Wherry, McNellis don’t disappoint, pull repeats on Main
by Matthew Piper/Herald Sports Writer
Crit results have been updated here.
Thus far, it’s been a homecoming weekend for Durango’s top cyclists.
Three out of four Iron Horse Bicycle Classic events have seen local champions after Saturday’s pro men’s and women’s criteriums were won by Chris Wherry and Carmen McNellis while familiar faces cheered them through their hometown streets.
Wherry’s win was the third consecutive crit championship for the longtime pro and national champion, and a very important one, in his book.
“I get more nervous for this race, it means more to me than most of the national races,” Wherry said. “I have huge expectations from family and friends. For me to win here, it’s not only an awesome victory, but a relief. I didn’t let the whole (family) down.”
Wherry and a group of four other riders – Dan Bowman, Sam Jurekovic, Fort Lewis College coach Matt Shriver and Skyhawk rider Jesse Dekrey – pulled ahead of the peloton early and drew within a half lap of the trailing group by the 29th lap.
“I actually attacked a few times trying to split it up a little bit, but everyone seemed to want it to come down to a field-sprint of five guys, so that’s what happened,” Bowman said.
Dekrey dropped out trying to make a move with three laps to go and left three riders alone with his coach out front.
“He was out there a lot early, burning matches before I got across (to the lead group),” Shriver said. “He used a lot of energy out there, and he probably just did a little too much in the break.”
Shriver led with one lap remaining, but the plotting Wherry made a late move on the inside, as did Bowman, near Steamworks Brewery. Bowman led initially, but the powerful defending champion sprinted around and pumped his fist in the air as he crossed the finish line.
“I just had to play my cards and use my experience,” Wherry said. “I knew it was going to be a hard headwind sprint, and when Bowman came underneath me on the last corner, I thought, ‘This is fine, this is perfect, because it’s a long way to the line.’”
As a small consolation, Bowman took two of the three primes and netted himself $200. FLC rider Ian Burnett won the other for $100.
It was a 1-2-3 Durango finish, with Shriver hanging on to Bowman’s back wheel to reach the podium.
“I’m surprised, actually. Really surprised,” Shriver said. “It was everything I could do just to get across to that move. I just buried it. Once I got there, I was like ‘Aw, man, I hope nobody counters,’ because if they would’ve counter-attacked, I would’ve gone right off the back.”
Jurekovic was fourth, followed by Dekrey, and 17-year-old Robin Eckmann from Boulder took sixth.
Durango’s Anthony Colby, who won the men’s road race Friday, was ninth.
There was a little more give-and-take on the women’s side.
Boulder’s Tiffany Cromwell led early and won the day’s first prime on the fifth lap.
Monique Heim from Lyons and Durango’s McNellis – formerly Small – worked their way to the front shortly after.
Monument’s Terry Clouse, who took seventh in the road race and will race in today’s time trial in strong position for an omnium title, established herself early as a front-group stalwart and never left.
“I am not a sprinter,” the 46-year-old Clouse said. “I’m just a good all-arounder, not super strong in sprints or super strong on climbs, but able to hang in there.”
Tiffany Pezzulo from Salt Lake City allowed her DFT teammates to head the charge early until she joined the leaders during Lap 16.
A teamless Amy Dombroski also mounted a charge to the front, but without any support, quickly fell off the pace, as did Susannah Gordon, who sat out two laps after a crash and then returned to the lead group.
Pezzulo, 34, extended herself to take a $140 prime with just minutes left in the race, pulling for Clouse and McNellis with three laps to go.
The trio exchanged orders until the final sprint, when the 29-year-old McNellis was able to beat out Clouse and Pezzulo – a sprinting specialist – down Main Street for her second consecutive victory in the IHBC crit.
“Carmen made a great move, and Tiffany couldn’t cover it, and she was gone before I had a chance,” Clouse said. “She deserved to win, she’s a great rider – very smart rider.”
Pezzulo said she was hoping to hold her wheel and come around her in the sprint, as Wherry did later to Bowman, but she miscalculated her approach.
“She got enough of a jump on me in the straightaway that I couldn’t close it, so she executed it perfectly,” Pezzulo said. “She did exactly what she needed to do to beat me in that sprint. I give her kudos for that.”
Gordon crossed in fourth, while Cromwell was fifth, Lauren Hall sixth, and Boulder’s Dombroski seventh.
Dombroski also was fifth in Saturday’s road race.
Pezzulo’s DFT teammate and Durango native Marisa Asplund took eighth after placing runner-up to two-time champion Mara Abbott in the road race.
Abbott did not compete in Sunday’s criterium.
