STAGE 6, TOUR OF OHIO, FINALE

Last day! Tough crit of 60 laps and about a kilometer in length. 180 degree turn on every lap. Things got off to a fast start with a few attacks that were brought back readily. About 15 laps in, Sean Weddell and Tyler Hawes (Team Globablbike) got away with a Jittery Joe's guy and one other. Within two laps they opened a gap of 24 seconds and managed to lap the field by about 10 to go!

Everything stuck together for the finish and the lapping group sprinted first. Tyler got 2nd and Sean 4th.

Final stats for the 2009 Tour of Ohio:

Tyler Hawes - 1st Collegiate Competition, 5th Overall, three top-10's
Tommy Smith - 3rd Collegiate Competition, 6th place stage 5
David Forkner - WINNER, Stage 1, 3 top-10's
Sean Weddell - WINNER, KOM Jersey, 3 top-10's
Jim Cunningham - 4th Overall, two top-10's
Craig McKinney - 2nd Collegiate Competition, 8th Overall, 2 top-10's

Josh Whitmore, Andre Vandenberg and Hoah Metzger were a tremendous help!

Coach Jim

TOUR OF OHIO, STAGE 5

Granville, Ohio. Wow, what a tough stage this was! Going into it I thought we were over the hump on hard road races. Mistake. This was only about 50 miles with seven finishing loops in downtown Granville.

We rolled out of town and not more than three miles in a break went up the road with Alder Martz, a Jittery Joe's guy, Andre Vandenberg (Globalbike team mate), Craig McKinney (also a GB team mate) and a few others. They opened about a minute lead. The Specialized-Mercy team decided to pull it back and did so within three or four miles.

Dan Quinlen (Carbon) attacked and Globalbike team mate Sean Weddell went with him for game on! The two opened a gap of roughly two minutes in short order. Jittery Joe's felt threatened by it and put all their guys on the front and pulled for a solid 15 miles, maybe more.

We went over the first KOM (one mile climb) as a group turning many inside out including yours truly... It was H-A-R-D with a serious cross-wind which created at least two echelons traversing the entire road. Much of the time was pulled back but not all of it.

After another seven to eight miles we re-entered Granville and the screws really began turning! Two short steep climbs put us on the seven-lap, mile long finishing circuit. A small group splintered off including Tyler Hawes & Andre Vandenberg (Globalbike team mates) and the rest of us did our best to stay near the front. Each of the one-mile loops had a short 50 meter climb and one steep 400+ meter climb on it followed by a 200 meter ride along a ridge before descending into a hair-pin turn and a couple 90 degree crit corner/straight-away combo's back to the 50 meter climb... Man was this a hard little circuit!

Tommy Smith (Globalbike team mate) managed to sneak away from the group he and I were in and bridged to the secondary group. Sean stayed with the secondary group but climber extraordinaire Dewey Dicky (Specialized Mercy) rallied to bridge across and go ahead of the entire field gaining about 2 minutes on everyone.

Globalbike finished strong with Tyler Hawes in 5th, Tommy Smith 6th, Sean Weddell 9th (after an all-day break!) and myself 11th. Overall, Sean gained the climbers jersey as there were five KOM's in all (three on the final circuits and two on the initial loop) and I dropped a spot to 4th overall due Dewey Dicky's solo finish in the final circuits.

Stage 6, the final day, is tomorrow outside Toledo, Ohio.

Coach Jim

TOUR OF OHIO, STAGE 4

Worthington Crit, 40 miles. Awesome crit in a residential neighborhood with much cheering from the folks along the route. The course is more of a circuit/crit as many of the turns are rather wide (wide enough to pedal through) and the course itself is 1.2 miles.

A rather tame race in the first several laps. Things heated up on the first intermediary sprint when Jittery Joe's and us (Globalbike) went hard for the points. David got second. Not long after, I attacked and got a nice gap. Three guys came up to me and we worked hard to get a gap. The time-split grew and grew with a group of six bridging along the way. Ten strong, we lapped the field with Jittery Joe's doing much of the work trying to get yellow back. Sean and I were the only Globalbike racers in the break so we let them work and just sat for about 15 miles.

With about four to go we lapped the field and Craig and Josh immediately got to the front and pushed the pace. We sprinted hard up the last stair-step climb (this came every 1.2 mile lap) and Sean and I finished in the top six or seven. Overall, I moved into 3rd putting as our break was 2 minutes up on the field today and Craig retained the polka-dot jersey. More tomorrow!

Coach Jim

TOUR OF OHIO, STAGE 3

Nelsonville stage. This was about 70 miles and hilly again. Got away with Tommy and 4-5 others for about 25 miles including the KOM! Tommy 3rd over it and me 4th. Felt good! We got caught and then worked it to the end. Did plenty of work to the end. Couple tough climbs but nothing too bad. Glad KOM was with only 6 of us... 4 ultimately got away and David was one of them. Finished in downtown Nelsonville with 5 loops of a .5 mile course. Bad bricks on the one side. I managed to get in at second wheel behind a Jittery Joe's guy. Sprinted best I could at end and got 12th. David got second and Tyler and Noah just ahead of me. Great day! We have the green, polka-dot, and collegiate jersey!

Coach Jim

TOUR OF OHIO, STAGE 2

Wilkesville to Wilkesville, 65 miles. Tough racing Wednesday with a 1.5 mile climb in the last 12 miles. The team managed to put a guy in every move without exception! Sean got in an early move that stayed out for about 1/2 of the race. He was with only one other guy...

Plenty of moves and most came back but for one about half way through the race which Craig and Noah infiltrated. The break grew to six racers and was up one minute or so much of the race.

Jittery Joe's put a train of four on the front of the pack about 3 miles before the 1.5 mile climb to stave off any attacks. Yours truly managed to sneak into their train at third wheel. The climb started fast & furious with the wispy climbers drillin' it rather hard... Globalbike managed to put team mate Tyler in a group of four that open about a 100 meter gap at the front of the climb... Unfortunately Tyler detached just before the climb ended. Sean pushed it hard to the top bringing it all together but for the three off and Tyler still ahead chasing the three he was with.

I managed to roll of the front right after the KOM banner and got a solid 150 meter gap. Sean Adams, Team Lake Effect, joined me and we reeled Tyler in but did not catch the break. We, like the lead group, stayed away and Globalbike finished with four guys in the top ten, the climbers jersey and the sprinters jersey. We unfortunately lost yellow but will fight to get it back! Today's finish had Craig 4th, Noah 6th, Tyler 9th and me 10th. More soon!

Coach Jim

TOUR OF OHIO, STAGE 1

Wow, this went really well! 57 miles of rolling hills in Gallipolis, Ohio near the Ohio River. There was a flurry of attacks after about 3 miles. We have nine guys in the race and were in ALL of the moves. Very nice feeling to 'race with a net' as I call it.

About 10 miles in, team mate Craig McKinney got up the road with a Jittery Joe's guy and they proceeded to stay away to within 10 miles to go! There lead got to about a minute at most and yo-yo'd between 20 and 40 seconds quite a bit. During this time, the team and I (8 of us) simply covered attacks and sat on wheels. How nice to have a guy up the road!

Once the the entire field was together again, several of us Globalbike guys moved to the front and lined up to give David Forkner a fast lead-out. After a 1K climb, I went to the front first with about 3.5K to go and drilled it full-gas over some rolling terrain to the second last turn. Sean Weddell took over there and did the same to the final turn and then it was Josh Whitmore providing the final kick delivering D-Fork to the line for the WIN!!! Sitting pretty in
Y-E-L-L-O-W after Stage 1!

Coach Jim