Barry, Hall win from breaks

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Dan Barry (Pure Black Racing) brought his team its third consecutive victory in stage two of the Tour de Toona on Saturday. He out-paced his all-day breakaway companions Joseph Rosskopf (Team Type 1 Development) in second and Cameron Cogburn (Mt Borah Custom Apparel/Minerv) in third.

"We are very pleased with having a third win," Barry said. "I attacked hard with 300 metres to go and kept my head down and none of the other riders were able to come around. The guys were all really pleased how the race turned out and we are thrilled that it worked out the way that it did. But keeping the yellow jersey was the main thing that we were hoping for today."

Scott Lyttle (Pure Black Racing) maintained his overall race lead heading into the third and final stage, a criterium held in downtown Altoona on Sunday. GC runner-up Chris Baldwin (Bissell), who placed fourth on the day, put in a strong effort to try and close down the gap to Lyttle and will start the final stage 27 seconds back. Baldwin's teammate Chase Pinkham is in third place, 58 seconds behind.

"Crazier things have happened and I have seen the lead change on the criterium course in the past," said Bissell DS Omer Kem. "Pure Black Racing has won three of the four stages and so my emphasis is to try and win the stage with the four sprinters that I brought here. It's a hard course to control and it is not impossible to take the overall race win tomorrow."

The Pro-Cat 1 men's field resumed racing after a rest day. Pure Black Racing assumed the majority of the responsibility at the front of the field for their race leader and stage one winner, Lyttle. The men took on the stage two road race which started and finished in Altoona for a total of 147.5 kms. The stage boasted several ascents including the one last time over Blue Knob.

Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) rode into a breakaway nearly 40km into the race that include eight additional riders. His companions were Rosskopf, who was the highest placed rider in the overall classification at just over 1:30 minutes behind Lyttle. Also in the mix were Barry and Cogburn along with two riders from Bikereg.com-Cannondale and one rider from XO Communications-Battley H-D.

The breakaway passed through three KOMs and two intermediate sprint zones and gained a maximum advantage of three minutes. However, when their margin began to drop, second-placed in the overall classification by a mere 30 seconds Baldwin launched himself out of the field on the Blue Knob ascent and bridged across to the on-road leaders with help from his teammate Jacques-Maynes who sat up and waited at the top of the climb for him.

"We hit the front before the climb to try and split the race up," Kem said. "Chris saw an opportunity to go without Lyttle and he was able to bridge across to Ben, who stopped at the top of the climb to help Chris close the final piece of the gap to the breakaway."

The breakaway's margin continued to fall as Pure Black Racing set a quick tempo, with help from Garneau Club-Chaussures, to try and keep Baldwin in check. However, Baldwin attacked the breakaway on the third KOM in one last ditch effort to gain the seconds he needed to move into the overall race lead, bringing Barry, who did little work, Rosskopf and Cogburn with him.

"It wasn't my job to drive the breakaway today with Scott in yellow," Barry said. "I didn't want to do anything to get us further up the road. I had a pretty nice ride for a lot of it. I had to make sure that I could respond to attacks, especially from Chris, at the end."

Baldwin's efforts earned him roughly one minute with five kilometres to go. However, Pure Black Racing and Garneau Club Chaussures were unwilling to give up and brought the margin back down to 3 seconds in the closing kilometres and maintained Lyttle's overall race lead.

"We really put all of our cards into taking that leader's jersey but with the gap being 30 seconds it was definitely going to be a tall order," Kem said. "As the breakaway was about to get caught, he was able to try and go again, and take the three strongest riders from the original breakaway with him. They put in a good effort down the descent into Altoona but there was a collective effort from behind."

Some 30 riders in a gruppetto were lost on course after taking a wrong turn. Race officials gave them a pro-rated time and those riders will be eligible to start the stage three criterium held in downtown Altoona on Sunday. "There was every intention for the race organizers to keep them in the race, which is what should happen," Kem said.

Women’s race marred by wrong turns and neutralized efforts

Lauren Hall (Colavita Forno D'Asolo) won a two-woman sprint to secure the second stage of the Tour de Toona held in Altoona on Sunday. She out-paced breakaway companion Anne Samplonius (Now-Novartis-MS Society) who placed second on the day. Hall's teammate and Janel Holcomb placed third on the day.

