Van Gilder, Young fastest in Tour de Toona criteriums

Laura Van Gilder (Now-Novartis-MS) won the third and final stage of the Tour de Toona at the downtown Altoona criterium on Sunday. She added to her more than 300 career-victories when she won the bunch sprint ahead of Leah Kirchmann (Colavita Forno D'Asolo) in second and Kaytee Boyd (BikeNZ)in third.

"Now-Novartis for MS team was definitely looking for a stage win today and we felt that that would be our strong point," Van Gilder told Cyclingnews. "We were looking for opportunities all day. The race was hard from the get go and the yellow jersey [Veronique Fortin] was in distress so most of the teams, including ours, put the pressure on. Once we lapped her, with four laps to go we found ourselves on the front and were able to take control. Now-Novartis was a very strong team and I was fortunate and that lead to success."

Janel Holcomb (Colavita Forno D'Asolo) won the overall title at the Tour de Toona ahead of Tara Whitten (Tibco-To the Top) in second and Kathryn Donovan (Missing Link Coaching System) in third. Canadian National Champion Veronique Fortin (PK Express/HNZ Strategic.com) lead the race during the two road stages, however, lost the yellow jersey after getting caught behind a crash in the opening laps of the criterium.

"I am so excited and the whole team is excited," Holcomb said. "I was excited about the possibility of winning the overall here. My priorities were to the team, to keep an eye on Tara Whitten, and to stay safe. I never thought that I would win the overall of any stage race in the closing criterium, but anything can happen."

Colavita Forno D'Asolo won the event's overall team classification. Anne Samplonius (Now-Novartis-MS Society) won the Queen of the Mountain competition and Fortin won the points competition.

The Tour de Toona concluded with a 56 kilometre, 30-lap criterium held in downtown Altoona. The technical circuit offered a lengthy false flat incline along the start-finish straightaway along with a technical chicane section. The overall race lead looked to be sewn up by Fortin, however some women were eager to have one last chance at a stage win and to tap into the $55,154 purse offered during all four stages.

Teams that were aggressive from the gun included Now-Novartis-MS Society, Colavita Forno D'Asolo and Tibco-To the Top. A crash through the chicane in the early part of the race, caused Fortin to lose some valuable time in the overall classification. Mid-race the main portion of the peloton was intact. Fortin continued to chase but her efforts did not bring her closer to the field and she lost seconds after each lap.

"I hadn't seen Veronique for the whole race," Holcomb said. "But I do know that the first four laps were very hard and people were being aggressive and my team was closing everything down. But, it was clear that people were struggling to move up and struggling to maintain their place. It was difficult to close gaps. Eight laps in was when I first heard that we had 25 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey. We went into the race with a plan that would get us the overall win, possible by getting in a breakaway. We did not expect that our plan would be executed so quickly or that it would unfold this way. I was very surprised."

Holcomb was sitting 1:15 minutes behind Fortin in the overall classification at the start of the stage. She moved into the virtual race lead once Fortin lost more than a minute and half mid-race. Colavita Forno D'Asolo continued to set a quick tempo at the front of the field to maintain a gap large enough to keep Holcomb in the overall race lead. The field caught and passed Fortin with eight laps to go.

Whitten made several attempt to break away from the field in pursuit of a solo move that would lend itself enough time to leap-frog Veronique and possibly Holcomb in the overall classification. "We were really aggressive from the start," said Tibco-To the Top DS Lisa Hunt in a press release.

"We attacked from the gun and the field was pretty strung out from the get-go and the field started whittling down. Once Véronique was gapped off, she lost 30 seconds pretty quickly and the gap just kept getting bigger. Once it got over a minute; that put Janel in the lead. We needed to get over two minutes to move Tara up. We had timed out the laps and they were coming in around 2:10. So we knew what we had to do."

However, the field was intact in the closing laps and Now-Novartis-MS Society took control at the front of the peloton for its sprinter Van Gilder. Sam Schneider (Tibco-To the Top) led the field through the final corner with Kirchmann on her wheel. Van Gilder followed closely behind and was able to catch and pass the pair along the straightaway to the finish line.

"I had Robin with me who drove it down the hill on the last lap," Van Gilder said. "I saw Sam and one of her teammates go through the last corner with Kirchmann on her wheel and I got on them. I was able to come around them on the home straight. It went really well and getting a stage win was exactly what we hoped for."

Bissell won its first stage of the Tour de Toona when Eric Young sprinted to victory at the stage three criterium. Young out-paced Ty Magner (Team Type 1 Development) in second and Roman Van Uden (Pure Black Racing) in third.

"We were looking for opportunities to see if Chris Baldwin or Chase Pinkham could move up in the overall, but it was just a criterium so it was hard to make huge time gaps," Young said. "If we couldn't do the overall win then we were at least looking to get the stage win because Pure Black had gotten all the stage wins so far. We were happy to get that today and also place three riders in the top ten and win the overall team competition."

Scott Lyttle (Pure Black Racing) won the overall title at the Tour de Toona and his team earned three consecutive stage victories in the process during the opening time trial, stage one and two road races. Lyttle won the overall race ahead of Chris Baldwin (Bissell) and teammate Chase Pinkham. Pinkham also secured the event's best Under 23 rider competition while the team won the event's best overall team competition.

"I am pretty happy on a personal level and from a team perspective because it is the first overall victory we have had," Lyttle said. "This is pretty big for the team and overall we are all happy. The boys are incredible and especially during the tough stages because I couldn't have done it by myself. This is a great team to be a part of. The stage wins were spread around the team and so that shows that as a team we are riding very well. Winning the overall was the icing on the cake."

"Bissell was keen to get a result and they hit it really hard with two laps to go," he added. "They had a good lead-out train and they did a good job setting their riders up so hats off to them. We were disappointed not to get the stage win with Van Uden, he had a bad run out of the last corner."

The Tour de Toona concluded with a 56 kilometre, 30-lap criterium held in downtown Altoona. The technical circuit offered a lengthy false flat incline along the start-finish straightaway along with a technical chicane section. "It was a pretty quick stage and relatively easy," Lyttle said. "The course was very tough and it would be interesting if there were more bigger teams. It was an interesting race. The criterium was good and I liked the prologue."

The Pro-Cat 1 men's race started out aggressively with top overall contenders in pursuit of the multiple time bonus sprints on tap for the day's stage. Although there was no change to the top three overall places, the efforts of those teams resulted in very little movement with regard to forming a breakaway.

"We wanted to control the race straight from the start," Lyttle said. "The competition for third and fourth place between Pinkham and Brett Tivers was very close and that meant they were going for the time bonuses and they were important. That helped us because they wanted to keep the field together too so they could get time bonuses."

With the field intact, Bissell rallied its riders at the front of the field with a relatively uncontested lead-out train for its series of sprinters. Young, who recently won the Glencoe Grand Prix, secured the team with its first stage win this weekend ahead of Magner and Van Uden.

"Frank led it through the last corner and that was it," Young said. "Pure Black had controlled most of the race and had their riders up at the front for most of the day. It was a matter of us coming over the top of them and controlling the last couple of laps."