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First Win of the Season - Sunday, March 06, 2005 at 10:48 The Mengoni team scored its first win at Premier Cycling's Tour of Newark. Below is Jason Schneider's race report (which can also be found at racelistings.com). Click Here to enlarge photo (photo by J. Issendorf)   Mengoni's Boronow Takes The Win At The Tour de Newark The second round of Premier Cycling Promotion's Branch Brook Park series recommenced this Saturday, with the "Tour de Newark," held, as usual, around noon, to allow riders to comfortably accommodate the cool, early-season temperatures. In today's featured event, the category Pro, 1, 2, 3, 70 entrants faced 20-laps, or, 44-miles around the picturesque Branch Brook Park, which today was outlined with snow from last Monday's nor-Easter snow storm. As the whistle blew and riders set about, Kevin Molloy of CRCA Sakonnet broke the ice with an attack but 500 meters into the race. This move, however, was thwarted, as were the vast majority of today's early breakaway attempts. With mild wind conditions, a field-sprint seemed be the order of the day. As the lap card ticked down, though, the wind started to increase, and a 5-rider group escaped with roughly 12-laps remaining. This move consisted of Chad Davis (Westwood Velo), Eugene Boronow (GS Mengoni), Mike Mcginley (CVC Pig Iron), Juraj Kapko (Wonder Wheels) and Kevin Molloy. This breakaway opened what would be a permanent 20-second gap to the main peloton, with Mcginley doing the lion's share of the work. "Mike was definitely the strongest rider in the break. He was driving it, and taking the longest pulls," said Boronow. "Every time they got close," said Mcginley, "I just kept stepping-on-the-gas, stepping-on-the-gas." Mcginley subsequently reflected, "you can't be taking double pulls like that and expect to win the race. But ces't la vie, that's the way it goes." Davis would later fall off the pace, as this move was suddenly whittled down to four. A chase group of 3 riders, consisting of an in-form John Durso (Liberty Cycles), Michael Norton (of the new Div. 3 professional team -- Nerac.com) and Matthew Howard (CRCA) escaped with 6-laps remaining, and would catch the leaders within 2-laps. These 7 were being led by a determined Norton, known for his individual time-trial prowess. On the bell-lap, Durso sneaked away on the backstretch of the course and gained a significant gap to the others. Norton then attacked sharply in pursuit with only Boronow just clinging on to his rear-wheel. The latter 2 made contact with Durso at the final turn, whereby Norton led the sprint from roughly 1000 meters out. As the riders approached the line, GS Mengoni's Boronow narrowly squeaked past Norton, taking the win by less than one-wheel-in-length. Durso, who won last week's "Tour de Lion," held on for the final podium position. The remnants of the escape finished, albeit intermittently, ahead of the large pack. The main pack was led home by Karl Rahn of CRCA Sakonnet; followed by Glenn W. Schneider of Colavita Olive Oil and Bill Elliston of Jaeger Wheelman. "I just barely came around him," said today's winner, Boronow, who is on quite good form after a recent two week training camp in southern CA. However, Boronow wasn't overly confident of his chances in the finale. "The guys in the break were all stronger than me," said Boronow "In the end, everyone was very tired and I think I do a little better when everybody's tired." Coming off his best ever season, Boronow decided to race this year full-time, in an effort to truly see what he can achieve in cycling. "I took off this semester [from school] so that I could do this. During the last three years, something was always getting in the way and I'd have to stop riding." This year, however, it appears Boronow will be a rider to be reckoned with. "One of our goals this year is to have some continuity in our officials," said Jeff Smith of Premiere Cycling Promotions. "So we went out and hired the fiery redhead, Anne Marie Schrader to handle all our chief judge duties." Mrs. Schrader is famous for her stringent and vociferous enforcing of "jogger's lane" violations in Prospect as well as Central Park. Suffice it to say, she is not, and has not, been afraid to enforce the rules of the USCF. "We'll have the same five officials at every race this year...it just makes for a safer race. Another one of our goals this year," added Smith, "is to push our junior racing program. We've added junior racing this year -- after all, the young guys are the future of our sport." Tour de Newark March 5, 2005 Branch Brook Park, NJ Pro 1/2/3 Results 1. Eugene Boronow - GS Mengoni USA 2. Michael Norton - Nerac.com 3. John Durso - Liberty Cycles 4. Mathew Howard - CRCA 5. Juraj Kapko - Wonder Wheels 6. Mike Mcginley - CVC Pig Iron 7. Kevin Molloy - CRCA Sakonnet 8. Karl Rahn - CRCA/Sakonnet 9. Glenn W. Schneider - Colavita Olive Oil 10. Bill Elliston - Jaeger Wheelman       This report was written by: Jason Schneider / RaceListings.com