"I'm still in a little bit of shock and I can't believe it happened, actually," Hall said. "I'm really excited. I attacked with under a kilometre to go, then I saw 500 metres to go and I just told myself to keep on going. Once I saw 200 metres to go I knew I had it and I couldn't believe it."

Canadian National Road Champion Veronique Fortin (PK Express-HNZ Strategic.com) maintained her overall race lead heading into the third and final stage of the Tour de Toona, a criterium held in downtown Altoona on Sunday. Holcomb is currently sitting in second place over one minute behind and Tara Whitten (Tibco-To the Top) is in third more than two minutes back.

The Pro-Cat 1,2 women's field lined up in the early morning to contest the longest stage of the Tour de Toona at 147 kms. The race began in Altoona and passed three QOMs including Blue Knob before finishing back in Altoona.

An early breakaway set sail that included Hall and Samplonius along with Laura Van Gilder, Jennifer Wheeler (TIBCO-To the Top), Kathleen Billington (Danbury-Audi) and Joanie Caron (Juvederm-Specialized). Teams that were not represented in the move included Rouse Bicycles and Missing Link among others.

The breakaway continued to gain time on the peloton. When the margin quickly and unexpectedly reached 3:40 minutes it caused concern amongst the team directeurs who were alerted that the peloton had taken a wrong turn and was no longer on the race course.

Race officials neutralized the breakaway and allowed the peloton to get back on course. The entire peloton was regrouped with the breakaway riders 15km from the base of the decisive Blue Knob ascent. Officials restarted the race, sending the breakaway riders up the road first, followed by the peloton with the original time gap.

The breakaway riders gained one minute when they were notified by race officials that they, along with peloton behind, were directed off course for a second time, prior to reaching Blue Knob. Officials regrouped and restarted the two groups a second time.

In addition, traffic entered onto the race course due to a limited number of corner marshals that were designated to direct the race and the cars. Cyclingnews' photographer Jonathan Devich was spotted directing traffic with a marshal's flag in hand.

"There were no people on the corners," said TIBCO-To the Top DS Lisa Hunt. "There was also a lack of information. The girls were not getting information from officials as to what the time gaps were. It was pretty bad. There were not enough officials. Riders' safety is important."

Race officials announced that time cuts for the stage would not be enforced due to the improper course direction or lack thereof from corner marshals.

Samplonius and Hall managed to ride away from their breakaway companions over Blue Knob. Samplonius did the bulk of the work over the final climb, and attacked Hall several times to try and get away. The pair gained more than two minutes ahead of a chase group that included many of the top overall contenders.

"I was told to help, but to be smart about my pulls," Hall said. "We started working and after a while, over the third QOM, I had to start thinking about the finish because Anne is a good climber and she has been around for a while with tons of pedal strokes in her legs, and that counts. She attacked and I stuck it out but she couldn't shack me. She attacked again on the last climb and my legs were hurting so bad that I could hardly stand up."

Race leader Fortin initiated the chase group on the Blue Knob ascent which included Sue Palmer Komar (PK Express-HNZ Strategic.com), Wheeler, Carmen Small and Tara Whitten (TIBCO-To the Top), Holcomb and Rushlee Buchanan (Colavita Forno D'Asolo), Billington and Alisha Welsh (Danbury Audi), US National Road Champion Robin Farina and Kristin LaSasso (Now-Novartis-MS Society), Alison Shanks (BikeNZ), along with two riders from Missing Link Coaching Systems) and one rider from Rouse Bicycles.

"TIBCO wanted a break to get up the road," Hunt said. "We think it might have been the wrong combination of riders because Veronique seemed content to let it go out and they didn't have to expend energy. We wanted to make it hard on that team but I don't think it was hard enough going into the Blue Knob climb."

Hall jumped just under one kilometre to go and out-paced Samplonius for the stage win at the finish line. Holcomb and Fortin formed a two-person chase group and descended back into Altoona to finish in third and fourth place respectively more than two minutes behind. The second larger chase group, which included many of the overall contenders, rolled into the finish line 3:45 behind the stage winner.

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