Team member Gene Palumbo has made it well know that his 2 goals for 2010 were the US Maters National Championship and the World Master's Championship in the time trail. Gene has changed his training, worked with a new coach, updated his equipment, and fully committed to the goal. In early 2010 Gene won every single time trial he started, 7 in a row, plus a team time trail. Then one night at Cherry Creek disaster struck as a non racer took him out at full speed. Talking to Gene you knew he was disappointed and not sure how the season was going to go, but he never gave up. He rode the CO state TT with low expectations and took 2nd in his first race back. He went on to race the US National Champions and took a podium spot. Then off to worlds in late august. We tip our hat to Gene as he brought home the World Championship to the mix1 Masters team and to CO.
Gene dropped us a line from Europe and here is what he had to say:
Hey guys,
Yes, it is true and official - 2010 World Champion....thanks for all the emails, comments and support - I really appreciate it. Up until 12 minutes before my start time I was not going to race because my bike had some mechanical issues, but a few guys worked on it while I warmed up and got me to the line - whew, was that close. I ended up beating the defending champion by 1.24 seconds and first and third place were separated by only 1.7 seconds. Due to registration issues, a whole other story, I ended up first out of the start house for my age group. After I crossed the finish line I watched the leader board for over an hour waiting for other racers crossing the finish line to eclipse me and bump me off the podium...what torture it was for that 60 minutes waiting and watching. There were about 50 Americans and some other European friends standing there with my family and I as we watched and waited until the defending champion and some other fast guys finished without changing my #1 position. After the last guy crossed the line and the results were posted I knew I had won.
Here are the official UCI results:
http://www.masterswm.org/images/stories/ergebnis_tt/Ergebnisliste_M4.pdf
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