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Tuesday, Feb. 09, 2010

James Burns: Merco pedaling along

Soon the paperwork, the planning, the staging and the coordinating will be over.

Soon it’ll be race week here in Merced and Doug Fluetsch will be where he wants to be, doing what he truly loves: sitting in the medic car — out of interest, not injury — trailing a peloton, watching for wrecks and spills.

Mostly, though, he’ll be watching.

Everything, that is.

Like the way some of the world’s best riders speed around hair-pin turns, hills and curves with amazing control and grace — a blur of hypercolor Spandex. Or how an event of this size and scope piques the interest of an entire region, drawing large crowds to the race’s edge. The boys and girls in their bulky bicycle helmets and Kool-aid mustaches. The moms and dads pumping their fists in rhythm with pedal and chain.

“It’s weird,” said Fluetsch, the creative force behind Merced’s longstanding Merco Cycling Classic.

“Every year, I start thinking, ‘Why do I do this to myself? I’m never going to do this again.’

“Then the race comes and I get into it. I’m only sleeping a few hours every night and I absolutely love it. By Sunday at 5 o’clock, I crash and wake up thinking ‘Man, that was a lot of fun.’ It’s like I forget the whole crunch of the final eight weeks. Those final eight weeks are awful.”

What keeps him going during these dog days of the cycling season? The payoff, of course.

The Merco Cycling Classic and Vel Promo have teamed together to bring six days of racing action to the Merced area later this month and in early March.

Vel Promo will sponsor the first three legs, beginning with the Snelling Road Race and Merced Criterium on the weekend of Feb. 27-28.

The Big Creek Lumber Criterium will follow on Wednesday, March 3 at Castle Air Force Base.

Fluetsch and the Merco Cycling Classic will bring home the event with the first-ever Mercoteam time trial, Downtown Grand Prix and Road Race on March 5-7.

“That’s the fun part,” Fluetsch said.

But first the crunch — the head-spinning, behind-the-scene details that drag this avid cyclist’s mood down faster than two flat tires:

A host of new sponsors means new signage needs to be designed. Volunteers need to be assigned duties and shifts, which is no easy task. Merco is powered by hundreds of volunteers.

A timeline of events needs to be finalized, mapping out the Cycling Classic’s minute-by-minute procedural steps.

And then there’s the worrisome matter of registration. Though Fluetsch is confident Merco will reach its max capacity, the mailman hasn’t been beating down his door with boxes of entry envelopes.

“There’s a lot that needs to be tied down. It’s mostly coordinating with the teams,” he said. “The roads are set. Law enforcement is in place. It’s the teams — they’re not willing to commit the riders they’re sending because of illness or injury. They’re holding off until the last week to register.”

For Fluetsch, the race can’t come soon enough.

Top Dog: Leonardo makes all-decade team

Former Golden Valley star Kelly Leonardo was one of the top vote-getters for the Fresno State volleyball program's all-decade team.

Leonardo received 50 percent of the votes for middle blockers. She ranks in the top-10 all-time for matches played, sets played, solo blocks, block assists and total blocks.

She was named to the all-Western Athletic Conference second team in 2009. A total of 342 fans participated in the poll at gobulldogs.com.

Locals pilot Aviators

The Atwater Aviators won a Pacific West Baseball League title in its inaugural year with an infusion of local talent.

This summer, it'll be more of the same.

Former Buhach Colony catcher Joe Medeiros and Merced's Kory Vitato headline the Aviators' first signing class of 2010.

Vitato, now a junior at Stanislaus State, returns for his second season with the Aviators.

Medeiros, the battery mate for pitchers Brett Mooneyham and Dylan Floro during their time at Buhach Colony, is now a sophomore catcher at UC Davis. He's one of four Aggie commits.

The group also includes: catcher Max Stepan (Willamette); infielders Andrew Rich (UC Davis), Doug Bloom (Willamette), Dave Rohm (Fresno City), Ryan Laing (New Mexico State) and Jared Esquivel (Peru State College); outfielders Phillip Mannelly (New Mexico State), TC Lee (Willamette), Pete Diresta (University of Albany), J.R. Aguirre (USC) and Ryan Morris (USC); and pitchers Haden Hinkle (San Francisco), CJ Blom (UC Davis), Dan Augustine (Oakland), Travis Wilson (University of Albany) and Jake Hamblin (USC).

Sacramento State shopping for QB

There may be hope yet for Los Banos quarterback Erik Martin.

Sacramento State football coach Marshall Sperbeck would like to sign a high school quarterback to join his three roster players.

"We were hoping to add a fourth," Sperbeck told the Sacramento Bee.

Is Martin his man?

The Hornets actively recruited the dual-threat quarterback in the fall, and LB coach Dennis Stubbs believed Martin to be among the top recruits on Sac State's short list.

James Burns is managing editor/sports editor of the Sun-Star. He can be reached at jburns@mercedsun-star.com.