During the fourth stage or The International, spectators viewed World-Class cyclists and stage winners Charles Dionne and Laura VanGilder in a town with a signature European ambiance.
Dionne, of 7UP/Nutrafig, sprinted to the head of the field in the last few hundred meters, taking his second stage of the 2002 international while securing his lead for the Sprint Points jersey. Dionne finished with a time of 2:13;07. Bulgarian Plarnen Stoyanov of Think Racing finished second for the third time in five days with the same time as Dionne.
“We wanted to win the race and keep the points jersey, and we accomplished that,”said the winner, “We tried to push the pace for the first and second laps, and we had a breakaway, but we couldn’t keep away from the pack. We did set up nicely for the sprint for the finish, though, and we will try to win again tomorrow,” said the Canadian who hails from Quebec. “I wasn’t feeling too great after yesterday’s tough race (100 miles from Johnstown through Blue Knob to Altoona), but I felt good today.”
There were several breakaways from the pack of cyclists; however, no significant distance could be kept by any of the cyclists from the main peleton. Because of the relatively flat and rolling course, and because there were no major accidents, no changes occurred in any of the leaders or file standings for the race.
Matt Decanio of Prime Alliance retained his overall lead in GC Standings, followed by teammate Danny Pate and Ben Jacques-Maynes of Sierra Nevada, while Adam Bergman of Bianchi-Grand Performance held on to his King of the Mountain title as well.
In women’s racing action, Laura Van Gilder of Trek Plus sprinted out at the last moment to win the stage with Goldy’s Heather Albert slipping to second and relinquishing her blue Sprinter’s Jersey to Van Gilder. Maria Calle of Talgo America placed third.
Albert, with an 8:17 time cushion, retained her yellow and red jerseys by sitting on the second-lap breakaway and riding defensively, although she was admittedly tired.
“Laura stopped pulling through the break- about 10 km out. She rested and was able to come out first at the finish. I plan to continue riding defensively, but now I am scared because the peleton finished six minutes after us. I’ll watch out for tomorrow,” quipped Albert. Her team also holds the lead in the overall GC Standings by 1:12.
Van Gilder, whose forte is sprinting, accomplished her goal today. She moved up from 13th to third place in the overall GC Standings, although remains 8:28 behind Albert.
“Tactically, we pulled off what we set out to do today,” the Pocono-resident said. “Ideally though, we wanted to break-in to Albert’s lead-time, but she held on tight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings because for us, this race is far from over,” said Van Gilder, with a determined tone.
Both men and women will go equal distance on Friday’s 80.4-mile course, which starts and finishes at Memorial Park in Martinsburg. The dynarnics for the fifth stage consist of four 20.1-mile loops with rolling hills and no formidable steep climbs creating a fast race usually ending in a field finish. The pro men’s race begins at 8 a.m. with the pro women’s commencing ten minutes later.
