Toyota-United Sweeps Vasalia Criterium
1 Comments Published by Unknown on Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 7:19 PM.
Vasalia, Calif. - A textbook lead-out to the finish delivered the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team its first-ever 1-2-3 finish Sunday at the Quad Knopf Sequoia Cycling Classic Criterium.
Ivan Dominguez took the win – his fifth of the season – while teammates Ivan Stevic and Henk Vogels crossed the finish line in second and third, respectively, at the end of the 40-mile (64.4 km) race in Visalia, Calif.
“You can pretty much say domination was the word of the day,” Vogels said.
Dominguez said the victory was even more memorable because of his teammates’ finishes.“It was nice to see Stevic and Henk get second and third,” he said. “I looked back and saw they were right behind me and thought ‘this is good.’ ”
Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said he knew a sweep was possible, but not likely due to the quality of sprinters in the field.
“It was a perfect lead-out from setting tempo, to ramping it up and having the guys peel off,” Jansen said. “I think the guys are pretty much getting the feel of each other.”
Toyota-United’s sweep of the top three podium places is a rare accomplishment on the National Race Calendar circuit. It was last achieved on June 18, 2006 when the Health Net presented by Maxxis squad finished 1-2-3 overall at the Nature Valley Grand Prix Stage Race.
Key to accomplishing the impressive finish, Jansen said, was keeping the pace high throughout the 57-lap race.
“Every team knew to have a chance to win, they would have to break away,” he said.
There were plenty of attacks launched in the first half of the race, but none of them stuck thanks to the rapid pace set by Toyota-United. With 20 laps to go, the team put all eight of its riders on the front to prepare for a furious finish.
“With five laps to go, we were riding tempo at 45 kph (29 mph),” Vogels said. “When Chris Wherry took over with a lap to go, the speed was up to 55 kph (34 mph) and I was doing about 60 kph (37 mph) when Ivan and Stevic came around me down the stretch.”
Dominguez’s victory was Toyota-United’s seventh of the season and its third at an NRC event. The Cuban said despite his impressive results to date, there is still room for improvement.
“Right now I’m about 70 percent,” Dominguez said. “I don’t want to get in form too quickly because there are still a lot of races to come.”
Coming into the weekend, Toyota-United led the NRC team standings and had three riders in the top 10 in the individual rankings.
“We go into Redlands with very good morale,” Jansen said, looking ahead to this week’s four-day stage race which begins Thursday.
Epic!
Congrats you guys!
HH