06history

2006 TDS TOP 10

1st Todd Brandenburg

2nd Francis Manfred

3rd Shawn Leonard

4th Roxane Burrous

5th Troy Clear

6th Markus Naegeli

7th Kasey Bickel

8th Rick Weaver

9th Charlie Skoog

10th Ron Moore

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2006 Tour de Schwinn History Page

The 2006 was the third year for the tour and it had become something that some club members actually looked forward too, some people just like winter riding I guess. There were once again changes to the Tour but they were not major changes. In fact having some different riders and a few minor course changes was about the extent of the changes for this year. One major difference was the addition of an other lady rider. Effectively doubling our female presence in the peleton. Geana Moore, encouraged by here husband Ron and perhaps inspired by our first lady rider, Roxane, signed up for our little seven weeks of torture. We also had a new "youngest " rider join the ranks in the form of Dean Crail at the tender age of 11. His father, Keith, had done the tour in 2005 and decided to past the touch to his son. So as usual we ended up with 20 riders set to ride one race a week over seven long and cold winter weeks in January through February.

HERE IS HOW THINGS UNFOLDED!!

2006 TDS Prologue:
The Prologue for our 3rd year was doubled in length going from a mere 2.3 miles to 4.6, I know does not sound like much but this was for alot of riders the first miles in a couple of months. The first half of the new course was actually the 2004 and 2005 course, the second half was also the same course as before just ran in the opposite direction. This meant the riders now had an out and back course this cut down on the need for transporting the riders back to the start house.
2006 saw little change in the start of the race, Francis Manfred proved once again that he never stops training and is in good shape year round by winning the prologue(again). Markus Naegeli took second with Charlie Skoog in third, no surprises there. Where the surprise came was in young Dean Crail who torn into the field taking 6th place in the stage. So once again Francis would start wearing yellow but could he keep it this year or would he slip down the GC like the last two years, at least with last years changes to the handicap system we used he was able to get a 2nd place finish. Could he make one more step and win it all this year? Time would tell. One other note about the tour this year was that there was a draft; that is to say that Captains were picked and they picked their teams, even did a bit of trading riders after the teams had been picked. On to the next stage we go.

STAGE 2 THE WALL!!!
The 2006 as once again a 6 mile race on a 1 mile loop. Riders had to face the same climb time and time again. This stage was won by a leaner and meaner Mitch "Superman" Reeves, over the last year Mitch had dropped several pounds and increased his power output allowing him to climb faster then ever before. Kevin Wisher was able to claim second on the stage, despite the victories of these men Francis Manfred remained 1st in the GC. Markus was still in second and Charlie in third, the changes in the GC were notalbly Mitch climbing up to sixth and our young Dean Crail dropping like a rock from 6th to 19th!! More changes were to come in the following weeks but some were asking what of this Dean kid was he a flash in the pan or did he just have a bad race. Once again only time would tell. On we go...

STAGE 3 THE STAIRWAY.
THe 2006 course was the same the riders had done each year so far; this gave hope to Kasey Bickel who was now in his third (last tour), was on the same team for the third year( Time Lords) and was hoping for another hat trick by winning this stage for the third time! However he was not up the task and was beaten by Todd Brandenburg of the Majestic Moose Team, Kasey did manage to take second on the stage with Shawn Leonard of KFC in third. Todd's win moved him into 2nd overall, Kasey moved up to fourth, Roxane Burrous also moved up, now found in 3rd after a 5th place in the stage. Shawn's 3rd place however made him the big winner on the day as it launched him into 1st overall.. So what of the leaders from last week? Where was Francis, Markus and Charlie now? Francis fell to 7th, Markus to 8th and Charlie all the way to 15th. And in most cases those that were in the top 10 were now in the bottom 10 or getting there and those on bottom were moving up to take their spots. The Tour was heating up, too bad the weather was getting colder. On we go...

STAGE4 THE TEAM TIME TRIAL
Ok going to be brutally honest here, I am not sure what happened in the team time trial. Have no idea what it did to the teams. However after the time trial here is how the individual GC looked. Todd Brandenburg was in 1st taking the lead from Shawn Leonard who dropped to 3rd place. Kasey Bickel climbed in to 2nd however this is as good as he would do and ended the tour in 7th. Roxane also dropped, moving down one spot to 4th. On we go..

STAGE 4 THE HILL CLIMB
The 2006 version of the Hill Climb a five mile course with up to a 12% grade and having the last .3 miles uphill at a painful 10%. A very hard ride for flatlanders like those of us in Indiana here. This race was won by none other then Francis Manfred, a win that moved him first place again. Charlie Skoog took second on the stage and moved up to 9th . Meanwhile Todd Brandenburg lost the GC led and was in 3rd now after placing 7th, Kasey Bickel placed 15th and dropped to 10th from 2nd and Shawn Leonard placed 4th which moved him in to 2nd. The teams did something but nothing interesting so I am not going to report it here except to say that on the BABC message board the trash talk and opinions on the teams was heating up. On we go.

Mike's Revenge STAGE 5
The longest and toughest stage yet well this year anyways. Rick "the Dream" Weaver of the Kokomo Cycling and Fitness team was the stage winner for this 7.5 mile race. Which was the most glory he saw this year. Meanwhile in the GC Francis Manfred retained the Yellow Jersey(t-shirt) while Todd Brandenburg moved into 2nd from 3rd. This set up a battle for the overall win to be determined by the Epilogue. On we go..

Last Stage The Epilogue.
As with all years of the tour the Epilogue was the same course as the Prologue which was done to give the riders a chance to see if they improved over the seven weeks. And this year it looked like everything came down to the wire. Francis was in 1st place with Todd Brandenburg on his heals a mere 5 seconds back. Shawn Leonard was in 3rd only 18 seconds back and 4th place was Roxane Burrous at 35 seconds down. So things were tight it was anyone's guess who the overall winner was going to be. In the end Todd pulled out the GC win by 14 seconds over Francis in second, Shawn Leonard was 3rd by less then a second and Roxane ended 4th 24 seconds down from 1st. Very close race.

Tour History