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No strangers to racing in the rain, the pros from the European circuit came out in force and hosed off the Americans at a frenetic and wet Long Beach Inline Marathon, November 11, 2001 in Long Beach, CA. It was a clean sweep for the Salomon team riding on TWINCAM bearings. In the pro women's race, Frenchwoman Nathalie Barbotin outkicked Americans Theresa Cliff and Brittany Browe. For the men, it was Colombian Juan Carlos Betancur who beat out his own French teammate Pascal Briand and Italian Massimiliano (Max) Presti. Twisty and turny and extra technical in the rain, there were countless slips and a fair share of chutes that got the better of fun skaters and pros alike. Not everybody went down. This TWINCAM skater witnessed one of the most spectacular saves of his career, when Jon Svensson successfully vaulted over a tumbling skater just prior to a turnaround on Ocean Boulevard. The pro men were surprisingly well behaved with the roving skatecentral.com cam keeping the action under control. Frequent forays up the road by TWINCAM brought swift reaction from the pack. The effort to bridge was frequently under the behest of none other than Chad Hedrick himself. At the line, less than two seconds separated the top twenty skaters. skatecentral |