The CSC squad made it two-for-two at the Wachovia Cycling Series on Thursday, setting up the race for Julian Dean to take a sprint finish ahead of Navigators’ Oleg Grichkine and Saturn’s Viktor Rapinski, and now the Danish squad will have its sights set on Philadelphia’s USPRO Championship and a Wachovia sweep on Sunday. CSC had set the tone for the week with a strong performance in the opener in Lancaster, and the tune kept playing on the fast streets of Trenton.

After Jakob Piil’s win at Lancaster, other teams were tipping their hats to CSC, which had both the strength and the numbers in the winning breakaway. In Trenton, on the relatively flat, 6.5-mile circuit, CSC pretty much had its way again, controlling the majority of the race except for one minor blip toward the end, when it missed out on a late seven-man breakaway.

On an evening when the sun finally broke through in Trenton after days of rain, CSC showed its force early, with the team drilling the pace up to a 31 mph average over the opening laps, with men like Andrea Tafi, Piil and Jimmi Madsen showing that their trip to the U.S. was anything but a week’s vacation.

Madsen and Tafi are key part of the CSC contingent

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Under CSC’s pressure, the 172-man field was strung out single file on the long straightaway out to Cadwalader Park and on the return trip back along West State St. and onto the criterium-like loop through downtown Trenton before turning back onto West State for the finish in front of the New Jersey State Museum.

With CSC in control, breakaways were few, and short-lived, for the first two hours of the 14-lap, 91-mile race. As the race counted down to four laps to go, it looked as if the entire race could be completed with no one ever gaining an advantage of more than six or seven seconds on the field.

Trenton is known as a sprinters’ race, but this was getting ridiculous.

Finally, with three-and-a-half laps remaining, Navigators’ Marty Nothstein opened up a little bit of a gap, spurring a chase by Mroz’s Kazimierz Stafiej. Nothstein would get swallowed up, but with under three laps to a dangerous group would form around the Pole, who was joined by Chris Horner (Saturn), David Clinger (Prime Alliance), Chris Baldwin (Navigators), Benoit Joachim (U.S. Postal Service), Massimiliano Mori (Formaggi Pinzolo) and Igor Astarloa (Saeco).

With no one in the move, CSC was forced into chase mode late in the race, using up some precious resources before the finale. "I knew we would catch them," said Dean, "but it wasn’t an ideal situation for us."

Most of the break would be caught in a lap, with Horner and Clinger holding out just a little bit longer before being caught on the final lap. Going through the park, there was one final short-lived move by one rider each from Vini Caldirola, Saeco and CSC, who were joined by Saturn’s Mark McCormack, but when that group couldn’t work together and was absorbed, the jostling at the front began.

With CSC having spent its resources bringing back the race, Dean was left with just one teammate, while other teams were trying to set up their trains. One of those teams, Navigators, was setting up for Vassili Davidenko, but had to go to plan B when he got slowed by a crash on the downtown turns.

"We were working for Vassili, but the last two miles there was a big crash behind me [that Davidenko got caught in], so I had to do the sprint myself," said Grichkine.

Likewise, Dean was fairly isolated also. "I had to jostle for position and keep at the front, hold my position and reward my teammates for what they did when they brought the breakaway back," he said.

When the race emerged back onto West State St. for the long, straight final sprint, it looked like Saturn had delivered one of its sprinters perfectly, with Rapinski bolting to the front and looking strong as the race closed in on the finish line. Dean, though, was too much for everyone, coming up on the right and blowing past the Saturn rider, with Grichkine going past as well for second place.

With its two wins in two races, CSC became the first team to win multiple Philly week races since Piil won both Lancaster and Philadelphia in 1999 with the Acceptcard team.

"We have a very strong team here and we came with big objectives," said Dean, reiterating what he said following Lancaster. "We really want to show CSC corporate here in America what a good and professional outfit we are."

They’ve done that twice. And they’ve still got one more opportunity on Sunday.1. Julian Dean (NZ), CSC, 2:55:49(49.82kph)
2. Oleg Grishkine (Rus), Navigators
3. Viktor Rapinski (Blr), Saturn
4. Fred Rodriguez, Sidermec
5. Lars Michaelsen (Dk), CSC
6. Charles Dionne (Can), Saturn
7. Mariano Friedick, Jelly Belly
8. Oscar Pineda (Gua), 7UP-Maxxis
9. Uros Murn (Slo), Formaggi Pinzolo Fiavé
10. Henk Vogels (Aus), Navigators
11. Gregory Henderson (NZ), 7UP-Maxxis
12. Patrick Calcagni (Swi), Sidermec
13. Antonio Bucciero (I), Saeco
14. Antonio Cruz, U.S. Postal
15. Jackson Stewart, Ofoto-Lombardi Sports
16. Chris Horner, Saturn
17. Russell Hamby, Ofoto-Lombardi Sports
18. Stefano Zanini (I), Saeco
19. Kevin Monahan, 7UP-Maxxis
20. Nathan Russell (Aus), Colavita Bolla
21. John Lieswyn, 7UP-Maxxis
22. Kazimierz Stafiej (Pol), Mroz
23. Staf Scheirlinckx (B), Flanders-IteamNova.com
24. Massimiliano Mori (I), Formaggi Pinzolo Fiavé
25. Todd Littlehales, Sierra Nevada-Clif Bar
26. Christopher Pic, 7UP-Maxxis
27. Marco Gili (I), Sidermec
28. Jonathon Page, Prime Alliance
29. Chann McRae, Schroeder Iron
30. Mark McCormack, Saturn
31. Michael Barry (Can), U.S. Postal
32. David Clinger, Prime Alliance, all s.t.
33. Simon Kessler (RSA), Sportsbook.com, at 0:05
34. Kirk Albers, Jelly Belly
35. Simone Masciarelli (I), Sidermec
36. Paul Martin, West Virginia
37. Erik Saunders, Ofoto-Lombardi Sports
38. Tristan Hoffman (Nl), CSC
39. Pietro Zucconi (Swi), Sidermec
40. Jacob Erker (Can), Schroeder Iron
41. Brent Dawson (Aus), Jelly Belly
42. Martin Wayne Nothstein, Navigators
43. Cameron Hughes (Aus), Schroeder iron
44. Chris Wherry, Navigators
45. Robbie Ventura, U.S. Postal
46. Andrew Crater, Lemond Fitness-Blender
47. Christian Vandevelde, U.S. Postal
48. Trent Klasna, Saturn
49. Keith Horowitz, Ofoto
50. Jonathan Sundt, Jittery Joe's
51. Brice Jones, 7UP-Maxxis, at 0:16
52. Peter Lopinto, Ofoto-Lombardi Sports
53. Kenny Labbe, U.S. Postal
54. Gustavo Artacho (Arg), Colavita Bolla
55. Andrea Tafi (I), CSC
56. Eric Wohlberg (Can), Saturn
57. Dominique Perras (Can), Flanders-IteamNova.com
58. Matt Dubberley, Sierra Nevada-Clif Bar, all s.t.
59. Juan Fuentes Angullo (Sp), Saeco, at 0:24
60. John Kelly, Webcor
61. David Wenger, West Virginia
62. David Wyandt, Webcor
63. Andrea Masciarelli (I), Sidermec
64. Chris Fisher, Jelly Belly
65. Jeff Louder, Navigators
66. Benoit Joachim (Lux), U.S. Postal
67. Domenico Gualdi (I), Formaggi Pinzolo Fiavé
68. Adam Livingston, Schroeder Iron
69. Ivan Dominguez (Cub), Saturn
70. Jimmi Madsen (Dk), CSC, all s.t.