2017 Junior Tour of America’s Dairy Lands Mid-Series Update
As always, the Tour of America’s Dairy Lands is an epic week of Junior Racing, with many of the top kids in the country heading out to test their legs and skills against those of their peers, as many are preparing to race in the Louisville National Championships next week.
Killington Mountain School Cycling Coach Brad Ramsay checked in from the road with a racing update: "Day 1 of the Junior series was the Downtown West Bend Criterium. This was a climby crit course that wound up the back side, descended to the finish straight, than had a gradual climb for a punch to the finish. The KMS Junior Girls had a good day, with Maddy Smith taking both the daily win Jersey, and starting out the week in the cow print Series Leader Jersey for the Women’s 15-16 Category. Turner Ramsay did the same in the Women’s Junior 17-18 category, and Aliza Tobias, coming off the DL after being sidelined for health reasons for much of the spring, rode to the third spot on the Junior 17-18 podium.
Wrapping up the day, in the Junior 15-18 boys category, a field that maintained a blistering pace (rivaling lap times posted by the pro field), Josh Chu finished with the lead overall group, and sprinted to the third spot on the Men’s Junior 15-16 podium.
Day 2 of the ToAD Jr Series took place in Milwaukee’s historic Schlitz Park. The course consists of a brutal field-splitting climb followed by a super-technical 7-turn fast downhill. Additional junior teams arrived overnight and showed up with fresh legs to compete against some of America’s top junior cyclists. As is typically the case in this series, the Men’s junior field posted some of the fastest lap times of the day, red-lining it from the gun and not letting up as attack after attack kept the field strung out and hammering up and down the hills. In what was probably the fastest and hardest racing he has seen, Josh Chu was near the front all day and looked comfortable and in control as rider after rider fell off the pace of the lead pack. Watching them rip out of the last turn onto the finish straight, then fan out for the final sprint was both impressive and nerve-wracking. The juniors left it all out there in the quest to be first across the line. Josh sprinted to an awesome fifth place finish in his category.
In the Junior Women’s field, Turner kept her 17-18 leader’s jersey, finishing first in that group with Aliza Tobias taking the second place spot on the 17-18 podium. But it was the 15-16 girls that were pushing the pace, and Maddy Smith had an awesome race, staying near the front and not letting up as their pace caused the women’s field to dwindle. In the 15-16 category, Maddy took both the winner’s jersey for the day and the series leader’s jersey.
Today the squad heads for Port Washington and the Race the Harbor Criterium before taking a rest day tomorrow."
Best of luck to the team as their competition and training tour continues!
