Richard Sachs wrote:
>Boyer secured the GC victory by getting in a first lap break and
>lapping the field 2 (THREE!!!!!!!) times at the North Boulder Park
>Criterium. I think the stage was won by a young Steve Bauer. (In prior
>years it was considered a feat to lap the field twice - it was done by
>Phil Anderson from Oz.). When Boyer did it, he needed to make up a
>minute and change to the Columbian Antonio Londono (sp?). I was there
>working for the Shimano Men's Team and couldn't believe my eyes. To
>this day, Boyer's GC victory (I think he was 5th in the stage) was the
>second most exciting thing I ever saw in the sport, but the most
>exciting thing I ever saw in person.
We saw the blond junior LeMond lap the Cat 1-2 Senior Men's field in a solo "break" (just took off and that was it) at the Nevada City Criterium on Father's Day in '79. Nevada City is a wonderful little former miner's town in California's gold country, well worth a visit if y'all come out somewhere west of laramie for a visit (really its awfully nice) It's a hilly little town like so many of the surviving small towns in far-northern CA, and had a nasty uphill section that would just kick your ass every lap, of course the top was the start/finish line. I'd just bought my Richard Sachs bike from a co-worker, who asked me not to take it to Nevada City since I hadn't finished paying for it yet (500 bucks WASa lot of money back then) so I rode the Belgian exchange student's old Gitane around the course earlier that weekend, racks and all. I remember some kid waiting for his dad outside a bar asking me if I was a racer, imagine that I thought! Never realized how conspicuous people in black wool shorts were back then. Anyways, we'd already seen LeMonster lap the mens field earlier that year at the Cat's Hill Criterium in Los Gatos (anyone remember THAT one? It was another National Classic) so the kid lapped the men at Nevada City "we were somewhat disappointed" (if you want you can believe that)...you see he'd lapped the field twice the previous year there! David Leskovsky (spelling?) was another CA local who was way ahead of this national-class field in second....and flatted on the last lap at the bottom of that monster hill. As he ran up the hill, bike over shoulder, in cleats (remember those?) the field blew by. I never knew really how "out-of-family" lapping the field was then, but I was still just amazed. Thanks for reminding me Richard
dp LOs Gatos CA
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