Dominguez Makes It Look Easy At Hanes Park
0 Comments Published by Unknown on Sunday, August 5, 2007 at 7:18 PM.Winston-Salem, N.C. — Ivan Dominguez of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team made it look easy Sunday in winning the Hanes Park Criterium Sunday in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Fewer than 24 hours after he said he felt less-than-100 percent in the Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium in Charlotte, Dominguez resembled a rocket sled on rails in the final 250 meters. He was third coming out of the final corner, but quickly made up the gap on the slightly uphill finish and had time to freewheel to the line ahead of second-place finisher Jeff Hopkins (Jittery Joe’s Pro Cycling Team) and Cleber Ramos de Silva (Flying Horse/Caloi/A.A Metodista/SB do Campo), who was third.
“Two laps into the race, I told the guys to keep things together because I had good legs,” Dominguez said. “Yesterday, I was feeling heavy with no speed.”
Following Dominguez’s instructions to the letter, Toyota-United made sure no one was able to dangle more than a few seconds off the front of the peloton for any extended period of time. The oppressive heat – temperatures were in the mid 90s with high humidity – also helped keep things under control.
“It became a race of attrition,” Toyota-United Team Director Kirk Willett said. “Someone would get away, but then they would go into the red zone. When you make a big effort in the heat, you basically shut down.”
Toyota-United kept Dominguez cool by having Ryan Miller, Justin England and Heath Blackgrove do the work whenever a rider threatened to break away. With the laps counting down, Chris Wherry and Jose Manuel “Chepe” Garcia took over, keeping the pace high to ensure a field sprint.
Dominguez said he sat comfortably on the wheel of Karl Menzies (Health Net presented by Maxxis) on the final tours of the 1.3-mile (2.0 km) tree-line circuit around a historic park in Winston-Salem’s West End. Menzies had finished fifth Saturday night in Charlotte while Dominguez failed to crack the top 10.
“Once in a while, I’m going to have a bad day,” Dominguez said. “Unfortunately, it was last night. It wasn’t supposed to be like that because I was feeling good the whole week.”
As the bell sounded to signal the final lap, more than 100 riders remained in contention, spread five-abreast across the front. Shadowing Menzies, Dominguez moved up to third wheel between the second-to-last and final corners, then powered through to score his 11th win of the season and the team’s 12th in an NRC race.
The win was particularly satisfying for Toyota-United, as it marked the final race for Team Director Kirk Willett. The 37-year-old former professional racer is headed to medical school to pursue a career as a physician.
“I told him to take that as a present,” Dominguez said. “I have been really happy to work with him this season. He’s always very easy-going and he doesn’t put pressure on you. He would just tell you what you needed to do.”
Willett said it was good to finish the weekend on a winning note following the loss of Caleb Manion to a broken collarbone in a crash Saturday night.
“It’s always exciting to win and it’s a little extra nice when it is my last race,” Willett said. “I’m happy the guys came out with the win after the loss of Caleb and the lows we had Saturday night.”
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