We had a
super weekend at the Tour de Tuscaloosa. It was a two day race
with criteriums on Saturday and road races on Sunday. There was
lots of competition and there was big prize money.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
- Downtown Criterium - Philip O'Donnell and Andrew Macrae: "Stars of the
Criteriums"
Our most thrilling race of the weekend was
Saturday's Men's Cat. 3 criterium. Andrew Macrae, 15, and Philip
O'Donnell, 14, finished 2nd and 3rd in the Men's Cat 3 criterium race
(there were nearly 50 starters). They almost caught a solo break
artist (Daniel Banks), who had a 30-second-plus lead on the field going
into the final lap. Philip led out Andrew and they dropped the field
closing within one second of the exhausted winner! They gave Frazier
Cycling our best finish ever for a Men's Cat 3 race - 2nd and 3rd place! This was accomplished after Philip had won the
Junior 10-14 criterium and Andrew had finished 3rd in the Junior 15-18
criterium earlier in the day.
Junior's 15-18 Criterium: David Goodman, who's
recovering from a broken collar bone, finished 2nd just ahead of Andrew.
Andrew had made an early break with the eventual solo winner, Ben
Gabari, 18, Hot Tubes. After a few laps of burning up the course
with the Cat. 2 junior, Andrew dropped back with the chasing group of
five. He sat in to recover for a final sprint and with the hope
that his teammates could join him. Meanwhile David Goodman, 17,
had been dropped by the field, but he was rescued by our hero of the
race, Ethan Zehr, 18. David attached himself to Ethan's group that
included our Andrew Hodges, 16, and Russell Tindol, 17. Ethan put
forth the majority of the effort that brought our team back to the
chasers; thereby, setting up our two places on the podium!
Junior's 10-14 Criterium: As mentioned earlier,
Philip O'Donnell was the overall winner. He led the race from
start to finish. James Todd, 12, and Teja Gummadi, 12, were first
and second, respectively, for the Junior Men 10-12. Abigail
Aldridge, 13, was first for Junior Women 13/14.
Women's Cat. 1/2/3
Criterium: Nowadays, Zoe races with the BIGS. In Saturday's
Women's Cat 1/2/3 Criterium, Zoe Frazier, 15, secured 4th place in the
Women's Pro-1-2-3 race.
Women's Cat 3/4 Criterium:
Dominique Shore, 14, had a great race. The Women's 3/4
field was broken up after the second lap. Dominique made the split
with the lead pack where she stayed for the whole race. Dominique
finished 5th .
Sunday, March 28, 2010 -
Lake Lurleen Road Race - Philip O'Donnell wins again
Junior's 13/14 Road Race (20 miles): Philip
O'Donnell, 14, cruised to another victory by taking the 20-mile Junior
13/14 road race.
Junior's 15-18 Road Race (30 miles): Andrew
Macrae, 15, took second place overall as he was nudged out at the
finish-line by Krystal Cycling's Tim Killelea, 18. Andrew Hodges,
16, finished third in the race. Their places earned the "Andrews"
the top two medals for the Junior's 15/16 age group.
Junior's 10-12 Road Race (10 miles): James
Todd fought his way to third place in the downhill sprint finish.
Our team dominated the next four spots with Alexander Dijkema, 12, in
fourth place, Teja Gummadi, 12, in fifth, Adi Gummadi, 11, sixth, and
Rishi Mocherla, 12, seventh.
Women's Cat 1/2/3 Road Race (30 miles): Zoe
Frazier, 15, finished 3rd. She spun out on the
downhill finish in her top junior gear. This circumstance plagued
our junior racers all day. I believe it would have been different
for Zoe and many of our other juniors in the Category races if the
finish-line was situated on an incline.
Women's Cat 4 Road Race (30 miles):
Stephanie Cucaz, 17, overcame all
disappointments of not making the break in Saturday's Women's 3/4
criterium by staying with the lead group and finishing in the money.
Stephanie finished in 7th place. Dominique Shore, 14, was in eleven place and
Lisa (Hodges) Bongiomo was 17th among the 24 finishers.
Men's Cat 3 Road Race (50 miles): Andrew Macrae,
15, and Philip O'Donnell, 14, entered their second race of the day.
These juniors raced a total of 80 and 70 miles, respectively.
Philip finished 10th and Andrew finished 16th. David Goodman
placed 21st.
Men's Cat 4 Road Race (40 miles): This race
looked as though we were going to have the same kind of result that we
had in the previous day's Men's Cat 3 criterium until a crash with less
than 500 meters took out our most promising positions. Andrew
Hodges, 16, and Sam Tomaka, 16, were sitting pretty in top positions
when a racer near the front touched wheels at high speed and took out
eight racers including Andrew and Sam. Two of the fallen were
strapped to stretchers and taken to the local hospital. After
flipping over his handlebars sky high, Sam landed with just a few
scrapes. After a few minutes, he remounted and went on to finish in 41st
place. Hodges was not able to continue on his wrecked bike.
He received treatment and the paramedics instructed him to have X-rays
taken of his wrist. Amid the carnage, Russell Tindol managed to
snake through the debris at high speed and he went on to finish 19th in
the huge field sprint of 29 racers.
Men's Pro-1-2 Road Race (70 miles): Joe Rosentel
completed his Cat 2 road race debut by finishing 20th among nearly 50
starters.
Master's Men Road Race (50 miles): Johnny Mayero
finished 16th.
Complete results for
2010 Tour de Tuscaloosa
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