Day 3 - Uptown Criterium

June 18^th - With the cancelled road race stage, we all knew that Friday’s criterium in Minneapolis’ Uptown was going to be fast. Known as the biggest spectator event of the tour, the riders were not disappointed. It was a party! The entire 1.2km course was lined with fans, on both sides, sometimes deeper than 1 layer! It was a huge event. The field was spread out in a long line for most of the evening as Kelly Benefit Strategies rode to protect their GC ambitions; but Roman, feeling great and knowing there were many good looking ladies in the crowd, took off in an early breakaway. Sporting the Yellow, he helped the break establish upwards of fifteen seconds. Around the halfway mark however, the break came back to the peloton. Near the end, despite Roman and Ben’s best efforts to move Mike up for the sprint, the high pace at the front and choppy moves by riders in the bunch forced breaks in the line to occur so in the end Yellow would have to be content with pack time today.

Team Ride with John & Joe Owens (in the AM), our homestays

John and Joe

Riding hard at Uptown

Jason (NZL track legend) ripping it up as usual

Roman off the front

Roman and his friends in the break

Mike and I near the end of the race

trying to work the corners to move up