Two years ago, Jonas Carney could barely stand on his feet. On Sunday, he stood on top of the winner’s block in Downers Grove.
Carney, a 26-year-old cyclist from Winter Park, Colo., came from behind to edge out two-time defending champion Frank McCormack to win the U.S. Pro Criterium championship. Carney, who stayed within the pack for most of the race, caught up to McCormack with less than 150 meters remaining in the 62-lap, 100-kilometer race.
Carney edged out McCormack by literally throwing both his bike and himself across the finish line.
“I basically won on a bike throw,” Carney said of the last-ditch effort. “My team (Shaklee) did a great job blocking me so I’d have enough gas for the field sprint.”
The victory caps a long and tedious comeback for Carney. He sat out the 1995 racing season after contracting a chronic fatigue illness. He returned in February 1996 and won six races last year. He placed third in last year’s championship.
“I feel like I’m back to 100 percent,” he said. “It was hard to take a year off, especially in this sport because it’s so competitive.”
Although he took a year off, Carney said he never left the sport. In fact, he once wrote as his favorite phrase “Don’t call it a comeback,” from LL Cool J’s song “Mama Said Knock You Out.”
“Everything just needed to go right, and it did,” Carney said. “I had some luck.”
What Carney had was a great team he could draft behind throughout the race. While he coasted along, brother J-Me Carney, a teammate, broke up an attack by Team Saturn to take the lead with 10 laps to go.
“J-Me was on fire,” Carney said. “He did a great job chasing teams down during breakaways.”
With seven laps to go, Saturn team member Bart Bowen and Colorado Cyclists’ Thurlow Rogers broke away from the pack and led until McCormack’s brother, Mark, took over at Lap 59.
With one lap to go, it became a four-man race with Mark McCormack, leading the drafting for his brother Frank’s final attack. Team Shaklee’s Eric Wohlberg, who was also in the lead pack, blocked for Carney’s attack. With half a lap left, Carney and the 30-plus pack caught up with the four leaders.
“There was a lot of contact,” Carney said of the final half-lap. “It got pretty crazy. I tried to keep up but (McCormack and Todd Littlehales) got around me in the final turn.”
It was a two-man race between Littlehales and McCormack when Carney’s final sprint on the 150-meter straightaway caught the two. Carney’s desperation bike throw gave him the win. All three had an official time of 2 hours 15.20 minutes.
“It was half a bike wheel,” said McCormack. “I got into a fight with Todd and Jonas snuck by.
“It was my responsibility to lead off of (teammate Mike McCarthy) and it got a little chaotic. I got bunched up and you have to time your move properly or you could end up with a back wheel in your front wheel.”
Carney dedicated the win to his coach, Lenny Prehem, who died last year.
“He’s the one reason why I’m back after a year off,” Carney said.
