Starchyk takes overall win with another victory

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The winds and rain might have eased up a bit for the Univest Grand Prix road race on Saturday but the Amore & Vita presented by Lifetime Fitness | Velo Vie squad was having none of that. The Italian team with the local sponsors went to the front mid-race to chase down a break and the move paid off with a stage, race and team victory in the UCI 2.2 Pro/Am North American classic.

Ukrainian national champion Volodomyr Starchyk led out a final lap to take the Univest Leader’s jersey from team-mate Philipp Mamos. Patrik Stenberg, the 18-year-old wonder from Team Cykelcity/Klehr Harrison, took second in the stage and third overall for the two-day event that began Friday with a team time trial in Allentown.

Amore & Vita’s Yuri Metlushenko, who won the Univest Grand Prix Doylestown Criterium in 2008, took the Leidy’s Premium Pork Products Sprinter’s jersey. Bernardo Colex Tepos of Tecos-Trek – who attacked with a solo break for more than half of the 11 finishing circuit laps in Souderton – was awarded The Intelligencer’s Most Aggressive Rider and the VisitPa.com Best Climber jerseys for his efforts.

Stenberg beat Felt-Holowesko-Garmin U23’s Caleb Fairly for the Landis Supermarkets Best U23 Rider jersey.

The field, tested by near gale-force winds and a tricky, technical team time trial course on Friday, telegraphed its tension early when a major crash took down numerous riders within the first mile of the race. Three riders were treated at area hospitals for injuries. An escape by a small group of riders midway through the 60-mile, hilly road course threatened to break up the field but Amore & Vita team director Roberto Gaggioli sent his squad to the front to chase it down.

“When the breakaway reached 1 minute 40 seconds, that’s when we decided to put all of our guys on the front. Slow and steady, we brought them back,” Gaggioli said.

When the racers returned to Souderton for 40 miles – 11 laps – on the finishing circuits through town, Colex-Tepos was out in front on a solo break but he couldn’t keep the strongest riders off his wheel for long. By the time the race was down to five laps, there was a group of seven about 10 to 15 seconds off the front of a chasing field of more than 40 riders – unusual in recent years for the Univest race, where the difficult road course has often split the field and left the final laps to only about a half-dozen riders.

Mamos, who held the yellow Univest Leader’s jersey after Friday’s time trial, and Starchyk were in the front group but Starchyk said the team worked to put him in position for the final sprint.

“I was feeling strong today,” he said. “The team did an exceptional job to set me up.”

Starchyk was also impressed with his first visit to the Univest Grand Prix. “I never expected to find a race this good when I came to the United States,” he said.

Stenmark, like Starchyk was using the Univest race as a warm-up for the world championships. He said the leading pack in the final laps got split a bit by the feed zones but he avoided getting stuck and was able to compete in the sprint finish.

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