It occurred to me that I haven't chimed in in a while, so, while I sit here waiting to depart for Stage 4 of the Junior Tour of Ireland (http://www.
I'm here at the six-stage Jr. Tour of Ireland with Brendan and Ansel (it's a 17-18 race only). So far, in three stages, we've had a man place in the top-five in all three stages. B was 3rd in the opening TT and Ansel was 5th on Stage 2 and 4th on Stage 3, each time in the field sprint. B made what we thought was the race winning break yesterday with every strong man in the race, but it was caught with only 2k to go after massive attacks within the break starting with about 20k to go. Ansel then came through in the pinch with his 4th place sprint finish. B is currently wearing the white Best Young Rider's jersey and has since Stage 1. Today's Achill Island stage is supposed to be utterly breathtaking. In fact, the whole race has been incredible. Wonderful scenery, excellent organization and real deal euro-style racing with all of the usual jerseys (yellow, polka dot climbers, green pts leader and white young rider's), full rolling road closures, team follow cars, the works. Here are some links to help you keep up with the racing:
Irish cycling: http://www.irishcycling.com/
KMS FB page (tons of photos by yours truly): https://www.facebook.com/
On to our women and cadets (15-16). KMS' Erin Donohue and Key Vollers (we call Peter Jr. "Key," his middle name, now for many reasons not least of which is recurring mixups with USACycling with his results and ranking as he has the same name as mine and their computer doesn't like the "Jr.") are competing in the Tour de Rimouski up in Quebec: http://tourdelareleve.ca/. Erin and Peter and competing as part of KMS' exchange program with Team CHCH (one of Canada's five National Cycling Center teams; this is the team that won the Jr. 17-18 race at Tour of the Battenkill)
Two days ago, Erin competed in the one-day Grand Prix de Rimouski, the only UCI Category 1.1 Jr. Women's Road Race in the world. This is the biggest race in the world for Jr. women besides the world championships. Well, all of Erin's hard work in the last three years came together on one day and she ended up with a colossal solo victory, a win that has now landed her firmly in the big time of Jr. cycling. With this win, Erin will likely be an automatic qualifier for the Jr. National Women's Team competing at the Jr. World Championships in Holland in September. Incredible!
Both Peter and Erin started the Tour de Rimouski stage race yesterday and you can keep up with their results on that website and on Erin's blog here:
http://erindonohue.blogspot.
I understand that Key's team won the Team Time Trial yesterday, a classic stage race event rarely seen in the US. Congrats to Key!
To top it all off, because of B's results at nats, he made a Jr. Mens National Team trip to Belgium where he'll be gone for 24 days in late July, early Aug racing 13 kermesse races including perhaps the Jr. Tour of Flanders! To see B's new national champion's jersey, go to www.kmscyclingteam.com
Thanks and enjoy!
