Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 2007

Philadelphia - The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team saw its two best opportunities to win Sunday’s Commerce Bank International Championship end in two different ways.

A late-race breakaway that included Toyota-United’s Caleb Manion and Ivan Stevic was chased down and caught on the final trip up the Manayunk Wall.

But the bigger blow came with the finish line in sight and four Toyota-United riders near the front of the pack. A collision nearly took down Henk Vogels and held up the others as CSC’s Juan Jose Haedo sprinted down the parkway for the victory.
Despite the misfortunes, Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen had many positives to point out after the 156-mile (251 km) race that was run in record time.

“The guys had a phenomenal race,” Jansen said. “In all honesty, maybe a better race than last year. They didn’t make mistakes.

“Stevic and Manion did what they had to do. They had to make moves in the final part of the race and that’s what they did. Everyone did their job.”

Indeed, after Stevic crashed hard, he regained the field with the help of teammate Heath Blackgrove and rode straight through to a breakaway up the road that included Manion.

“When I saw Caleb, it was a beautiful day,” Stevic said.

The group of 10 included two from the Navigators Insurance Cycling Team, two from the Symmetrics Cycling Team, one each from the two ProTour teams (T-Mobile and CSC), plus riders from Health Net presented by Maxxis and the BMC Professional Cycling team. The escapees’ lead grew to nearly 90 seconds before they were reeled back in through the combined chasing efforts of the Slipstream presented by Chipotle and Tecos de la Universidad teams.

“Everyone but Slipstream loved it,” Manion said.

Toyota-United’s Chris Wherry, who won the race in 2005, also made his way into breakaway that gained more than a minute’s lead. But each time, like all the rest of the breakaways before and after that, it was reeled in.

But the most decisive blow to Toyota-United’s chances of improving on last year’s second-place finish by Ivan Dominguez came as Vogels was sitting in 10th place. A rider lost control as the final sprint began.

“It started on the left and came across four lanes of traffic to the right,” Wherry said. “It actually hit Henk and he was sliding sideways but managed to pull out of it.”

Vogels’ 13th-place finish was the best Toyota-United could manage. But it did not diminish Jansen’s spirits.

“I walked onto the bus with a smile on my face and told the guys they rode a fantastic race,” he said.