Saturday, April 18, 2009

Swanson again at Durand

GrandStay Hotels racer Doug Swanson kept the Durand Road Race title in the family, taking the '09 victory with a dominant final sprint. Doug's brother and teammate Dan took the title in '08. Unusually beautiful weather brought out a peleton of over 70 riders from across the region. With numerous teams represented and a who's who of area talent, this looked to be a difficult race to control. However, GrandStay Hotels riders stayed vigilant at the front, worked to keep Swanson protected (when he wasn't testing the peleton with an occasional viscious attack), and in the race's decisive final lap, were able to exert an impressive degree of control. Particularly notable was Ian Stanford, who was a workhorse throughout the day and was still able to manage a scorching final leadout for Swanson, who obliged with a comfortable multi-bike length victory. Also notable was a resurgent Lance Beuning, who sacrificed himself at the front for much of the last lap and was still able to manage a competitive finish in a frenetic finale.

For video of Swanson's winning sprint go to the following link (teammate Steve Cragle's blog)http://docsadvice.blogspot.com/2009/04/durand.html

No comments: