WIC Duluth Minnesota USA Sept 18th 2004
The next stage of the World Inline Cup brings the professional skate teams to the only USA World Cup, Duluth Minnesota. The North Shore Inline Marathon is the largest inline marathon in North and South America and the 3rd largest Inline Marathon in the world with more then 3,500 skaters participating in this year’s event. With only one chance to date to attend a WIC in the USA, skaters from all over the USA fly into the small city of Duluth on the shore line of one of the world’s largest lakes, Lake Superior.
A fantastically run event with Air Force fighter jets doing a fly by before the start, TV and radio live coverage, the main highway closed down solely for the purpose of inline speed skating, the only draw back is that the race is a type of “Ghost race” run at 7am in the morning finishing before mid-day on Saturday morning. Surely the future of the event should be run in the afternoon and be the show case of the city of Duluth on that Saturday in September.
Course:
The course is know to be one of the fastest marathon course’s in the world with smooth, fast roads the average speeds are high leaving those with bad technique struggling to keep up. The roads are littered with “Road Snakes” (Soft tar that that fills in cracks in the road) that keeps the skaters on there toes.
The point to point Marathon starts along side the beautiful Lake Superior and runs along the shoreline taking the main freeway 61 into the city. When arriving into the city of Duluth there are a few tunnels before a slight climb up the off ramp followed by a small down hill. Then the finish, 2 sweeping left handers separated by a 100m straight and followed by another 100m straight to the finish.
The Women’s race
Kia Verducci traveled to Duluth 3 strong with Theresa Cliff-Ryan, Jessica Smith and Nathalie Barbotin, the 4th skater Kuck Chae Yi was unable to come due to budget restrictions. With 2 out of 3 skaters from KV being from not only the USA but from just a stone throw away from Duluth this was a home track advantage for the girls.
The 7:36am start left much to be desired as it was only 45degree’s (10degree’s Celsius) making it hard to warm up with the freezing conditions and wind chill off the lake.
The race was off without the normal off the line attack by Nathalie Barbotin, under team orders to save the sprint for a little later today. The pace was kept slow within the first 1km, with cold skaters no one seemed to want to take the lead. On the first hill only 1200m from the start KV made there first attack, with all 3 going for a break, surprising the majority of the field gaining a 15m gap, the only skaters other then Kia Verducci to follow were Julie Glass of Powerslide, Kelly Gunther of the Wolverines skate club and Kim Butler of Salt Lake Mortgage. The skaters not willing to keep the break away the pack come back together. The Kia Verducci girls were looking for a hard race both to tire their competitors and more importantly to make an exciting race. After a few minutes KV went again this time with Cliff-Ryan and Barbotin, but the teams quickly reacted not wanting the 1st and 2nd in the overall to get away. Next was Barbotin when caught Smith attacked, letting the teams know if they were to beat KV they were going to have to work for it. Julie Glass then went on an attack, not with high speed but just slowly increasing speed and leaving the front of the pack, the peleton deciding to leave all the work to the KV team didn’t chase leaving Glass in the lead for 5+ minutes. With pro team’s of 4 skaters looking to just sit and do nothing for the sport KV decided not to chase this time trying to make the teams do some sort of action other then just follow, unfortunately it was the Colombia skaters that rarely come that chased with Brigitte Mendez of K2/Empire and Cecelia Baena of Hyper. When caught Cliff-Ryan give one more attack to awake the field this time they reacted instantly closing within seconds. The last 10kms slowed down with it seeming that it was too hard to get away on the fast course, it would come to the bunch sprint to decide the winner. But with only 3km to go, going though a tunnel Angele Vaudan of Rollerblade picked up the pace, similar to Glass at mid-point, not sprinting just slowly moving from the pack. With ½ the pack not wanting to follow and the other ½ not seeing due to the tunnel she gained 100m in no time, seeing this the KV girls chased switching leads from Smith to Cliff-Ryan after 2 times through they looked for some help, the other teams either not wanting to risk tiring their lead outs or just not wanting to win decided they would not help letting Vaudan extend her lead. Eventually Jillian Rookard of Salomon sacrificed herself to try to catch the break in turn leading out Glass for the finish. Glass knowing Vaudan is too far in front she moved into the lead out of the 1st left hander controlling the front waiting for the sprint to start, Smith moved to the outside to get Team leader Cliff-Ryan to the front for the sprint but was unable to match Julie’s speed moving back behind through the last corner. Vaudan holding on for a 3 second win, Cliff-Ryan coming round and onto the shoulder of Glass but running out of time by the line getting 3rd Baena finishing fast for 4th. Theresa and Nathalie are currently 1, 2 in the overall with only 1 race remaining.
Final results:
1st Angele Vaudan, Rollerblade, FRA
2nd Julie Glass, Powerslide, USA
3rd Theresa Cliff-Ryan, KIA/Verducci, USA
4th Cecelia Baena, Hyper, COL
5th Nathalie Barbotin, KIA/Verducci, FRA
6th Briggyte Mendez, K2/ Empire, COL
7th Brittany Bowe, Hyper, USA
8th Jessica Smith, Kia/Verducci, USA
Men’s Race:
The men’s race started at 7:30am, 6 minutes before the women in the same freezing conditions. Starting fast but then slowing until they reached the first hill at 1.2km, Franck Cardin of SAAB/Salomon, known for his hill climbing abilities seen his chance and attacked on the climb taking with him Baptist Grandgirard of Fila and Fabian Rabeau of Rollerblade. Pro-skater Dane Lewis of Salt Creek Mortgage seen a missed opportunity and quickly attacked and bridged the gap leaving 4 strong out in front. The main peleton going through fazes of chasing and stalling with 3 of the big teams in the break-a-way it was only the smaller teams that were chasing. Meanwhile the 4 at the front were changing leads and pushing the pace. By mid-point the 4 were out of sight looking like they will stay away, Diego Rosero of Hyper, not wanting to come to Duluth for nothing attacked the peleton at one stage looking like he would cross the gap but solo was unable to match the speed of the lead 4. In the final 10km the paced proved too much for Rabeau and Lewis with Cardin attacking aggressively. Cardin and Grandgirard slowed in the final kilometer in a tactical cat and mouse before the finish. It was Grandgirard that proved to strong winning easily in the sprint. The race for 3rd was a mirror image of the race for 1st with the pace slowing before Rabeau made a move on the last corner; Lewis pulled out to pass but was unable to beat the Frenchmen on the line. Fifth went to Rosero not quit making it in time for the finish. Minutes later the bunch arrived with the familiar sight of Fila in the first 3 positions, Luca Saggiorato winning the bunch sprint for 6th.
Final Results:
1st Baptist Grandgirard, Fila, FRA
2nd Franck Cardin, SAAB/Salomon, FRA
3rd Fabian Rabeau, Rollerblade, FRA
4th Dane Lewis, Salt Creek Mortgage, USA
5th Diego Rosero, Hyper, COL
6th Luca Saggiorato, Fila, ITA
7th Max Presti, Fila, ITA
8th Francesco Zangarini, Fila, ITA
