Weekend Racing Report - July 31, 2005

Tour Des Lacs - Fenton, Michigan

Tour de 'Toona - Altoona, Pennsylvania

As the bicycle road racing season entered mid-summer the team has been extremely active. Team members were spread from Michigan to Pennsylvania.

The home-state race was the Tour Des Lacs on Saturday, July 30th in Fenton Michigan. This event was a welcome surprise to everyone and boasted a great 10 mile road circuit with some challenging climbs. Not being a USCF sanctioned event, the categories were open to how ever you felt, with riders being able to select the “A”, “B”, “C” or “D” race category. The team raced in the “A” category, which was stacked with nearly every top USCF Category 1/2/3 racer in Michigan. From the gun the pack was extremely active and immediately a breakaway of 12 riders were clear. Unfortunately the team missed the early break and chased for the remainder of the race along with several other teams who suffered the same fate.

Launching from the break, two riders, Tom Archer of the Ford/Giant/AAVC team and Tony Bruley of the Wolverines/Wholefoods Team, distanced the field and battled it out for the win in a sprint finish. Tom Archer took a fabulous victory in a hard fought race. For the Sunrise Sports Cycling Team the top finisher was Junior Racer Alex Keomany in 14th, who put good use to the form he’s carried over after racing in the Tour De l’Abitibi stage race in Quebec.

Other finishers for Sunrise Sports were Ricardo Lung, John Zaccone, Dominick Zaccone, Randy Hermann, John Rigdon and Mark Caswell.

Full results of the Tour Des Lacs are available HERE

While the majority of the team was battling it out in Fenton, several riders were in the great state of Pennsylvania for the Tour de ‘Toona in Altoona, PA. This event is a National Racing Calendar (NRC) event and draws the top professional riders from across the country. While the pros race a full 7 stages over the week, all other categories compete in a 3 stage points race. Competing for the Sunrise Sports Cycling Team were Paul Kundrat in the Category 3 class and Andy Weir in the Category 2 class.

The race this year was decided with the Stage 2 Verizon/Boscov’s Road Race. This stage featured 2 major climbs, the first over 8 miles long. The second only 6 miles long, but with the last 2 miles on gravel and dirt roads.

Check out a picture of the pros climbing through the gravel HERE

Both Andy and Paul survived the week and finished mid-pack overall in their respective categories. In all a great 3 days of racing in central Pennsylvania.

Full results for the Tour De ‘Toona are available here: www.tourdetoona.com