Day two of the 2010 Tour of America's Dairyland (ToAD) for the Pro's, the first day of competition for all the other categories in Thiensville - about a half hour's drive north of downtown Milwaukee. Under beautiful skies, the Cat. 3/4 Women lined up to begin their journey across the dairyland. One of the traits that this series is becoming known for is that on every day, your category starts at the same time, on time. You can set your watch by it and riders love it. Riding as if she had wings on her back, Whitney Gagioli (Amore Vita) was the first to cross the line for every prime and first to cross the line for the win. It doesn't get any better than that!
Joe Curtes (Fuel Cafe), second yesterday, won the Cat. 4/5 with an impressive field sprint for his first victory of the season. Riders from local Team Extreme, who's shop was right at the start finish line, had a heavy presence in the Master's 4/5 with xxx riders present. One of the them hooked up with a Geargrinder rider and together they rode to 20 second lead that they held for the majority of the race. However, the hungry field would not let them go free to the end, and at the bell for the final lap, the pair was caught. Conan Foster, who just last week became the 2010 Wisconsin Criterium State champion, easily took the field sprint for his second win of the year. He's surely a marked man now!
Local power house team, IS Corp., who has had a heavy presence in all the area races this season, took the top two podium spots today with Kyle Adkins getting the win and Andrew Stoll placing second. Third was Douglas Bailey of Team Wisconsin/ MC2.
The Women's Pro event was next with last year's overall champion Jessie McLean (Verducci Breakaway) of Australia returning to the series. Numerous early attacks were unsuccessful as all were brought back until Team Type 1's Jacquelyn Crowell rolled away with authority after taking a $175 prime with 3 laps to go. Team Kenda's Kristen Wentworth gave chase and made up half of the 20 second gap with 2 laps remaining, but still hadn't bridged up to Crowell at the bell. In fact, Crowell now had 30 seconds on the field with Wentworth still at 10. Crowel took the victory easily, bu Wentworth was not so lucky as she got caught by the charging field sprint which was led by Kacey Manderfield (Wolverine), yesterday's winner and now leader of the series.
Now it is late afternoon, and the skies are looking more threatening as the Masters 1/2/3 race is run. Three riders got away early on and made it stick.(
RESULTS for this race were not uploaded!) To the south, many cloud to cloud lightning bolts can be seen, some close enough to be heard and since the break was assured sucess, the race was shortened by about 10 minutes for safety sake. After a short break to allow the potentially dangerous weather to pass, a MTB criterium was held. A some what jovial mood was expressed by these riders, including series announcer Brad Sohner who continued to carry his microphone ans supposedly took a short cut eliminating half the course! The prizes were serious though, with winner Ric Damm (Ripon Cycling) taking home a $600 pair of wheels!
Day two of the Pro. series started under light rain, which cleared as the race progressed. Three riders were allowed to escape very early. They were Rob White (Kenda), Mike Sherer (Verizon U25), and Daniel Zmolik (AXA) and built up a gap of 30 seconds through 3/4 of the race. With about a dozen laps remaining, Team Mountain Khaki put two riders on the point who turned themselves inside out to cut the deficit in half. With perhaps 8 laps to go the chase was on in full - 3 Mountain Khakis, 3 Aerocats, followed by 5 Kenda riders all in a line, drilling it.
Well, that put the final nails in the coffin, and the break was caught. Kenda's Rob White kept on it until the final lengths were eliminated. Now it's 3 laps to go, Kenda is at the front again, this time launching strongman James Stemper who also turned himself inside out to make this one count!
It was not to be unfortunately, as he was brought back on the final lap, with Aerocat putting their sprinting machine into top gear placing Juan Pablo DOTTI in prime position for the win. Second place was John Grant (Texas Roadhouse), and third by just inches - Isaac Howe (Mountain Khakis).
Racing continues today in Grafton, 45 minutes north of Milwaukee and part of USA Crits!
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I know that I've driven past here on the way to a cyclocross race, but this was the first time I spent in this town. It's pretty cool! As far as the racing, there was plenty of parking, lots of food available, the finish straight was very spectator friendly and for the final Pro race, there was a pretty sizable crowd enjoying Passeron's impressive victory (He rode in the Tour in '08 you know). The course was fast with turn three being quite tricky for everybody. It was a slight downhill right hander that got narrower in the exit, just a bit off camber with a double divot right at the apex that you could not avoid. A number of riders were shuttled off down the sidewalk, but props to them for not hitting the tree or ending up in the flowers. One rider almost went into the garage, but he got it stopped just in time. The Pro riders didn't have much trouble with it despite all the noise from bouncing carbon machines and shifting gears. Every lap it sounded like someone was going down, but I think only one rider took to the sidewalk.
