Peloton Star: 2010 ToAD - Day 1

Under sunny skies the Tour of America's Dairyland (ToAD) got underway in one of Milwaukee's suburbs - Shorewood. Today it was just Pro 1/2/3 - women for 60 minutes then the men for 90.

A good sized field of perhaps 55 women toed the line for their first race of the series. The tempo ebbed and flowed as riders tried to get away but were reeled back. At the half way mark, three riders were away with perhaps 20 seconds but a two place prime of $100 and $50 put the end to that as Carrie Higgins took the top spot in that sprint. The prime bell was rung again, this time for $200. That was snapped up by Julie Jerue of Lakeland, FL riding for IS Corp. Again, the prime bell was rung, again for $200, then once again for $300! That prime was won by Carrie Cash and just as the field cleared the line, the sound of popping tires and crunching carbon fiber could be heard as a handful of riders crashed right on the line. All together again for the final bell, and as the pack sped towards the line, the race was still undecided at 100 meters until Peanut Butter and Co. Carrie Higgins shot forward and took a convincing win over Sarah Caravella and Kacey Manderfield.

With much anticipation, 133 Pro 1/2 men lined up to being their odyssey across the Dairyland state of Wisconsin including last year's champion Chad Hartley (Kenda p/b Geargrinder) who had publicly announced that he is out to win again. Also present was Rahsaan Bahati who can put the dampers on anyone who is looking for a win.Multiple primes of $50 and $100 were offered during the course of the race and many, many attacks were offered, but nobody was able to escape the huge peloton. With 5 laps to go, a $175 prime was offered and that brought Chad Hartley's face to the front for the first time all evening. The very next lap was raced for a $250 prime and that was enough incentive for four riders to gain 16 seconds. One rider was dropped and that left three: Alan Antonuk (RGF Felt), Chad Hartley (Kenda), and Ryan Freund (Verizon U23). Teammates representing Kenda and Verizon had the pack shut down and riding gutter to gutter for several laps, and it wasn't until the final bell, that the field finally got rolling again. Across the line frst was Ryan Freund who was led out by Chad Hartley who said it was more important to get second place than be caught and get 25th. Speeding out from the field was Rahsaan Bahati who got third. RESULTS