Starting off Tour of America's Dairyland 2014 with East Troy

Been spending lots of time racing Andrew!

East Troy (Day 2 of 10. Roster: Brandon, Andy, Stephen, Hogan, Justin, Corey and myself.)

The East Troy Circuit was my first day of racing the 2014 Tour Of America’s Dairyland.  Last year, I came to ToAD with my former team, Super Squadra, and got bitten by the chocolate milk bug.  Here I am, a year later, eager for more. But this time around, I’m riding for Astellas Professional Cycling. 

For 2014, Astellas brought 10 guys to race the 10 days of the ToAD.  Our plan is to rotate our riders, allowing 6 of our guys to race each day.  Since each course is unique, the team mixes the line-up in search of the best combination of riders.  Our objective is simple: to win!

My week of preparations prior to ToAD was very effective. My legs were fresh and my mind was determined to throw down with some fast racers. I felt eager to show it on today’s fast, technical, and bumpy six-corner Criterium.

The race started off fast - I sprinted off the line in my small chainring.  That extra acceleration allowed me to jump past some of the riders who started in front of me. Within 5 laps, I made my way from the back of the bunch to the front.  There I found my teammates, Stephen and Hogan.  Together, we put in some big efforts to make sure we had representation in every move up the road. The last thing we wanted would be to go to the front and chase back a move we missed. The pace was high but sitting in was not as hard as I expected. My legs were feeling a little sluggish from my week rest and lack of high intensity, but it also meant that I was going to have the power needed when push came to shove. 

In a break, I nabbed 3^rd in a prime sprint, and managed to get into 2 small splits from the counters that followed that prime. Nothing was staying away

Under 25 laps to go, I could see all of Astellas converging towards each other, anticipating the field sprint. I was a little bit further back than I wanted and had to whip into gear to get up to my teammates. When I finally got up to the front, I was getting pushed around in the chaos that was happening. I was able to find my teammates wheels for a few laps and help out there while I could. Unfortunately, I  took a poor line through a corner and lost several positions down the side of the pack. At the sprint finish, Brandon was able to get a solid 4^th place finish, and came in Stephen 6^th .