International Tour de Toona
Stage Six
July 30, 2005
Report by Christine Thorburn

Today is the second of the over-90 mile stages with lots of climbing. There are three QOMs, first one after a 7km stair-step steep climb at mile 52, the second is a 1km gravel climb at mile 71, and the third about 5km steady grade at mile 81 with 5km along the ridge before a fast descent and a run-in to the finish at mile 92. There were also two sprints for the points competition.

We wanted to be able to be agressive on the first climb, but alas the team's effort was needed to keep a break in check before the first climb began. Mari Holden (T-Mobile) attacked about 15miles in and a group of nine with our own Stefanie Graeter got away. The break included Sue Palmer-Komar, who is a good climber, but had a bad day on Wednesday, so she was four minutes down in GC. We didn't really want to give her more than a 2-minute head start on the first long climb. So, Stef sat on the break and Betina Hold, Katheryn Curi, and Felicia Greer set "tempo" on the front of the peloton with Erinne Willock and Christine Thorburn sitting in to conserve for the climbs. They were obviously working hard because the group of nine only got 1:37 max on the peloton before we got some help from other teams who wanted the gap smaller – we were at :53 at the bottom of the climb.

Stef was climbing really well, and Erinne and Christine didn't catch her until 2/3 up the climb, where she was just losing Sue Palmer's wheel. Genevieve set a hard tempo and Christine faltered a little over the steepest last 200m to the QOM line that Gen and Lynne Bessette were going for. Erinne hung with them as did Kristin Armstrong this day. Christine caught pretty quickly on the descent and Kimberly Baldwin caught on soon as well. Annette Beutler (Quark) had to chase for awhile solo with Sue Palmer also solo behind her. Once we were one group, no one was interested in working together so by the end of the long false flat section and fast descent, we were joined by three other riders, including Magalie LeFloch (French Honey Stinger team) and her teammate, who had climbed well on Wednesday. They took turns attacking until Marina got away. Erinne put in a great attack to bridge with Gen, Christine, and Annette on her wheel, and the marshal at the left corner didn't have a sign so she blew past our corner and then had to chase back onto the rest of the group. Then there was no organization to chase, so Marina gained up to five minutes before the final climb, and another group of nearly 20 riders caught us, including Stefanie (important to keep our team GC standing as the top three riders' times per team per day add up the team GC).

The group split over the gravel climb to the 2nd QOM but riders regrouped and Erinne, Christine, and Stef were all with their appropriate groups. The last climb was first led by Stef and then Gen took over to try to bring down the time gap to the French rider who was now 4:30 ahead of us. We were happy Gen did this work, and then Christine took over on the rollers across the top of the ridge to continue to bring back Marina. Then the attacks started with Erinne first, response from Gen, counter by Lynne, and a couple more that I can't remember. We turned to go down Horseshoe Curve (fast 5km descent) and Christine tried again as did Lynne. Finally, Erinne set tempo on the gradual false descent prior to the run into town. At the 5km to go sign, Rachel Heal (British rider guest on Victory Brewing) put in a great attack and was away. For some strange reason, Genevieve decided she should do all the work to pull her back, which was great for us because we were worried she'd have a good chance at getting the 15- or 10-second time bonuses for 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. We caught Rachel with about 2km to the finish and then a flurry of attacks ensued but no one got a gap. Unfortunately, Christine had been fixated on following Gen everywhere, so that once Gen was in poor position and going backwards in the final sprint, she didn't have a good finish either. However, no one in the top five GC got any time bonuses so we still have the yellow jersey by three seconds! Stef finished with the next group 2-3 minutes down, so our team GC is preserved as well.

Tomorrow will be a VERY difficult day for team Webcor, with four intermediate sprints for time (4, 2 and 1 second) but not for the points competition (i.e., only GC riders want to go for them) and then finish bonuses of 10, 6, and 4 seconds. So, time for the climbers to become sprinters!!

Keep sending good vibes...

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