Tour de 'Toona Stage 4
Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, July 30, 1999

We raced the Martinsburg Circuit today. I do not remember this loop being as hard as it was. There were no real climbs in the loop, yet it was one of those unrelenting courses that went up and down all day. Nothing by itself was leg breaking. 80 miles of up and down did it. Schwab wanted to give Nicole Freedman and Marie Holjer a shot, Navigators has the super fast Laura Van Gilder, Timex had Kendra Wenzel, and Canada had Erin Carter.

The first two of the four laps were pretty controlled as a result. On the third lap, Celestial Seasonings made a group effort of attacks and counters, trying to get someone off. Particularly impressive was Leah Toffolon, who took it upon herself to learn how to get off the front all in one day. She did a super great job covering attacks and heading out on her own. Each attempt at any breakaway was chased down by one of the sprinter's teams not represented in the group ahead.

On the last lap, there were some attempts and those too were shut down. Nothing. Only until Olympic Champion Kathy Watt made a nice attack with only a few kilometers to go did anyone really get away from the pack. Except of course, now all the teams interested in a sprint really got to work. In all this Elita has been super strong and they took over the chase. And in the end, they succeeded as did Sarah Ulmer by crossing the line first. Kathy was second. Once again, I know no more than that. Sarah Ulmer won every single sprint spot at the start/finish line each lap. I believe Marie Holjer took second each try.