Berglund Wins Fifth La Jolla Race
Tourism is the single largest asset to the economy of La Jolla, so it would seem natural that once a year a little Swede named Marianne Berglund should get the key to the town. Each April, Berglund leads tour of downtown La Jolla.
A fast tour. On bicycles.
She did it again Sunday, winning the 7-year-old La Jolla Grand Prix bike race for the fourth consecutive year. Berglund, 27, who resides in Encinitas, was the favorite of the estimated 35,000 spectators who turned out for the 20-mile women’s and 40-mile men’s criteriums in downtown La Jolla. She beat more than 60 other competitors in winning for the fifth time in the past six years.
In the 66-lap men’s race--the final event of a lineup that included a wheelchair criterium and the first ever Rollerblade criterium--was won by Greg Oravetz, who separated himself from the pack with eight laps to go and spoiled any chance of a suspenseful finish.
The victories by Berglund (who had just two teammates) and Oravetz’s star-studded Coors Light team were expected. The surprising aspect was what little opponents did to stop them. Berglund had the lead on just four of 33 laps but said she got a perfect leadout from teammate Laura Charameda (third place) on the final lap. She won by 2 1/2 bike lengths.
“It was a hard race, because it was just two of us (in the front of the pack),” said Berglund, who took home a $1,250 winner’s prize plus another $100 for leading on two bonus-cash “prime” laps. “But I have tremendous expectations for myself in this race. I have one of the best lead-out people in the world (Charameda). And a lot of riders don’t want to take a chance at the end.”
Oravetz taunted the 95-bike men’s field when he made an unusually early break for the finish on the 58th lap. But Oravetz could afford to make the move with all six of his Coors Light teammates, including 1990 champion Chris Huber, riding at the front of the pack. By the 61st lap, Oravetz was leading by 15.9 seconds.
“It was an experimental move by Greg,” said Huber, who finished second. “But the rest of the teams let him ride up the road. It was surprising that, with so many other teams in the race, none had a guy that would sacrifice himself to chase Greg down. I guess they’re all too selfish. You can’t be tentative in that situation. You make a decision to chase him now, or it’s over.”
Oravetz, who won $3,000 plus another $1,100 and 100 Lottery tickets for winning eight prime laps, said he labored in training all week but suddenly peaked during his 5.4-mile sprint to the finish.