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Toyota-United Scores Two Victories from Colorado to New Jersey
Team secures seven podiums over the weekend

Los Angeles, CA – It what turned out to be one of the most successful weekends of racing Toyota-United has ever had, Ben Day and Dominique Rollin led the charge for the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. It all began Saturday with Ben Day winning the 16.8 Haystack Mountain individual time trial in 32:52 with teammates Heath Blackgrove and Chris Baldwin rounding out the podium in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. “It was a great chance to get in some good TT training before the upcoming Tours we have on our schedule and it was nice for my confidence to be able to step up to the top of the podium for the first time this year. It was a small win, but I will take it!” said Day. Day continued “Chris Baldwin and I entered the team time trial 90 minutes later around the same course where we were joined by our teammates Henk Vogels, Ivan Stevic and Justin England. This for us was Tour de Georgia training and as the team time trial there has stipulations about not being able to use any TT bikes, wheels or helmets, we wanted to practice in the same manner. We were only just beaten by Team Slipstream who had some of their stars there, including Tom Danielson and Taylor Phinney, by 8 seconds. As they used full TT setups, we gave up a massive advantage to them on a very fast and windy course. If we had used out TT equipment, the outcome would have been drastically different. It was a great solid day of training” said Day. It should be noted that Ben Day’s winning time of 32:52 in the individual time trial earlier in the day was 15 seconds faster that the entire Slipstream team’s team time trial win.

Meanwhile on Sunday in Marlton, NJ, where Dominique Rollin is in final preparations for the Tour de Georgia, Rollin won the 33 mile Trofeo de Evesham criterium by lapping the field with Francois Parisien (Symmetrics Cycling team) and another local unidentified rider, while handily winning the sprint for his third victory of the season. “The race conditions were cold and windy and the circuit had some rolling hills today” said Rollin. “I rode 60 kilometers to the race and another 60 kilometers after the race to prepare myself for the long hard racing at the Tour de Georgia, but now I’m exhausted” continued Rollin as he relayed the days’ happenings while eating dinner.

In sunny hot Southern California, where temperatures reached a scorching 98 degrees, the Toyota-United boys raced the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix Presented by Toyota and scored 3rd place with Hilton Clarke. With 120 men taking the start for the 45 mile NRC event, the Toyota-United team only had four of its usual eight riders on hand, as the rest of the fifteen man team was racing around the country preparing for the Tour de Georgia April 21 – 27. After many unsuccessful attempts to establish an early breakaway on the 1.0 mile circuit, Toyota-United had representation in each attempt as Ivan Dominguez, Caleb Manion, Hilton Clarke and Chepe Garcia, worked against teams that sent full squads.

One final break away of 23 riders made it a success with Caleb Manion and Hilton Clarke joining riders from other major teams. With the break up the road, Ivan Dominguez made several attempts to bridge to the break but was immediately brought back to the peloton by Colavita, Health Net, and Rock Racing as he was a marked man being the defending champion.

With Toyota being the Presenting sponsor of the race, the Toyota-United riders really wanted to win the race, but with 5 laps to go, defending NRC Champion Rory Sutherland of Health Net presented by Maxxis attacked and Caleb Manion was able to cover the move, setting up Hilton Clarke for the sprint. However, Sutherland’s teammates Kyle Gritters and John Murphy had something else in mind and led out the sprint before the final corner which didn’t allow Clarke enough time to cone around them with only 120 meters to the finish line, so Clarke settled for 3rd place. “They beat me fair and square in the kick. I couldn’t beat ’em – they beat me” said Clarke after the race.

Earlier in the day back in Golden, Colorado, Henk Vogels participated as the sole rider for Toyota-United in the Tokyo Joe’s Spring Criterium. With Team Slipstream riders controlling most of the action, a momentary lapse allowed Graham Howard (Team Bissell) to slip off the front and hold on for a half bike length win over Henk Vogels with Frank Pipp (Health Net) coming in 3rd. This was Vogels fourth 2nd place of the season in what appears to be a good sign of things to come as he continues to work his way into form after a nasty crash last June where he broke his shoulder.