BISSELL's Final Count at Elk Grove: Day in Yellow, Stage Win, 4 in Top 10
The final day of the Tour of Elk Grove was a demanding day keeping all teams constantly on alert looking for the significant time bonuses available. Attacks happened from the opening and BISSELL’s Graham Howard was in the big early break of the day consisting of 9 riders. The group contained a top GC rider, and, when the break gained 20 seconds, OUCH was put under serious pressure. They were eventually reabsorbed but the action continued. Frank Pipp was involved in the next couple of moves keeping a BISSELL rider always in the action. At 35 laps to go, Jeff Louder (BMC) and Thomas Soladay (Mountain Khakis) attacked and stayed out for the first two intermediate sprints of the day. Louder took top points with Soladay taking second for both. Ben Jacques-Maynes and Andy Jacques-Maynes tried to snatch up the remaining points available for 3rd. OUCH had a tough battle to bring them back. With the help of Fly V who was looking for a stage win, the two were reeled in with 13 laps to go. This left the third intermediate sprint to be contested by the field. Ben won the 3rd sprint which tied him for third in overall points with Brent Bookwalter (BMC). The points accumulation came with a 2 second time bonus and both BJM and Brent each had 7 points. The time bonus points were decisive in determining the overall lead as Bookwalter only needed 1 second to overtake Tom for 2nd place. The tie between BJM and Brent was decided by the stage finish placings and Brent beat BJM on the run to the finish. After 3 days of high-pressured racing, Tom dropped to 3rd in the overall. The team had a great weekend coming away with a day in yellow, a stage win, 4 in the top 10, and 2nd in the overall team classification.
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| Photo by David DeJong |
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