White takes solo win in Tulsa Tough finale

After a weekend of dominating the three-day Tulsa Tough omnium, where they took the top prize in each of the races, the UnitedHealthcare men let the overall win slip away on the final corner of the third-to-last lap of the River Parks criterium.

That's where the fabled “UHC BlueTrain” derailed when Karl Menzies went down in the rain-slicked corner and took most of the team with him. Brad White survived the crash and rescued the stage win for UnitedHealthcare with an impressive solo effort over the final two laps to take the race win.

“At that point there are no more free laps,” White said of his effort. “So right then, right there, I had already done a lot of work, and I wasn't going to have a great sprint, so I knew I had to go from there and try and make it solo. The legs were just good enough.”

But it was 20-year-old KHS-Maxxis rider Fabrizio Von Nacher who took the overall omnium victory on the strength of fourth- and third-place finishes during the final two races and an 11th-place result on day one. Previous overall leaders Jake Keough and Ken Hanson, both of UnitedHealthcare, failed to finish the final race and came in second and third overall, respectively.

A very happy Von Nacher admitted he was surprised to hear his name called out as the overall omnium winner.

“At the end, the UHC train crashed and everything went crazy,” said Von Nacher, a Mexican national riding for the Southern California domestic elite team. “So I just rode it, and that's why I got such a surprise. I didn't know if I got third or fourth in the stage, and then the overall was a surprise. We didn't know. We are so happy, we have been working very hard for this.”

The women, who started earlier in the day, didn't have to deal with rain or wet roads, but the UnitedHealthcare squad almost succumbed to disaster when double-race winner and overall leader Hannah Barnes dropped her chain on the final trip up Cry Baby Hill. Barnes lost contact with the lead group, but her teammate Coryn Rivera took up the UnitedHealthcare banner, winning the race and the omnium overall after finishing second and third during the previous two days.

“As we got to the top of the course, [Vanderkitten's Lizzie Williams] just drilled it a little bit,” Rivera said of the final lap. “But I knew going into the last corner I had to be first, so I just came in hot in that downhill. I knew the conditions were dry, so I was totally confident in my cornering and my equipment that I would make it through. I came out first and just took it to the line.”

Williams hung on for second on the day, while Erica Allar (Colavita-Fine Cooking) crossed the line in third. In the final overall standings, Barnes hung on for second overall, while Allar, who finished second and third in the two previous races, was third overall.

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