Tucker Gerald out-sprints the competition in Reno Nevada to take the second stage (Pro category) of the Tour de Nez. The race report and write up by Velo News can be found below.
Congratulations Tucker, great job!!!
Pro Men – stage 2
* 1. Tucker Gerald, Park Place Dealerships
* 2. Cody Stevenson, Adageo Energy Cycling
* 3. Steve Reaney, California Giant Berry Farm
Transported from the sedate streets of Sparks to the rowdy downtown corridors of Reno, the Tour de Nez fired up again Friday night for a stage 2 circuit race. Under-23 hard man Tucker Gerald (Park Place Dealerships) nosed out the win for the men while U.S. National team rider Janel Holcomb was awarded the top step for the women after a crash-marred final sprint.
What a difference a day made as the Tour de Nez was pulsing with a whole new energy as the racers took to the task of stage 2. The downtown event concourse was alive and bustling and the racing vibes seriously ramped up for the elbow-to-elbow action.
The 1.5-mile circuit course cut a figure 8 across and back over the Truckee River before rolling into a long straight away that passed the event expo and start/finish line. Fans found a brew pub and a pleasant riverfront park along the race route making for top notch spectating no matter your pleasure.
A steady wind greeted the contenders of both pro races, making for a vicious back half of the course and an absolutely ripping final stretch. The women battled the breeze for 50 minutes and the men for an even hour.
Men: Gerald wins with a lunge
The men took the course with the sun low and the wind abating just a bit. The calmer conditions allowed a couple two-man breakaways to pull off the front early on, but their lead was short lived as the head wind on the back stretch was still a bear.
Sprint laps for extra points kept the pace quick, with three different racers winning bonuses, including U23 Danny Heeley. Weaving through the lane changes of the eight-cornered course proved to be less dramatic for the men as the race ran crash free.
Crushing into the last lap, the men were just as tight as the women with a dozen guys vying for the win on the final sprint. When the tires met the line it was Gerald who nosed it out, throwing a well-timed bike lunge to beat Cody Stevenson of Adageo Energy Cycling. The 39-year-old third place finisher, Steve Reaney (California Giant Berry Farm), rounded out an exceptional day, as he had just won the 35+ masters race, two hours earlier!
Gerald had good things to say about the course and competition.
“The course was technical and fast and there were a lot of strong guys here. I feel really fortunate to get the win,” said Gerald.
Last weekends Tulsa Tough was the 11th stop on the National Road Calendar (NRC), the countries premiere Pro-Am cycling series. With the second-biggest prize list on offer at nearly $115,000, the three-day omnium of criteriums, Tulsa Tough was one of the highlights of Park Place’s season. Joining Park Place Dealerships were some of the nations top domestic professional teams including Jelly Belly, Team Mountain Khakis, Bhati Foundation, and Kelly Benefits Strategies.
The racing was fierce and Park Place was everywhere, logging more and more time on the announcers PA throughout the weekend. Finishing just off the podium in the overall Pro-Cat 1 Omnium, Chad Cagle had a spectacular weekend with all of the help of the Elite team. In addition, Tucker Gerald swept the weekend races, taking 1st on both Saturday and Sunday, to go along with 7th on Friday, to secure the overall victor in Cat1-2 Omnium.
You can see all of the action at:
Top 20 results and team results are posted below.
Overall Omnium:
Pro-Cat1 Chad Cagle 4th
Jason Waddell 7th
Bryan Fawley 12th
Category 1-2 Tucker Gerald 1st
Evan Bybee 18th
Friday
Pro-Cat1 Jason Waddell 4th
Bryan Fawley 7th
Chad Cable 12th
Brian Fawley, Jason Waddell, and Chad Cagle go 1,2,3 to sweep the podium at the Sunday Matrix Crit. It was a big weekend for the team as Park Place made every signficant break and took almost all of the Primes in route the their podium sweep.
Nick Boulle won the mens Cat 3 after rebounding from a 5th place on Saturday.
Despite a lead out attempt by Metro Volkswagen, Park Place was positioned perfectly and swept the podium with Brian Fawley, Jorge Merle, and Nick Boulle taking 1, 2, 3 in the TNC A-race.
Fawley also took Series 1 of the 4 series TNC. He won 3 out of 5 races which sets him up perfectly to take the year long series.
