I pedaled as hard as I could, glancing over my shoulder every so often for the chase.
Jon Cyganik
The team of Fred Bulken, Jon Cyganik, Scott Stewart, and David Tate arrived to the race with plenty of time to spare so the decision was made to drive the course to check out the climbs and finish. That was both a blessing and a curse seeing just how long that climb was, but valuable to see the finish and how fast the final right turn would be.
The team meeting in the parking lot that went something like:
“Can we all just acknowledge that Jon is our best chance today?”
“Yep”.
“Jon, you heard that right”
“Yeah”.
The team’s role was to keep Jon fresh for the final climb on lap two. Being the NYS Championship road race, there were was a large field of eager riders, so the Chimps were forced to put their noses to the wind a few times to cover the more serious moves. On the first climb, half the field was spit out the back. Though the climb challenged the squad, every Chimp made it through in good position in time for the 50+mph descent.
Lap two began with a stiff headwind and though many attacks were launched from other teams, no one got away. Along the smaller climbs on the final half of the course the overall mood was getting tense.
I rode up to Dave and said, ‘Should I attack?’ To which he responded, ‘Absolutely!’. It was on! I slingshot myself to the front and put in an effort to create a big gap hoping to force the group to chase. I stayed away for a couple of minutes until they caught me. I sat in for a bit and attacked again on a slight rising hoping to make them burn a match. Caught again.
Scott Stewart
Shortly after Scott was reeled in I launched an attack of my own as we were back on another low grade climb. I had a nice little gap before going into the descents. For a brief moment when I saw the size of the gap I thought that I might make it into the turn for the Egypt Rd. climb alone but was scooped up while still descending.
David Tate
All four Chimps were still accounted for and once onto Egypt road the real fireworks of the day started. One by one riders started to pop from the group which reduced now to just 12 with Jon Cyganik leading the way.
I saw him creating a gap with only Ben White able to follow. I thought that was going to stick until near the end but then I saw White dropping off. That was my happy moment, I knew Jon would stay clear and in fact he continued to open a big gap…
David Tate
I came to the finish and saw Jon, Fred, and Dave all with big smiles and I knew Jon pulled it off; awesome feeling.
Scott Stewart
I considered playing cat and mouse more, but the idea of leaving it up to a bunch finish didn’t seem smart. I figured I would play to my strength and work the hill as hard as I could.
Jon Cyganik
With that dominant finish Jon Cyganik secured the New York State Championship and the Salty Chimp Racing crew couldn’t be more proud of Jon and his efforts.
They made sure I was comfortable the entire time and they knew exactly what they had to do, even if I didn’t. Keeping me in contact on the downhill, pulling attacks back, then still having the legs to counterattack and force the rest of the field to burn matches, and lots of tactical advice along the way.
Jon Cyganik
