Tour of No Bathrooms

Greetings yet again from the Tour of Ohio. Last night was the stage 4 Worthington Criterium. It was 35 laps of a 1+ mile loop with about 1/3 straight, 1/3 downhill and 1/3 uphill turning to the finish. Lots of twist and turns. Fast and smooth.

Oh yeah, and no bathrooms. That's right. No portajohns, no bathrooms, just some trees and lots of bike racers with crossed legs. It seems our wonderful promoter forgot that little tid-bit. He did get the mileage correct though, which is good.

The race has been typically dominated by local dirty players Inferno Racing. This is the old Abercrombie and Fitch team and they also sponsor the event, which seems to explain a lot of the issues and things going on.

The race started slow as Inferno tried to set tempo at the front. No Nickname Nate and a Mengoni rider went off the front with a few others and a few laps later...Justin bridges up with Toby Kenda. Super sweet. This is an awesome move as only one Inferno rider has latched himself onto it. They start working really hard and get up to 45 seconds on this ultra fast course. Behind them, a desperate chase move is trying to make it, but Adam Bomb and Leero are covering it perfectly. Back in the field, BFD Dave is killing every chase move perfectly. Things are looking good.

The break is away for about 20 laps before this guy decides to start chasing. He is pretty quick and will some help from Inferno get the break back with only 5 to go. TARGETRAINING immediately shifts gears (literally and figuratively) and gets set up for field sprint mode for Stylin Ben. The lads go to the front and start filling up the pain box with lots of goodies for all the other teams.

As the bell rings, Big Craig Luekens tries to jump the field at about 45 mph. This sticks for bit and forces the other teams to give desperate chase. He is still a bit sick and can't stay away so Justin and then da' Bomb start the final set up for sprinter Ben. At the bottom of the hill is a sweeping right turn that Bomb hits full speed with no breaks and terrifies both the field and Ben. He pulls a bit and then off on the hill but Justin has been chopped by Inferno and Ben is sitting in the wind with 600 meters to go. Too far. He tries to get reset but is actually brake checked by World and Kiwi Olympian Hayden Godfried. What the heck man? Totally bogus there Fred. He goes from 3rd to much further back in a millisecond. Darnit.

We were super close with the breakaway, the solo and the sprint. The team absolutely raced the heck out of their bicycles and did a fantastic job actually making this race exciting. Everyone is commenting about the race this year. We have been told that the same stage 2 road race last year was 12 minutes slower. Everyone is saying how Inferno used to completely control the race but now has to chase and cover and manage.

The one unique difference: TARGETRAINING. Cool. Good job guys. One other sign of the aggression, Justin and Nate are 3rd and 4th in the sprint jersey competition. Trust me when I say that Justin is no sprinter, but if he is miles ahead of you at the line, you are not getting points.

Today is the fifth and final stage which is a big farm country circuit and then 8 super hard finishing loops here at the college. Hugh hill, scary descent to a hair pin turn and even some brick pavers. We think it will be a good day as the Inferno guys were showing some weaknesses at the crit. Talk to you soon.

Kyle Wolfe
Manager, TARGETRAINING Racing Teams
http://www.targetraining.com/