Tour of the Valley

Kirk Morrison was BAITED :)

Dan Schar got everyone all charged up to do the 2011 Tour of the Valley, then after Kirk signed up (and paid), Dan realized that that his son's Birthday was that weekend (?)!!!
Anyway, Kirk dutifully headed to Youngstown solo, Friday, then Staurday, then Sunday for the TT, the Road Race and the Criterium.

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Kirk recalls the blur of the weekend as follows:

This past weekend was my first, 3 day stage race (the Tour of the Valley) which was held in the Youngstown area. The series started with the Friday evening TT where I finished in 14th place (out of 23 competitors for the Masters 50+ group). This was staged from the beautiful Mastropietro Winery with a scenic, rolling 9 mile, out-and-back course over fairly narrow, country roads.

photo by Mike Briggs

The second stage was the Saturday RR where I was able to hang with the lead group until about mile 25 where my lack of “hot weather” (90 degree temps at the 11am start) training caught up with me. This stage started and finished in downtown Columbiana, Ohio. I finished this 45 mile RR stage in 18th place which left me 17th in the overall standings.

photo by Mike Briggs

The final Sunday Crit was very fast (reminiscent of the Steel City Showdown) with a short, block length, 10-12% grade on every lap. This course was in downtown Youngstown with the start line adjacent to the Youngstown State Univ campus. The pace was very fast through this 6 turn course where I finished in 15th place out of 25 competitors.

photo by Mike Briggs

My final standing for the Omnium (all 3 events) was 18th place.

The organization was outstanding (one registration for the entire weekend !). I look forward to coming back next year with some “faster legs”!

- Kirk