. Winning this is a good sign we’re on the right track."
Kori Seehafer, 31, of Team Lipton found the right track on Sunday, taking the women’s criterium in 57:25. She finished fourth overall with a cumulative time of 6:49:56, 14 seconds off the pace. "Usually I am a lead-out rider and we have a good sprinter,"Seehafer said. "But we came in with only four riders compared with 10 on most teams. So we were focused more on winning the stages rather than the GC [General Classification] because we were so outnumbered. So this win was big because we got the stage win and that was our goal."
Team Webcor-Platinum dominated the overall with a 1-2 finish. Erinne Willock finished fourth in the criterium with a 57:35 but held on to her overall lead with a cumulative time of 6:49:42.
Webcor-Platinum’s Alisha Lion finished second in the criterium (57:28) and second overall (6:49:50). "From the gun we were all single file,"Seehafer said of the criterium. "So it was very aggressive racing and it was really important to remain in the top 10 or you’re not even a factor.
"In some courses when it’s wide open you sit in the middle and rest and recover. But this course is so tough, you couldn’t do that because it’s more important to stay in position to attack."
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