19th International Tour De Toona -  Pennsylvania, USA

25^th July - 31^st July 2005

Once the race starts, you will be able to click below to go to Stage results > 

Race website - Tour De Toona

Click here to jump on this page  to >>   Results    General Classification   

Stage Review - Stage 5 - Hoss's Martinsburg Circuit Road Race  123.6km

reproduced with kind permission from the International Tour De Toona and Mariane Werz O'Brien

This is usually a pretty mellow stage, but this year's Toona has been anything but usual! In the first mile a Diet Cheerwine racer attacked hard, but Quark, Colavita, TEAm Lipton, and MS2R Honey Stinger each had a rider on her tail instantly. Their small train strung the peloton out briefly then Rebecca Larson (Colavita) popped out from behind for another attack. T-Mobile countered, and in the words of our race moto they were "mucho compacto". All this by mile three. 

Quark and TEAm Lipton attacked, Webcor countered. TEAm Lipton attacked again, T-Mobile and Webcor both followed. Mucho Compacto. TEAm Lipton attacked on a small hill 7 miles into the race, Ina Tuetenburg countered. "Mucho compacto".

Next up it was Victory Brewing launching an attack, Diet Cheerwine immediately responded and the two riders surged around the corner but then Colavita and T-Mobile attacked on the descent and once more it was "Mucho Compacto" at ten miles. The first lap continued with repeated attacks, and counter attacks as T-Mobile, Webcor and Colavita attempted to control the race.

Repeat the above paragraphs 3 more times, inserting the names of all the womens teams randomly and you pretty much have the race until 10 kilometers before the finish line when one tiny tornado decided to launch herself into the stratosphere!

Team Ford-Basis racer Nicole Freedman propelled herself away from the peloton gaining a 10 seconds over the field.

Her gap grew to 29 seconds on an heroic attempt to take the stage - it looked like she might actually pull it off too until the final straightaway into Martinsburg. Nicole held off the chasers into the zigzag corners entering the town. She was solo on the first turn and made it through the second but then was overtaken by the train of sprinters.

Crossing the line it was yet again the Tina, Ina, and Gina show. But the most aggressive racer of the day had to be Nicole Freedman.

Back to top

Results - Stage 5