AUBURN – The money didn’t even matter.

With a sky full of blue and only a slight breeze ruffling the trees on lower Court Street, Rebecca Wellons of Arlington, Mass., was just happy to have finished first and collected, of all things, a small trophy bearing the likeness of an anonymous bicycle racer engraved with the word “champion.”

“If the race isn’t going to break even, I don’t even care about the money,” Wellons said to race director John Grenier. “But where’s my trophy?”

Wellons was the excited winner of the Women’s Pro 1/2/3 Category at the Great Falls Criterium on Sunday.

“It’s just great to get out here and compete every weekend,” Wellons said. “Every weekend my teammates and I race. We did the road race yesterday, so we were all a little bit tired, but teamwork is ultimately why I won the race today.”

The race was one of 11 run on Sunday. The Criterium itself was part of the Second Annual Lewiston-Auburn Wellness Weekend, which featured a 5-kilometer run, kayak exhibitions, skating exhibitions, and several other events designed to promote healthy living in the Twin Cities.

“The weather was perfect for this today, too,” Wellons said. “The race itself was tough because no one seemed to want to go out early.”

Because of the cautious nature of the race, when the bell sounded to signal the final lap, almost everyone still had a chance to win. And then came the strategy.

“My teammate Sara (Cushman) and I were waiting for the last lap to come around before breaking,” Wellons said. “Any time anyone wins it’s because of help from a teammate. The whole point is to do as little work as possible while staying close to the front.”

Thanks to a favorable draft from Cushman, Wellons sprinted around the last corner from Main Street onto Court Street with the lead and held on as she crossed the line.

Trading places

Two years ago, Robbie King was on top of the collegiate cycling world, winning the 2002 NCAA title in road racing for Colorado College. Last year, he won the Criterium race at the college level, and on Sunday King won the Great Falls Criterium, a 35-lap race around a -mile course through the streets of downtown Auburn.

“With two laps to go, the Land Rover team guys went out and tried to break away,” said King, who races for Louis Garneau Racing. “We all caught them with one to go, and then my teammate and I started sprinting around the third corner out there. I got boxed in, but then halfway down the final straightaway I jumped out ahead and hoped I had enough to stay ahead through the finish.”

The win for King, thanks to teammate Ian Beilby’s draft over the final mile, was repayment for King’s act of kindness in Saturday’s Lake Auburn Bicycle Race. With the race all but officially over, King set up a draft for Beilby and helped him to a second place finish, while King settled back into fifth by the end of the race.

On Sunday, a strong start helped set the tone, with nine racers getting ahead of the main pack from the very beginning.

“There were a couple of fast people up there,” King said. “We got out quickly and just stayed out there.”

One rider familiar with the course that sped out as part of the early break and actually led the first lap was Tom Gosselin of Lewiston. On Friday, Gosselin graduated from Lewiston High School and spent all night at Project Graduation. Exhausted, he dropped out of the Lake Auburn race Saturday, but mustered up enough energy Sunday to finish with the main pack.

“I figured if there was going to be a break, it was going to be early,” Gosselin said. “After about the sixth lap I could feel the field coming up behind me and the rest of the racers in the top group were pulling away, so I dropped back to join the rest of the group and hoped that we could all catch the front group. We never did.”

Gosselin is a Category 2 racer, and is too old for junior events, so he is forced to compete in the upper echelon of the sport in races like the Great Falls Criterium.

“It’s only going to help me to race these guys,” Gosselin said.

Last year’s winner, Yasuhiro Yamamoto of Auburn, finished back in the pack.

Luke Krisch took the men’s Category-3 race title, while Stan Jurga won in men’s Category 4. Pete Murphy took the title in the 65+ Masters race, Richard Martin won in the 55+ category, and in 45+, Frank Jennings crossed the line in first.

Charlie Bedard took the title in the 35+ Masters event, Caitlin Beaver won in the Category-4 women’s race, and Matt Michaud won in the men’s Category-5 race.

Geoff Johnson won the junior event, and McKayla Dunfey was the top junior girl.

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