The party was ever louder when it was time for the men who started after the women’s race. The crowd got bigger, beverages of choice were consumed, and the party continued.

Toyota-United came to the front in the final lap and pulled out a one-two punch with Hilton Clarke and Ivan Stevic taking the first two spots outsprinting Rory Sutherland (Heath Net-Maxxis).

“We definitely had a plan last night that we were going to hit the front with five laps to go, but after seeing the course, we said we better hit out with about one and half to go and control the hill. We’ve got a couple of big strong guys on the team and they just controlled the big downhill perfectly and then we ran short a little bit at the end but then a Successful Living rider jumped us which actually worked a little bit in our advantage, Stevic followed him and passed him at the finish and I just come pass Stevic at the finish.” said Clarke about the final lap.

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Vogels Wins Tour of the Gila Criterium; Manion Wins Roswell Criterium

Bend, OR – The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team showed their character and spirit this weekend by answering the bell the very next day after learning Friday afternoon that the team’s title sponsor would not be renewing their sponsorship agreement at the end of the season by winning 3 of the 4 races they entered this weekend.

Team Captain Henk Vogels set the tone for the weekend’s action by storming to victory in Saturday nights Gila Criterium sponsored by Scott Nichols Toyota in Silver City, NM. The 43 mile NRC (National Race Calendar) criterium was dominated by the Toyota-United Team, who sent Vogels’ teammate Heath Blackgrove up the rode in an early breakaway with six other riders for the majority of the race. The break never gained more than 30 seconds, and it was Team Bissell who steadily brought the breakaway back since they had no one form their team in the breakaway. This set Toyota-United up perfectly for the end of the race where Chris Wherry dropped a bomb on the back straight away passing the entire Colavita/Sutter Home lead out train, who was trying to set up their start sprinter Alejandro Borrajo for the win. Wherry was followed by Vogels and Jonny Clarke who was on Vogels wheel to ensure Borrajo could not draft Vogels wheel on the final straight away. Vogels came out of the final turn in the lead by two bike lengths over Borrajo as he drove it to the line in his 53 x 11 gear at over 40MPH. “All credit to the boys today, especially Blackgrove, Wherry and Clarke. My role is normally to lead out Dominguez or one of the other sprinters, but today I wanted to show the boys by example that we are the best team and despite the news we received yesterday, we need to keep winning and go get a new sponsor for 2009” said Vogels.

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