Tour de 'Toona Stage 3
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, July 29, 1999

Today was the Keystone Pontiac GMC Circuit Race. We did three laps of a 20-mile rolling course with one very short steep hill and a one-mile, three-tiered climb. On the first two laps, there were QOM points on each climb and sprint points at the start finish.

Nothing much happened in the first two laps. Some attacks with very few counter-attacks. I was pretty interested in getting away and kept hoping for a series of attacks to string things out. The third lap was more aggressive. Celestial Seasonings kept the pressure on by countering each other. Timex covered every thing as did Schwab. Carmen was great on the microphone, encouraging each of us and suggesting times to go.

With about 10km to go, Rene (a mountain biker who rode so amazing) was off after a great series of each of us being off, was brought back. The pack was just regrouping and those in front were looking around so I went off. The officials immediately started giving me splits. 20 seconds to start, then up to 45 seconds. The climb was coming up, so while I went hard, I kept it somewhat in control. Before the climb a group of three got off from the pack.

At the bottom of the climb they were 37 seconds back and the pack 50 seconds. Climbing, I forced myself to stand up to keep the momentum up, and sat down between each of the three tiers of the rise. At the top of the climb, the gap to the chase group was 23 seconds. At the bottom 22 seconds. Only a few more kms to go and the final little rise to the finish. And I held it for a win at Tour de Toona. They gave out Benzel's Oat Bran Pretzels on the podium! Yippee!

Julie Young (Timex), who's riding awesome, won the three-up chase-group sprint for second. I don't know who else was in that group. Laura Van Gilder (Navigators) won the field sprint for fifth. Heather Albert (Schwab) retained the mountain jersey. Marie Holjer (Schwab) has the sprint jersey. And Anke Erlank (Timex) still wears the yellow jersey.