Nick Boulle dominates the Cat 3 field with three wins in two days. On Saturday, Nick won the field sprint via a big jump from ~1000 meters out. In the afternoon he took the time trial posting a 15:44 on the course. His closest rival was at 16:28 showing the dominance of his performance. Sunday is when the fireworks really began. Nick bridged up to the breakaway group that had taken off at about mile 10 that morning. He rode with them until the 5k sign on the road. Finally, he took a hard pull and then went to the back and got a big jump after a little recovery to SOLO to the win.
Dallas Racing dominates the weekend at the Park Place Crits
Alex Welch and Chris Hamilton - photo By Jere Arnold
The Dallas Racing team showed up big at the Park Place Crits this
weekend.
Saturday April 3rd brought beautiful weather and a great course to show
off the Elite team. The guys from Oklahoma came down to join the Dallas
party, and party they did…
Having made the final selection, Jason Wadell held on for 3rd place in
the P/1/2 race while Bryan Fawley took the field sprint for 9th.
Bryan Fawley - Photo By: Jere Arnold
Nick Boulle controlled the Cat 3/4 race from start to finish, just
nipping his closest rival for 1st place at the line.
Jorge Merle also took 1st in the Masters 40+ race, just a sign of
things to come this weekend.
Justin Reddell took 2nd in the Cat 5 race, showing a lot of promise for
the future.
Easter Sunday, April 4th.
Chad Cagle Park Place Crit - photo by Jere Arnold
Park Place Crits Day 2 - P12 Podium
In the weekend’s final race, the Elite team took two out three podium
spots on a drizzly afternoon that offered many challenges from the wet
course.
Chad Cagle took 2nd from a hard fought two-man break while Bryan Fawley
took the field sprint for 3rd and Chris Hamilton finished 7th in the
P/1/2 race.
Earlier in the day, Dallas Racing put their stamp on the Park Place
Crits.
Justin Reddell took 1st in the Cat 5.
Frank Cusimano recovered from a hard crash on Saturday to pull out a
1st place victory in the Cat 4 race.
Jorge Merle made it a two-peat for the weekend, claiming 1st place in
the Masters 40+ event. Jimmy Olsen took 3rd while Shawn Bonavita
claimed 4th.
Nick Boulle continued his great early season form with another victory,
1st place in the Cat 3/4.
Overall it was a fantastic weekend thanks to all of the volunteers,
sponsors and participants. Thanks everyone, and we will see you at the
next race!!!
Chad Cagle and Jason Waddell made the short road trip over to Prairie Grove,
Ar this past weekend to get in a nice little 75 something mile road race at
the NWA Classic. It was cold, 35 degrees with a 20 mph wind, at the start
and made it tough to get motivated. The course is a 24 or so mile loop with
some rolling hills and a one-mile monster of a hill that starts out at about
10% at the bottom for about 700 meters and has a false flat that extends for
what seems like another mile. Lots of flat roads as well that made for some
extremely hard gutter-ball racing and block headwind grinding.
The race set off with around 40 riders and everyone was cautious and
reserved for the first 5 miles or so because of the cold and wind. After
the fireworks started, Chad the ever persistent hard man was pulling,
attacking and generally doing his best to get in the hardest ride he could.
While Jason was doing his share by following breaks and chasing groups when
we missed out was holding off for the last lap because this race almost
always is decided on the last lap.
During the second lap Chad was able to escape solo and I encouraged another
rider to bridge solo to him and those two guys spent about 10 miles
suffering out there in the wind. Sometime early in the last lap a group of
9 got away and Chad and Jason BOTH missed it. There was only one person in
the group that worried us but 9 riders is a big group. Chad and Jason both
rode on the front for about 5 miles in a block headwind to pull back this
group and once we caught them Will Gault from Tulsa launched a
counter-attack and Jason followed him. These two worked flawlessly together
and in the ensuing final 12 miles opened up an over 4 minute gap on the
chasing field.
Jason won the two man sprint for 1st with Chad holding on for 6th place.
