The yellow train rolled in to Minneapolis last week for the pinnacle event of our 2010 calendar. Fresh off solid rides in St. Louis, Missouri at the Tour de Grove, we were all anxious to get started. Wednesday morning’s short 10km individual time trial featured a steep final kilometre after a flat out and back in the most aerodynamic position we could muster as this year’s organizers decided to outlaw time trial bikes for convenience and travel cost purposes. Mike headed out first and posted an impressive time of 13.34, thirty nine seconds back for 15th place. Roman slotted in at 28th, 14seconds back of Mike while Ben and Taylor finished 59th and 61st respectively.
June 16th: St. Paul Criterium
After a short afternoon nap, high temperatures in St. Paul’s downtown core made for a difficult evening criterium when the gun went off at 7.45pm. Seventy five minutes later after an average speed of 48.2 km/hr made for a stressful race packed with incidents along the 7 corner course (featuring 300 metres of cobbles), Roman, Taylor and Ben finished in the lead group while a crash hindered Mike Northey’s chance at the stage sprint. Jason and Mike were both stuck in the second group but Northey drove the pace through to the line, limiting the damage to a 30 seconds. After the event, everyone was so gassed that some of the guys had trouble finding the right parking lot. At the end of the day Roman sat 3rd in the Young Rider’s competition (Taylor 6th), with Ben and Taylor sitting 5th and 6th in the Amateur competition respectively.
Labels: Road Report
