Kelly Poarch picked up a 3rd at Avondale [and he entered 3 races? como se dice “overachiever”?] and plenty of others from Tolero were out testing their legs too. Andrea Cinalli hits her first TT of the season and gives a short recap here.

Podium finish for Kelly Poarch in Cat 4/5 40+

In the first race of the year, newcomer Scott Bumb won his first race as a Junior and Alex Garcia pulled in a 5th place in Mens 55. Nice job to the both of them.

Scott Bumb takes first

Lynn spent the majority of the race off the front, digging deep for the win

Criterium
Colton Keeler – Fixie 1st
Lynn Orchard – Master Men 45+ 1st [his synopsis below]
Alex Garcia – Master Men 45+ 6

RR
Marco Valente – Men 3/4 – 14th
Evan Robold – Men 4/5 – 10th
Robert Lee – Master Men 35+ 3rd
Alex Garcia – Master Men 45+ 17th

Lynn at the front, pre-attack and solo win

Masters 4/5 45+ race synopsis:
I had a great first race of the season and can attribute my success to the amount of team support that comes from being a part of Tolero Racing.  Alex Garcia and I rolled to the start of a very soggy and cold Masters 4/5 45+ race.  To begin with it is good to have a teammate in the race and when I saw that none of the other teams had multiple racers, I knew things were going to be a bit easier for us.  After the first prime about 5 minutes into the race I accelerated off the front and opened a gap. Alex helped to control the tempo in the group and by the time a chase finally got organized the gap was 25 seconds.  By helping to hold off the chase Alex essentially sacrificed a good result in the race.  Its not a glamorous job but his team focus helped establish the winning move and deserves recognition.  At 10 minutes in I felt strong and was hopeful to stay away. At 20 minutes with two men chasing in earnest, my heart rate pegged in the red, and the gap down to 15 seconds I started to get very worried that my solo break was going to get shut down in the final minutes.  Fortunately for me and unfortunately for the chasers I had Tolero teammates on 3 of the 4 corners calling out the time gaps and reminding me to stop looking over my shoulder and to keep working.  With their help I could measure out my effort… when the chase accelerated, thanks to my team, I was immediately aware of it and could dig a bit deeper to keep them at bay.  In the final laps one of the chasers attacked and closed to 4 or 5 seconds.  I wasn’t looking back and didn’t see him coming. Without the warning shouts from Andrea on the final corner, I am pretty sure he would have closed the gap and caught me at the line. But thanks again to the team, I held him off and got the win. In retrospect I know that without a doubt the difference between winning and the disappointment of getting caught at the end was my team. Thanks Alex, Alan, Mike, Andrea, Robert and Marco!

Alex after doing his job of holding the job at bay, killing it in the rain

Evan Robold pulled off a 3rd place podium finish in the first Avondale Crit of 2015. Congratulations and kudos for the great start of the year.

3rd place finish in the Avondale Crit Cat4