= Mike
Hello again race fans, Mike here with you once again to give
you a very little information as to what is going on in this year's Tour de
Schwinn! This week is Stage 3, the Stairway. But before I get into that let's
look back just a bit to last week , THE WALL. More importantly what the Wall did
to the standings of the Tour. Our biggest mover of last week was the Stage
winner Ron "the instructor" Moore, with his win he has moved up to 2nd place in
the GC and helped his team "The American Flyers" take over the Team lead. The
Flyers won the Team Event last year and look to be determined to try a repeat of
that victory.
Francis Manfred (the Professor) kept
his overall lead by 36 seconds, actually increased it by 6 seconds, but how long
can he keep it up. Francis as you may recall has come in second more times then
Jan Ulrich did behind the Lance guy in the TDF. Can The Professor finally get
the win he has so well deserved all these years? Or will someone steal victory
from him once again. No one knows and if they did I will have to silence them at
this point so we all would have something to look forward too. Last year's
winner Larry Barnhart moved up slightly to 13th from 17th, so he maybe starting
his bid for the win again this year. It looks like he is getting alot of help
from his team mates as we now find Adam and Rick just ahead of Larry in 11th and
12th, nice grouping guys. Other movers last week Andrew Maibaum going from 23rd
up to 14th, and going the other way we have Cory Jackson from 9th to 18th and
Shawn Leonard from 10th to 17th, looks like they like to ride together a bit too
much.
However the rider with the worst ride in my book had to be Ryan Hulce,
Ryan seems to be a bit out of form right now and suffered greatly on the hills
of last week , bonk does not even begin to cover it. We hope he recovers this
week and starts his way back out of last place. Maybe the salad was not a great
idea after all Ryan.
As we get ready for this weeks excitement its time to
take notes class for we have the Professor and the Instructor up from teaching
you all how to do it. On with the Race!!!
The Stairway is a 6.2 mile
course with longer but less steep climbs verses last weeks race however overall
there is more climbing. This will once again test the riders and we will see
some start to fade by the midway point I expect. The riders are about to start ,
and there they go. Looks like they are getting settled in on this flat start
before the first of many climbs, this just in we will not get a time check until
about halfway through the course today so I have some time to kill. Which
will give me time to catch up on my reading, anyone read any good books lately?
If so you can email me at
mshult135@hotmail.com with your suggestions or reviews. Oh this just
in, ah a request that I stick to the race , just for a change of pace. Hmmm ok
then. So far it looks like nothing very exciting is happening in the race that I
have seen so let's just go to the half way point and see how things stand.
With half the ride done or at the 3.1 mile mark it looks like we have a
breakaway as Ryan Hulce took a flyer off the front and no one has gone after him
expect Walt Kosiak who had not even gotten close to him. Here are the times.
Ryan Hulce @ 5:55
Rick Weaver @ 7:48
Walt Kosiak @ 6:59
Cory Jackson @ 7:50
Roxane Burrous @ 7:23
Markus Naegeli @7:56
Ron Moore @ 7:25
Stephen Sehr
@ 7:58
Larry Barnhart @ 7:25
Francis Manfred @ 8:01
Todd Brandenburg @ 7:29
Tom Linn @ 8:01
Stan Shuey @ 7:31
Charlie Skoog @ 8:03
Kevin Wisher @7:35
Tom McMahan @ 8:03
Jeff Bell
@ 7:38 MTR @ 8:04
Shawn Leonard @ 7:43
Mitch Reeves @8:09
Adam Cloud @7:44
Andrew Maibaum @ 8:14
Mark Bettinger @7:46
Clark Griffin @8:15
So at the halfway point things are shaping up
very well and looking at the numbers Ron Moore started the day 36 seconds
behind the yellow jersey of Francis Manfred, if we do a little math we see the
Ron has tied Francis in the GC at this point. Can he keep it up until the end
and win the stage? That would give him a few bonus seconds which I believe at
this point would give him just enough to take over the Yellow Jersey!
The second half of the race gets a bit harder as the climbs get a touch
longer and the flats in between get shorter, that should put more lactic acid
into those tired muscles. So who has the conditioning to keep the pace up high,
we would expect Francis not to fade much, if any, but what of the others. We are
going to the finish and see who gets there first.
