Fortin victorious atop Blue Knob and moves into yellow

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Newly-crowned Canadian National Road Champion Veronique Fortin (PK Express-HNZ Strategic.com) displayed her climbing prowess to win stage one at the Tour de Toona that finished atop the grueling Blue Knob ascent. She out-paced Alisha Welsh (Danbury Audi-Velo Classic Tours) in second and Kathryn Donovan (Missing Link Coaching Systems) in third.

"Veronique was climbing really well and was able to climb away from everyone," said Welsh who races full-time for Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12 and is currently guest riding for the Danbury Audi squad. "She had a sizable gap but with two kilometres to go I was gaining time on her slowly and steadily. I thought I could get it but I ran out of real estate at the end. It was a good effort and my biggest finish."

Fortin moved into the overall race lead after her strong performance on Blue Knob. She is leading the race by 19 seconds ahead of Welsh and 36 seconds ahead of Alison Shanks (BikeNZ). Tara Whitten (Tibco-To the Top), who won the previous day's prologue, was pleased with her sixth place performance on the day but slid into fourth place overall.

"You can't win anything without trying so we are going to look at the next stage really close and see where we can make up some time and take some advantages," Welsh said. "I think we will see what we can do over the next couple of days."

The Pro-Cat 1, 2 women lined up under cloudy and rainy weather conditions to contest the 116 kilometres and difficult stage that finished atop a lengthy and steep climb on Blue Knob. Team Now-Novartis-MS Society lead by current US National Road Champion Robin Farina was one of the most aggressive teams, sending riders on several attacks and trying to form a breakaway en route to the final climb.

"I think it was a really exciting stage and a lot of action," Whitten said. "Sam [Schneider] did well in the intermediate sprints and my team was working really well putting in a lot of attacks and helping me to move up in the group when I needed to."

Although there were several breakaways during the stage, none stuck for more than a few kilometres before being reabsorbed into the peloton. Colavita Forno D'Asolo led the field into the base of Blue Knob. "It was an active race but nothing stuck for that long," Welsh said. "Colavita set the pace really high and I just stayed a little bit back. Veronique attacked and a few girls could follow her but I just had to settle into my own pace. I ended up reeling back the girls one-by-one."

A lead group of climbers formed that included Fortin, Welsh and Donovan along with Kristen Gohr (Rouse Bicycles), Alison Shanks (BikeNZ), Tara Whitten (Tibco-To the Top), Lex ALbrecht (Juvederm-Specialized), Sue Palmer-Komar (PK Express-HNZ Strategic.com), Nicole Evans and Jade Wilcoxson (Rouse Bicycles). "After Veronique attacked it was all about who could try and stay with her," Whitten said.

"I started to fade a bit and other girls were trying to close the gap, but I ended up in sixth and I am really happy with that," she said. "I'm never really sure how I will climb and this one was longer than my ideal distance. But it was broken up in the middle and a small descent and rollers before the last push to the finish. I was happy with how I climbed and I think everyone was blowing up, it was just a matter of who could control it the best."

In the men's race, Scott Lyttle (Pure Black Racing) climbed his way into a solo victory out of an all-day breakaway at the top of the Tour de Toona stage one mountaintop finish on Blue Knob. Chris Baldwin (Bissell) caught the breakaway on the climb and closed down much of the gap to Lyttle, finishing a strong second place ahead of Brett Tivers (Garneau Club Chaussures) in third.

"I was feeling a little bit tired after the day's effort," Lyttle said. "But, obviously it worked out pretty well and I was able to hang on for the win at the top with about a final gap of 20 or 30 seconds between myself and Chris. It worked out well."

Lyttle gained enough time on the ascent to move into the overall race lead, taking over the yellow jersey from his teammate and prologue winner Roman Van Uden. He is now leading the race by 30 seconds ahead of Baldwin and 58 seconds ahead of his Bissell teammate and breakaway rider Chase Pinkham.

Baldwin was thrilled with the day's result: "I had a blast today," he said. "Chase Pinkham was in the breakaway and the guys went so hard at the bottom of the climb, I had to tell them to slow down. It was nice to have good legs and pay the team back for having faith in me."

Following a rest day, the racing will continue at the stage two road race, which is a total of 147.5 kilometres and will also include the ascent over Blue Knob. "Everyone's form has stepped up and everyone is doing quite well," Lyttle said. "It was always our plan to get somebody in the breakaway and it wasn't necessarily myself. Almost any of my teammates could have done the job. We have a strong team here I am confident with the team we've got that we can control it and try and defend this jersey."

Pure Black Racing had a strong showing during the previous day's prologue with six riders in the top ten places. However, Bissell's aggressive efforts on the final climb allowed them to place three riders in the top ten and they surpass Pure Black Racing in the event's best overall team competition.

"Chris Baldwin is the main threat, and maybe the only one to really watch," Lyttle said. "He is obviously the best climber here from what he displayed today. We looked at Blue Knob, which will be harder on Saturday because we have to go up the other side. We will definitely be watching Chris because he is the big threat."

The Pro-Cat 1 men lined up to contest a short but difficult stage that finished atop a lengthy and steep climb on Blue Knob. An early breakaway of six riders including Lyttle and Tivers and Pinkham along with one rider from each team Kelly Benefit Strategies-LSV, Team type 1 Development and Chemstar p/b UnitedHealthcare gained nearly four minutes on the field by the mid-point of the race.

"It was a relatively short stage at only 116 kilometres and we got in the breakaway pretty early on, which was the plan" Lyttle said. "We had the yellow over night and there were some earlier breaks before mine went. We were represented in them but I got into the last one. It was a promising move and we stayed away. I think Bissell was happy to let it go and so were my boys and they sort of controlled the front of the field and let the breakaway slip out a bit. We built our lead and slipped away."

Rain during the race caused some slick sections of road on route and Tivers and Pinkham unfortunately crashed out of the breakaway through a tight corner with 25 kilometres to go. The breakaway riders sat up and waited for the two riders to rejoin, however, they lost valuable time in the process.

"I thought they were out of the race but we waited and they came back to us," Lyttle said. "We lost a fair bit of time because of the indecisiveness there. But the six of us went into the climb, which I don't think any of us had seen before."

Bissell put 100 per cent confidence in their climber Baldwin and rode an aggressive race into the base of Blue Knob. The result of their efforts caused massive destruction amongst the main peloton and allowed Baldwin to launch himself off the front in pursuit of the breakaway riders and the stage win. Baldwin successfully bridged across a nearly two-and-a-half-minute gap to all of the breakaway riders but one, Lyttle.

"It wasn't super steep or tough but the gradient kept going," Lyttle said. "Bissell set up Baldwin for an attack and he closed the gap really quickly. I got word from the team car that he was 15 seconds behind us and so I attacked from the breakaway with about five kilometres to go. I went solo and that is how I got away for the win." 

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