Apologies for the delay.  I have been slammed since Tuesday.

As you may recall...   Tuesday afternoon and early evening was filled with T-storm warnings as the red cells floated along ominously across the CNY skies.   As I swept the TT course I could see via the OCC Weather Control System (WCS  patent pending) that a bit of light rain would attempt to enter the southern end of the course at 6:45pm.   I moved the start time up 5 minutes to try to get the course combatants off the course before the rains arrived.   Also recall that I stated that the heat and humidity would produce some fast times.  

Well,  9 riders took me up on the challenge to face down Mother Nature.   One decided after warming up that the legs weren't responding, and headed home.  And then there were 8.    The FMT was ridden by Drew Butler, who set a PR by slicing the course in a time of 25:12 (23.81 mph).   Chris Lloyd was hot on his heels with an impressive Road bike category time of 25:15 (23.76 mph). Oh, did I mention that Chris's time was a PR?    Ken Toscano was not to be left out of the PR parade...   he lowered is PR by 4 seconds with a time of 25:30 (23.53 mph) in the RoadAero category.  Fastest Junior was Kaleb Toscano who rode a 27:25 while dealing with a sore knee from a weekend race mishap. Way to stick it out with Roglic-like stoicism!

 All riders finished the TT course without any rain issues.  I suspect the Toscanos got a bit wet on the ride home.

Thanks again to Tim Taber for manning the backup timing system (my phone).   

Deukunick is all in trying to help Cavendish get to the line.  The Manx Missile wins a Tour stage for the first time in 5 years.     Seeing Alaphilippe lead out the team was amazing.  Unfortunately, it came at the expense of VanMoer's 70 mile break-away less than 100meters from the finish line.

Pogacar crushes the TT,  Roglic does well in spite of  hip contusion, but, does Pogacar have a team that can help him enough in the later stages though?

Are the Van's working for each other?

Today's  stage (Friday) is looking very interesting!!!   No spoilers please....

Enjoy!!

Brian

TT Directeur

315-727-1458