Jonathan Chodroff of the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis rode to his strength en route to winning the five-stage Giro di Jersey this past weekend. The elite time trial national champion crushed everyone in the Stage 3 individual time trial, winning by 0:41 and taking a commanding lead that he held the final two days to earn the overall win.
“I had a big enough lead after the TT that it took a lot of the pressure off the final two days,” Chodroff said. In fact, only two riders were within a minute of him in the overall.
In the Stage 4 road race, his lead was never seriously threatened. “I only had to chase maybe a couple breaks that looked dangerous,” he said of the 134km road race.
There were a couple tense moments in Sunday’s Cornerhouse Grand Prix, a 46km circuit race that saw both the 2nd and 3rd place riders in the overall escape. But the race came back together and ended in a bunch sprint, with Chodroff safely placed in the main bunch to preserve the win.
The race opened last Wednesday with a hectic criterium run on a tight, 0.8 km course. “We did 80 laps,” Chodroff said. “There were a hundred riders and a lot of guys were getting gapped and lapped because there were so many corners. It was a bit sketchy at times.”
Chodroff safely finished in the main bunch in Stage 1, while Stage 2, a 136km circuit race, was suspended mid-race due to the fact that nearly two inches of rain fell on the riders, and nearly half the peloton fell on the slick roads, including Chodroff, who escaped without a mark, in part because of those wet roads.
“That course was pretty dicey with the wet weather,” he noted. “There were a lot of narrow roads, and one descent in particular with a lot of switchbacks that caused problems.”
Feeling no ill effects, he went out and took charge of the race the next day with the time trial and kept control for the overall title.
Baldwin climbs to Mike Horgan win.
This past Saturday, new OUCH Presented by Maxxis team member delivered his second victory since joining the team at the beginning of June. Baldwin took the win at the 14th Annual Mike Horgan Hill Climb, starting in his home town of Boulder.
He covered the 18-mile climbing course, which includes 3,800 feet of altitude gain, in 1:20.32, 0:21 ahead of Corey Collier (Rio Grande), and 0:28 ahead of Nico Toutenhoofd (ExcelSports).
Lea takes 3rd in Stage 2 of Tour de Nez.
Bobby Lea and Roman Kilun ventured to the Sierras over the weekend to contest the Tour de Nez Thursday through Saturday, with Lea coming away with a 3rd place in the Stage 2 Reno Criterium.
“The Reno course was pretty technical, with seven or eight turns in about a one kilometer course,” Lea said. “There was a split early on in the field with about 20 of us on the front side of it. We felt like our best bet was to keep the group together and get set up for a field sprint, so we kept covering moves but didn’t try any attacks to break up the group.”
But on the final time up the climb, Stage 1 winner and eventual Nez overall champion Chad Gerlach (Amore e Vita) put in an attack that got him over the top of the climb in the front position.
“Chad jumped us going up the hill before I could attack,” Lea said. “Coming off the hill, there’s a chicane inside 200 meters to the line. Whoever comes out of that last turn first is going to win and Chad got there first with his attack.”
