Great day of racing for Team Wheaton Cycling.
The Cat 3 team started the windy LaRue-Denzer-LaRue road race in good form with Jon Cook, Addison Faul, Mike Martinsen, Garrett McAllister and David Paquette. The challenging two and a half lap course provided the most elevation gains and strongest winds the team will possibly see this season. Using the course to their advantage the team put Martinsen, McAllister, and Paquette on the front during the first half lap to force some separation in the field. A patch of bad luck put Faul’s day to and end on the first lap as he was escorted into the ditch by some fellow racers. Approaching the first hill set of the first full lap the Triple X team sent a rider off the front. The team reacted with McAllister and then with Paquette who was able to bridge. The break didn’t hold for long but was enough to cause further breakdown of the field.
Coming into the Freedom hill climb the team was able to successfully block for Cook as he drifted away from the field with three other riders. On the climb Cook and Triple X were able to shed the the weaker of the group creating a break of two. Paquette made an attempt to bridge but shut it down after he was unable to shed two other Triple X riders from his wheel. Wanting the break to stick, Wheaton and Triple X worked together to block and bridging attempts from other riders. In the break, Cook lost contact after a strong attack from Triple X but was able to catch back on. With half a lap to go Triple X put their men on attacked but Wheaton was able to chase down each attempt. Paquette was able to separate from the field on Freedom Hill as Cook was powering away from Triple X on the fast finishing strait for the WIN! Martinsen and McAllister followed suit with strong finishes.