Spook, Gutterplan fly to firsts at wet and windy Spring Fling
Hometown bicycle racers Alex Spook and David Guttenplan dominated the top categories of the Spring Fling road season-opener last weekend near Deland. The first race date on the Florida Points Series calendar drew the Sunshine State's elite riders, some snow-bird pros fleeing wintry northern weather and even a few warmth-seeking Europeans
Riding for his new team — the nationally prominent Colavita/ Sutter Home Racing Team — Spook repeatedly attacked the 30-man Category 3 field. Halfway through the cold and windy 42-mile road race in horse farm country, the Chiles High junior escaped in a breakaway with five other riders.
"We cooperated until about 500 meters to go," said Spook, who won the juniors Georgia State Criterium Championships last summer.
After bridging a one-minute gap, Spook's teammate Jos Chalmers caught the breakaway and kept on going. Spook jumped on Chalmers' wheel and the pair left their dumbfounded rivals behind.
Chalmers gave the perfect lead-out to Spook who came around him for the victory at the finish line.
"I owe the win to Jos. He gave an amazing performance," said Spook who plans to race most of the FPS and Florida Cup events, the Athens Twilight Criterium, the UCI Tour of the Red River Gorge, and the Canadian Tour L'Abitibi.
Leon High alum and recent University of Florida graduate David Guttenplan is one of only three Tallahassee natives to have made it into the national ranks of professional bicycle racers.
The other two are Team Type 1's Phil Southerland and Morgan Patton.
For the past four years, "the Gut," as his teammates call him, has managed to juggle earning a cum laude degree in civil engineering with winning a few big races, breaking a few collarbones in crashes and working for his Mountain Khaki's/ Jittery Joe's team.
Now that he is free of school, Guttenplan decided to give himself a year to see how far his legs can take him as a professional cyclist. If his 2010 racing debut at the Spring Fling is an indication, Guttenplan's dream has begun to come true.
Online Article: Here
Team Colavita Junior, Bradley Gordon, also made the front picture of this article in the Gainesville Sun
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