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
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.
The 5th edition of the Tulsa Tough Ride and Race presented by the Childrens Hospital at Saint Francis will be held June 4, 5 & 6, 2010. Once again our races will be featured as Category 1 NRC Events, some of the best racing in the United States. This year will mark a milestone as we give away our 1,000th kids bike through our Tough Kids program! We’ll be working to bring as many people in the region out to ride with the kids, enjoy one of our tour rides and watch some great racing. Mark your calendars!
Results from SaltyCow – Salt Creek Criterium – Sunday, March 07, 2010
