Mt. Hamilton takes on Toyota-United and releases its fury.
Blackgrove saved by the gel.
San Jose, California - The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team after two strong stages in the Tour of California ran into the beasts known as Mt. Hamilton and Sierra Road today in stage 3. Expectations from the longest climb in the race were extreme. The ride did not disappoint the boys as they made the climb to 4100 feet today. The team was looking for Ben Day and Heath Blackgrove to have special performances today to move themselves up in the overall classification and for our sprinters to survive the leg today and not miss the timecut.
The results were not expressly met by the team as difficulties took their toll. Ben Day said after the race, “His legs felt like lead all day.” Heath Blackgrove had an excellent climb up Mt. Hamilton and was seconds behind the first group with world champion Paulo Bettini, who made it to the first group after the descent. Unfortunately, Heath crashed descending down Mt. Hamilton and as he went off the road the team car didn’t even see Heath go off the cliff. The car came around the turn and he had disappeared from sight. The car continued down 5 minutes attempting to catch the group. Another team informed the Toyota-United car that Heath had indeed crashed. “When we heard the news, we were all freaking out, concerned for Heath’s safety, as we pulled over to locate Heath, he came screaming by with blood on his shorts and hands, but was yelling he was ok.” Heath looked worse than his actual injuries due to the explosion of his gel packs on his hip side. Heath at this point, had lost contact with the first group as Bettini did and had to be content with finishing in 42nd place. To further add to Toyota-United’s day Hilton Clarke abandoned the race at mile 45 due to a hip injury he sustained during stage 2. Hilton’s younger brother Jonny missed the time cut by two minutes due to contracting food poisoning after stage 1 which was exacerbated by two flat tires and a dropped chain on the Sierra Road grade. That was the difference in him not making the time cut this afternoon.
On the brighter side, the remainder of the Toyota-United team finished healthy and without incident and are ready to take on Stage 4 to San Luis Obispo. The ride tomorrow will take the boys down the coast following the ocean the bulk of the ride. The conditions could be rainy the weather man is telling us again, but the team is looking to repeat the Stage four from 2006.
