Monday, August 18, 2008

Team Type 1’s Chadwick Is Tour Of Utah’s Mountain King

Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah — With Team Type 1 founder Phil Southerland watching from the team car, Glen Chadwick animated the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Saturday on a tortuous course that included nearly 15,000 feet of climbing.

Chadwick's attack on the leg-breaking ascent to the Snowbird Ski Resort eventually led to a third-place finish in the 98-mile (158 km) Snowbird Road Race that was won by local favorite Jeff Louder (BMC Pro Cycling Team), ahead of overall leader Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle).

The impressive finish by Chadwick, the 2006 runner-up in this race, was nearly overshadowed by the results of a trio of Team Type 1 riders who placed in the top 20: Valeriy Kobzarenko was 12th, Matt Wilson was 14th and Ian MacGregor was 20th.

Those performances lifted Team Type 1 into third place in the team standings with only Sunday's 7.5-mile (12 km) KJZZ Time Trial to go in the five-day, five-stage race. Chadwick lies third overall, 42 seconds behind Caldwell, with only Sunday's individual time trial remaining.

Team Type 1 Sport Director said the achievements speak volumes about the character of the first-year team that was denied an invitation to compete in the Tour of Missouri next month.

"Guys like Matt (Wilson) and Ian (MacGregor) really stepped up today because they want to be part of the team effort," Beamon said. "It kind of shows the depth of this team. We don’t have the big superstar rider. We just have a lot of guys that cling to one another."

Chadwick claimed the team's 73rd podium finish of the season and sewed up the Zions Bank King of the Mountains jersey. It was his second mountains classification crown of the season, following his polka-dot jersey win at Tour de Beauce. It came exactly eight days after he competed for New Zealand in the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

"I sort of waited until the other guys started to pop," Chadwick said. "When I saw (Tom) Danielson was on the front and slowing down, I thought 'what the heck' and gave it a go."

Chadwick will have a fight on his hands if he is to move up any higher on the overall classification. The 31-year-old said he has spent more time lately working on his climbing than his time trialing.

"We'll see how I'm feeling," he said. "It's going to be an interesting course - with lots of corners on a race track."

Southerland, who is recovering from surgery on arteries in his legs, said the teamwork exhibited Saturday serves as proof that Team Type 1 is on track for its long-range goal to field a team in the Tour de France in 2012.

"It seems that the harder the race, the better this team rides," Southerland said. "It's great to see everyone step up the challenge every time."

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