Results from SaltyCow – Salt Creek Criterium – Sunday, March 07, 2010
Men Pro/1/2
1 CAGLE, Chad — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS
2 JENSEN, Brian — Tradewind Energy Cycling Team
3 WADDELL, Jason — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS
4 HUFF, Charles — UCI CT: Jelly Belly Cycling Te
5 COIL, Nicholas — Unattached
6. ANKNEY, Mat — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS
Results from SaltyCow – Cowskin Road Race – Saturday, March 06, 2010
1 JENSEN, Brian — Tradewind Energy Cycling Team
2 TILFORD, Stephen — Tradewind Energy/Trek
3 WADDELL, Jason — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS
4 BELL, Rob — Team Undiscovered
5 ANKNEY, Mat — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS
3/7 Salt Creek Criterium
This race is run as a criterium even though the circuit is 2.6 miles long. The race course is at Lake Keystone west of Tulsa and features a few small hills but is exposed to the wind off of the Lake. The wind was whipping again today and created multiple sections of gutter racing. Park Place was extremely aggressive from the start with all members taking turns attacking and covering attacks but the field was not willing to let many groups get away. We finally got Chad off the front in a small group only to come around a corner and see a crash in the middle of the road with Chad ending up in the ditch. More bad luck had struck. Over the next few laps Mat, Justin and Jason patrolled the front to make sure we were represented in any breaks while Chad made his way to the wheel pit.
Once Chad was back in the field he found himself off the front in a two-man break after about 30 minutes of racing and his gap grew to over 1 minute. Many attacks went nowhere in bringing back the gap but with only 15 minutes remaining Chad flatted in break and the bad luck curse continued. The gap went from over 1 minute to 10 seconds and a whole new race developed. Jason followed a hard counter-attack by Saturday’s winner Brian Jensen and found himself off the front with a sizable gap. Brad Huff of Jelly Belly and superman of the day Chad made it across to this two-man group and immediately Chad attacked gaining a small gap with 1 lap to go. Jensen went after Chad with Jason following. This 3 man group stayed away to the finish with Chad attacking with over 1k to go to get a solo win and the first of the year for the Park Place Dealerships Elite Team. Jason finished in 3rd with Mat winning the field sprint for 6th.
All bad luck considered it was a successful weekend for the Oklahoma contingent of the team and we look forward to carrying this momentum and the breaking of the bad luck down with us to Texas at the next race.
3/6 Cowskin Road Race
This road race is held on a 5.2 mile course that is located 25 miles west of Tulsa. The course has a demanding ¾ mile long hill and with the Pro 1/2 race doing 12 laps at 63 miles is a very demanding loop. The weather on Saturday was extremely windy and with a field of only 40 riders it was going to be a race that wasn’t conducive to hiding out. Park Place Dealerships Oklahoma contingent of the Elite Team was composed of Mat Ankney, Chad Cagle, Justin Rempel and Jason Waddell.
The race was extremely active from the beginning and after 5 laps the race winning move had been established. Park Place put Mat, Chad, and Jason in a 6 man move containing Steve Tilford, Brian Jensen, and Rob Bell. We liked our odds and over the next lap worked hard to distance the field. Less than one lap later and with 5 laps remaining Mat and Chad got tangled up taking both out of the break leaving Jason to deal with teammates Tilford and Jensen. They made quick work of Jason and he and Rob Bell rode together to the finish with Jason securing third place. Mat soloed the remaining race finishing fifth after his mid-race mishap.
This was the third weekend in a row that the Park Place Elite team has had bad luck. Ever since our crash at Walburg we have dealt with sickness, flats, crashes even though we have ridden excellent as a team. The pieces have all been on the board but have yet to fall into place. On Sunday we were determined to reverse our bad luck.
Despite a lead out attempt by Metro Volkswagen, Park Place was positioned perfectly and swept the podium with Brian Fawley, Jorge Merle, and Nick Boulle taking 1, 2, 3 in the TNC A-race.
Nick Boulle dominates the Cat 3 field with three wins in two days. On Saturday, Nick won the field sprint via a big jump from ~1000 meters out. In the afternoon he took the time trial posting a 15:44 on the course. His closest rival was at 16:28 showing the dominance of his performance. Sunday is when the fireworks really began. Nick bridged up to the breakaway group that had taken off at about mile 10 that morning. He rode with them until the 5k sign on the road. Finally, he took a hard pull and then went to the back and got a big jump after a little recovery to SOLO to the win.
Results from SaltyCow – Salt Creek Criterium – Sunday, March 07, 2010
