Chiu 5th in Saco, ME
Saco, ME – It was a NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental skeleton crew up in Maine this weekend, David Chiu and Mike Rowell were the only riders from the men’s team to drive the 2+ hours up to the north Atlantic sea coast for this flat 6 corner technical criterium with a wide off camber round-about, fast turns in close succession, and long sight lines. This was the Maine State Criterium Championships so the local teams were out in force, represented by Base36/SMCC/Gorham Bike and Portland Velo Club.
The first attack of the day went from the gun from NorEast Cycling, the move was responded to quickly with Chiu taking advantage of the natural gaps formed in the corners and attacking off the front as the race passed through the start finish line for the first time. Chiu brought Christian Eager (Quad Cycles), Manny Goguen (Minuteman Road Club), Ben Forbes (Base36/SMCC/Gorham Bike), and Eric LaFlamme (NorEast Cycling) with him. The five worked well together and hovered with a steady small gap for the next few laps as Portland Velo Club had missed the move and motored to keep the break on a short leash. Soon, Ron Bourgoin (Portland Velo Club) was able to bridge up to the group and replaced LaFlamme (NorEast Cycling) who fell off the pace. With the break containing every team with significant numbers in the race, the gap really opened up and grew to as large as 90 seconds with the break doing roughly 2 minute laps. Going in to the closing laps, the attacks came fast but the group stayed together, Manny Goguen (Minuteman Road Club) took the smart lines through the final corners and gapped the break for the win, Chiu rolled in for 5th with no sign of the field behind. Mike Rowell took 6th in the bunch sprint, having also won an intermediate prime while playing defense in the field.
But the excitement didn’t end there, the next race to go was interrupted by a high speed police chase. The officials shut down the race, and no cyclists were injured as a tan four door Saturn came flying down the race course with two flat front tires and 5 police cars in tow. The Portland Press Herald has the details.
Photo courtesy of Cathy Rowell