NVGP - Stage 4 pt. 1

I don't have times or official GC updates yet, but I can at least give a quick rundown of tonight's stage because I was there and it was a blast.

L & I wandered around the expo prior to the women's race watching some of the teams warm up on rollers and checking out the swag on offer (Toyota-United has the marketing thing down-lots of gear to buy and a free cowbell if they get your email address), but unfortunately hunger got the best of us so we only caught the last 10 minutes or so. IT seemed like a pretty close race as the peloton wasn't too strung out and the win went to a cheerwine rider but I wasn't able to get her name.

A little more wandering and drooling over the BMC and Scott bikes on display and I settled on a new Twin Six jersey. Ran into Heidi and Barb as well as Brian and Sara(h) which was fun and then it was time for the men's race to start.

We tucked into turn 4 (the inside of the "L") and it was awesome to see the intensity of the peloton as it came into the corner and then exploded out of it in a fury of shifting. The pace was very high for the almost all the race (34 mph at around 10 minutes in) and consequently the peloton was strung out pretty quick. Except for one breakaway that got some time later in the stage, Toyota-United kept a short leash on the pack giving Ivan the chance to grab the first 3 sprints that were on offer.

It ultimately came down to a group sprint at over 40 mph and Kirk O'Bee just pipped Stevic for the stage win. I am guessing this should put him into second but the intermediate sprints should keep IVan in yellow for another night.

Unfortunately I had to catch a bus and couldn't stay for the jersey ceremony. I will add a second post when I get the official times and maybe some pics if they tirned out ok.

one last thing though. so the race goes right by WCCO and all we got was a 10 second "oh yeah a bike race happened" and now on to some other lame story. Man the local news sucks.