Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 2007

Arlington, Va. — Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team sprinter Ivan Dominguez will miss Saturday’s CSC Invitational and the entire Commerce Bank “Triple Crown of Cycling” series while he continues his recovery from a bizarre crash at the Tri-Peaks Challenge last month.

Dominguez has been Toyota-United’s most successful racer this season, winning eight races – including Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California. The Cuban is a past winner of the CSC Invitational (in 2005), finished second at the Philadelphia International Championship last year and was third at the Wachovia Invitational in Lancaster, Penn., in 2005.

“It’s a tremendous loss for us,” said Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen. “He was coming into such great form.”

Dominguez severely bruised his back and ribs when he flipped over the handlebars 200 meters after crossing the finish line in Stage 1 of the Tri-Peaks Challenge May 17 in Russellville, Ark. The eighth-year pro said he doesn’t remember making contact with anyone and nothing was found to be wrong with his bicycle.

“It has really bothered me the way I crashed,” Dominguez said Friday from his Los Angeles-area home. “If I crashed going into the last turn or going for it in the sprint, I’d expect something like that. But this was while I was rolling in at the back of the group after the finish. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.”

Dominguez said he expects to resume training next week but might not be able to start racing again for some time.

“It’s a very frustrating situation, but like I said to my teammates, I want to make sure I heal the injury the way I’m supposed to,” Dominguez said. “I don’t want to crash again and make it worse.”

Jansen said with Dominguez out, Toyota-United will look to Ivan Stevic and Henk Vogels to be the designated team leaders for the four races over the next nine days. Stevic was third at the CSC Invitational in 2005 while Vogels has won in Philadelphia (in 2000).

After Saturday’s CSC Invitational, Toyota-United will compete in three Pro Cycling Tour events: the Tom Bamford Lancaster Classic on Sunday, the Commerce Bank Reading Classic on June 7 and the Philadelphia International Championship on June 10.

The rest of Toyota-United’s roster for the series will be Jose Manuel Garcia, Caleb Manion, Sean Sullivan and 2005 USPRO Road Champion Chris Wherry. The rest of the Toyota-United team is competing in the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in Oregon through Sunday.