The team was able to place two men, Garrett McAllister and David Paquette, in the “A” event of the 4 stage Vuelta de Bisbee that took place on April 23-25. Racing against tough teams like Fly V Austrailia and United Health Care provided an exceptional early season training ground and race experience for the two riders. The prologue TT took the riders 1.8miles up the steep main street of Bisbee at an average of 5% slope. Rory Sutherland took the stage with Phil Zajicek at 14sec. Stage 1 started with a fast windy decent which provided enough chaos for a break of 6 to weasel off the front. With Fly V and United represented in the break there was little that could be done back in the field except watch the gap steadily grow. The break finished about 6 minutes up on the field putting stage winner Darren Lill into the Yellow Jersey. Stage 2, 7.2 mile TT started just hours after the completion of stage 1. Sutherland and Zajicek proved they were the TT men of the tour, with another 1-2 respectably. The final stage started with fireworks, as riders were eager to grab sprint time bonuses, KOM points and establish a break. Amidst the frenzy, McAllister was caught out in a bit of bad luck and was unable to reconnect. A group eventually made their escape and the pace calmed until the final 6 mile accent where the tempo, almost unnoticeably, increased. With 3k to the last KOM, United Health Care attacked and a group including Paquette made a little separation while the field shattered behind.
Overall:
1 LILL, Darren Fly V Australia 7h 18′ 34”
2 KILUN, Roman UnitedHealthcare @0h 00′ 23”
3 HELMIG, Christian Metro VW @0h 01′ 25”
Team Wisconsin-MC2:
38 PAQUETTE, David Team Wisconsin-MC2 @0h 13’40”
Best Cat 2 Competition:
1 PAQUETTE, David Team Wisconsin-MC2
2 ADAMS, Alan Hagens Berman @0h 01’29”
3 SALSKOV, John Pactimo @0h 1’38”