Outdoors
Sounds trite - but nothing short of miracle night at Truckee Crit
Truckee
A pair of ah-mazing local stories out of the first Tour de Nez pro stage — the Truckee Crit — Thursday evening.
...Story one: Chad Gerlach — Homeless to Hero.
Gerlach, a Sac native and fmr. teammate of The Lance, dropped out of cycling in 2002, became alcohol/drug-addled and ...eventually... homeless, is now back on the bike for the first time in more than a half-decade ...as a pro.
That's right — now 35 — in his 11th year racing professionally (career interrupted by the five he spent living on a park bench in California's capital), the erstwhile problem child of cycling who was a USPS support rider for Armstrong during his 1996 run (before any of his seven-consecutive Tour victories was a glint in his eye) is back ...in a big way.
Gerlach signed a deal with the Amore&Vita-McDonald's squad earlier this season, and is racing at an elite level for the first time since 2003.
Once one of the top domestic racers in America, Gerlach's return to the fore at the first night of the Tour de Nez puts him above dark-horse-made-good status and into that shoo-in for a '60 Minutes' feature story category.
Story two: Katerina Nash — Hometown Hero.
You're Katerina Nash. You're a three-time Olympian, and, after a long off-season you're currently starting to get your legs back on the North American mtb short-track circuit.
You call Truckee home.
...And, about two weeks ago, you sorta glance at your schedule to find you're going to be home for the opening night race of Tour de Nez — the Truckee Crit.
Doing laps around your hometown downtown with a buncha women who earn their paychecks as pro roadies sounds like a good idea.Fun.
You haven't been on a road bike in a bit — but, so what?
You hang with the lead pack for a few laps and decide you feel kinda at home on a road bike after all.
After all, you're racing in front of your neighbors — and they're calling out your name.
...And your Luna teammates — they're in the UK, or the East Coast or up north or down south.
And, in spite of the guy sipping a beer in front of the T. Club — the one who plows your Glenshire street in the winter and is cupping his hand around his goatee to give you a shout out and a toast....You're all alone.
But you don't care. Not till the last lap anyway, when you find yourself slipping from a solid second to a more-than-respectable third.
...It's during that final turn you see eventual winner Reno's Amber Rais of team TIBCO slingshot from the middle of the peloton ...and coast by you to the finish.
"That's racing smart," Nash said. "She was safely hiding in the back — that's where teams have the advantage in this type of race.
"The first time I saw her was the (final turn) of the last lap. You have to be smart — these races. That's it."Nash said she was "pretty happy" with third. ...After a belated start, she said she's "getting close" to mid-season form on the mtb circuit (this is her third thrid-place finish in a row — (click here for a video recap of her recent performance at Alabama's Bump 'n Grind).
Nash noted the Truckee Crit had all the excitement of a short-track mtb race.
"It's different," she said, "you're always thinking in these races. You may not be pushing as hard, but you always have to be aware of who's in front of you ...and who's behind you.
"You never get bored. ...Especially when you're in front of the hometown — so many people saying your name."
Tour de Nez
Day 1, Truckee Crit
Women's Pro:
1) Amber Rais, TIBCO
2) Stacy Marple
3) Katerina Nash, LUNA
Men's Pro:
1) Chad Gerlach, Amore&Vita-McDonald's
2) Jonathan Baker, Vitamin Cottage
3) Steve Reaney, California Giant
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