Fit After a Tour, Gaggioli Cycles to Win in Camarillo

Roberto Gaggioli could hardly walk. Knees bent, hunched over, he accepted his first-place award of $1,000 for winning the third Peter Jensen Memorial bicycle road race Saturday in Camarillo.

Gaggioli, of the Coors Light race team, finished the 12-day Tour of Colombia earlier this month, so Saturday’s 100-kilometer (62 1/2-mile) race must have been a breeze? Not exactly.

“This was no simple training course,” said Gaggioli, a Palo Alto resident. “These hills make you strain. They’re big.”

The conditioning derived from the Colombia race helped Coors Light win the top two places as Greg Oravetz of Huntington Beach finished second.

No official time was kept, but Gaggioli won by more than a minute, finishing the 28-lap race in about 2 1/2 hours.

Steve Hegg of Chevrolet L.A. Sheriffs, a 1984 Olympian, finished third.

“It took me a little while to warm up,” said Hegg, a Dana Point resident who got off to a slow start. “There were so many fresh guys. The first 15 laps were fast, fast, fast. I was waiting for the speed to come down so I could use my power.”

A group of seven riders--including Gaggioli, Oravetz and Coors Light teammate Clark Sheehan, plus 1991 winner Greg McNeil of Ojai--broke away by the 14th lap on the 2.2-mile course and stayed together for eight laps. By the 22nd lap, their lead over the pack was 1 minute 20 seconds.

Gaggioli made his run during the second half of the 23rd lap--300 meters from the top of the hill on Mission Oaks Boulevard. He had a good lead by the time he reached the top and used the long slope down Mission Oaks and Wood Creek boulevards to his advantage.

Gaggioli expanded his lead each lap, and he led by one minute with one lap to go. First place taken, the race was for second. During the last two laps, 10 cyclers bunched behind Gaggioli.

McNeil, of William K. Gamble Cycling Team, placed seventh and was the top local finisher. Van Nuys’ Thurlow Rogers of the Subaru-Montgomery team placed 16th. West Hills’ John Wordin of the Velo Avante-Mrs. Gooch’s team finished 20th.