As the riders approach the finish line
it looks like Ryan is still in the front with a large gap on most the field,
Walt is the only one remotely close to him and he is way back.
Francis looks to have lost some time as he sit back in the main field. Ron looks
like he is really putting everything into this ride, he has his head down and
the strain on his face is visible for miles or is that from the miles. Roxane is leading a small group that has a small gap on the rest of the field
with her are Ron Moore and Larry Barnhart. Not far
behind them are Todd Brandenburg(BRW), Mark Bettinger(FS), Adam Cloud(KCF), Jeff
Bell (TL)and Shawn Leonard(MM).
Roxane
seems to have been sent after Ron by his team (BRW) to insure that Ron
does not
get a second stage win. Not likely anyways with Ryan and Walt up the road. Ron does not look
like he is willing to give any quarter here today as he is pushing as fast as he
can. The group are on the last
flat just before the last short climb to the finish line. Roxane is picking up more
speed not letting anyone get past her, She shifts to the far side of the road
and shakes everyone from her wheel. Ron and Larry jump after her, Mark and Todd look at each other
but neither one seems willing to try to chase. Shawn knows the those two
are not going so he takes up the chase of Ron, Larry and Roxane, hoping he
has the speed left to overtake them Adam Cloud goes with him. Meanwhile Ryan has cruised in for his first stage win. What an effort
from this man today. Roxane has slipped away from Ron and Larry as she nears the
finish. And Ron has dropped Larry as Shawn closes in on the dual with Adam in
tow.
Ron has 500 ft and a short climb to go as he looks back for the last
time before surging to the line, Shawn is charging hard but he will not catch
either Larry or Ron. Adam looks content to stay just behind Shawn. Roxane has finished.
And here comes Ron, he throws his hands high in the air and as
he crosses the line, I think he knows his time might just give him the yellow jersey.
Larry comes in with just behind him. Shawn has his
head hung down, he looks tired. Adam finishes next but looks a lot fresher then
most today. Todd is still struggling to get to the finish
with Mark sitting on his wheel, Mark jumps at the last second to get past Todd
with about a second gap. Todd just had nothing left to fight off the surge of
Mark. These guys looked like they have been road hard and put away wet. (They
are worn out.)
So will Ron have enough time on Francis
to take the Yellow Jersey? Francis looks calm and cool not panicking at
all as he continues to the end of the race, not really sure he is worried too much about loosing the jersey at this point. As
the riders come through I will try to get you the times , or maybe not they are
coming fast and close together. Here what I have so far:
Ryan Hulce @12:12
Walt Kosiak(TL) @
14:37
Roxane Burrous (BRW) @ 15:21
Ron Moore (AmF) @ 15:33
Larry Barnhart
(KCF) @ 15:41
Shawn Leonard (MM) @ 15:43
Adam Cloud(KCF) @ 15:48
Mark Bettinger (FS) @
15:56
Todd Brandenburg (BRW) @15:57
This stage should shake the GC up a bit, it looked like no one expected Ryan to be able to keep that fast of a pace so the peleton just let him go. I am sure they won't make that mistake again with this rider. And Walt was a big surprise as well today. As the second tick away Francis is loosing precious time, but still no move from our leader. This report just in there was a crash in the field looks like some of the favorites may have been slowed down by it , seems a dog has taken Kevin Wisher down and causes a slow up with a few other riders. All are ok and they are coming in now. I have not gotten the times but for Francis's which was reported as 16:15 and that looks to be enough for him to loose the jersey today as Ron takes over the lead of the race. Ok that's the important stuff so I will let the rest of the results speak for themselves. But in case anyone was wondering Ryan has already been taken to the "Doctors Tent" for testing of illegal drugs. I am sure everyone is wondering how he did so bad last week then came back so strong today. It reminds me of Floyd Landis in the Tour De France two years ago. And we all know how that ended ( with a positive test result). So for now folks the stage win goes to Ryan Hulce and the Yellow goes to Ron Moore.
Later!!!