Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 29, 1990 TAG: 9005290037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Asphalt bit Ron Glowczynski as he sailed too fast onto Church Street from First Street during the CMT Sporting Goods Category 4 cycling race, one of eight races in the second Festival Cup as part of Roanoke's Festival in the Park.
A softball-sized hole in his pants and a welt on his thigh that seemed to smolder even in the cold, hard rain didn't slow Glowczynski. After his 24-second lead was cut to about 10 because of his accident, he hopped back on his bicycle and stretched his lead again en route to winning the Category 4 race, the low-rung category for United States Cycling Federation members.
"Rain tends to make people go through the turns, then they just bail out. They hit the brakes, and that's it; it's all over," said Glowczynski, a senior at Penn State who moved from Edison, N.J., to Roanoke about a year ago. "If you're going to go through a turn, take it. If you fear it, you're going to go down."
Glowczynski's spill wasn't borne of fear but of a momentary lapse in common sense. He was approaching the turn, the fifth of six on the 1-kilometer course, just after a daylong drizzle became a deluge. Instead of softening the angle on his patterned turn because of the sudden downpour . . .
"I took the same exact [angle], and I just lost it," said Glowczynski, who won the 30-kilometer event in 40 minutes, 9.67 seconds.
However, he won the $340 first-place prize, plus $140 in primes (pronounced "preems"). Primes are cash prizes awarded to leaders on certain laps that are called out during the race.
About 2 1/2 hours later - after the rain had stopped and dry patches showed on Roanoke's downtown streets - a florescent green-clad Dirk Pohlmann won the Carilion Pro Category 1 & 2 race by about a length over Gerry Fornes. Pohlmann, a 24-year-old fifth-year senior at the University of Tennessee who earned $150 for a third-place finish in the Mountain Magic Race Weekend in Blacksburg on Sunday, collected $600 for his victory Monday, plus another $60 in primes.
"Once the rain stops coming off everyone's tires and getting in everyone's eyes, it's not too bad," said Pohlmann, whose time for the 45-kilometer race was 57.56.6.
Last year, Pohlmann was 11th in the first Festival pro race, which was the first pro-am race he had entered. This year, he won in a tight squeeze, bunched with four or five other riders.
"Someone behind another rider does a third less work," said Pohlmann, who traded first place with other riders several times in the last 10 laps. But he tried to stay in front.
"[The course] is so technical I was out front a lot. I could push my own course," Pohlmann said. "Those turns, a couple mistakes taking a turn wide and you end up in a hay bale."
Pohlmann said Tennessee doesn't have a cycling team, and he is sponsored by Knoxville businesses Thompson Photo and Harper's Schwinn.
Penn State had no cycling program, either, until Glowczynski and a classmate organized one two years ago. This year, Glowczynski said, the Nittany Lions placed fourth in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Federation championships at the University of Massachusetts and qualified for the national championships at Stanford University last weekend.
Penn State doesn't fund cycling scholarships, so the team is kept alive by $100 membership fees and the willingness of the riders to put in the time. Glowczynski, who said he is thinking of finishing his degree work at a Virginia school to avoid out-of-state tuition costs, said his collegiate experience helped him twofold on Monday: He is used to nasty weather because Penn State competes in early spring up and down the East Coast, and, he said, riding in college races isn't a laid-back affair.
"The aggressiveness in college races is off the front, quick," he said. "I knew if you're the first one through the turn, you're controlling the race and no one's going to slow you down. You can go as fast as you want or as slow as you want, and you can feel comfortable." CARILION PRO 1 & 2 (45K)
1. Dirk Pohlmann, 57 minutes, 56.6 seconds; 2. Gerry Fornes; 3. Lawrence Byvik; 4. David Weymann; 5. Vernon Sides; 6. Steven Bacon; 7. Jeff Joy; 8. Chris Kuzma; 9. Todd Stout; 10. Randy Parker; 11. Gunnar Shogren; 12. Terry Ashby; 13. Youngblood Haske; 14. Mark Erickson; 15. Franklin Henry; 16. David Clarke; 17. Steve Hetherington; 18. David Parks; 19. Michael Koerscher; 20. Philip Cable. CATEGORY 3 (30K)
1. Matthew McGoey, 38 minutes 39 seconds; 2. Steve Kucera; 3. Philip Hatcher; 4. Kirk Roberts; 5. Darby Harris; 6. Brian Brothers; 7. Brian Long; 8. Hunter Alle; 9. Fred Gobillot; 10. Greg Seagraves; 11. Patrick Richardson; 12. Richard Creed; 13. Philip Todd; 14. Drew Jobis; 15. Todd Godin. CMT CATEGORY 4 (30K)
1. Ron Glowczynski, 40 minutes, 9.67 seconds; 2. Russel Williams; 3. Chris Harris; 4. Shane Cooper; 5. Rob Carrubba; 6. James Daucher; 7. Tim Ashby; 8. Ben Grady; 9. Ken Flowers; 10. Danny Smith; 11. Chuck Fesmire; 12. Robert Spencer; 13. Chris Gilmore; 14. Eric Goforth; 15. Kenneth Douglas. SHENANDOAH LIFE SENIOR WOMEN (30K)
1. Tracey Armstrong, 42 minutes, 39.97 seconds; 2. Maureen Chambers; 3. Karen Menge; 4. Belinda Heerwagon; 5. Leanne Plum; 6. Hope Dixon; 7. Tammy Smith; 8. Natalie Kelly-Elli; 9. Sonja Stilp; 10. Charlotte Miller. SENIOR 35-OLDER (30K)
1. David LeDuc, 40 minutes, 8.65 seconds; 2. Bob Thomas; 3. Ron Wilson; 4. Harry Williamson; 5. David Tucker; 6. Larry Creech; 7. Paul Steagall; 8. Geoffrey White; 9. Bob Wright; 10. Steve Mario; 11. Norman Woodley; 12. Ron Whitenack; 13. James Brown; 14. Rick Dedmond; 15. Reid McClure; 16. Gerry McDade. JUNIOR 18-UNDER (30K)
1. Shawn Willard (no time listed); 2. Brian Long; 3. Chris Frances; 4. Dave Shaffer; 5. Scott Moore; 6. Carlton Stadler; 7. Mike Auger; 8. Michael McMillan; 9. Jeremy Treadwell; 10. Steven Broglie; 11. Tim Russell; 12. Chris Blake; 13. Robert Montgomery; 14. Michael Hakkarinen; 15. Blake Rotenberry. B7 B4 CYCLING Cycling
by CNB