With the top five riders on the G.C. separated by only 20 seconds and time bonuses available, the pace was as intense as Stage 7. At one point the pack of 80 riders was stretched out in a line over 200m long.
In the last lap, Peter Morse was comfortably positioned in the top 15, when a crash on the back straight brought him to a complete stop. Accelerating from zero, trying to close a gap caused by the crash, Pete managed to finish in 20th position.
Emerging from the mayhem, Marek Wesoly from the Merida Europe team took the field sprint, their third win that way. His teammate was 2nd.
It's quite interesting to see the 2nd-tier Continental-Level teams from Europe are head-to-head with the 1st-tier North American teams. The team from Health-Net mentioned that they brought their top criterium racers to TdT this year. Oddly, while they won both the G.C. and a tough road stage, they didn't win any of the criterium stages.
Stage 8 - March 16, 60 km Results
1 Marek Wesoly (Pol) 1.22.10 (44km/h)
2 Krzysztof Jezowski (Pol)
3 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn)
20 Peter Morse (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team
47 Daniele Defranceschi (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team
53 Bryson Bowers (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team
Final General classification
1 John Murphy (USA) 17.59.32
2 Shawn Milne (USA) 0.10
3 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Team Meitan Hompo-GDR 0.14
52 Peter Morse (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team 4.05
66 Bryson Bowers (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team 5.05
75 Daniele Defranceschi (Can) Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team 10.00
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment