Moving up from 5th overall in 2011, Alexey Vermeulen stepped up to 2nd place on the podium at the 2012 Tour de l'Abitibi. The week started off strong for the entire USA National Team, as it only took until stage 2 to grab the overall leader jersey, sprint jersey, best young rider jersey, and best team lead. In the stage 3 time trial, Vermeulen rode the fastest effort of the day with only the final rider—current leader and teammate, TJ Eisenhart—able to best Vermeulen's time by 0.6 seconds. The rest of the team helped capture 6 of the top 7 spots, and the 6 team members swept the top 6 overall places in the race. Throughout stages 4–7, Vermeulen helped drive the front of the race as the team consolidated its leads in the overall, sprint, young rider, and team competitions. Finding his way into a late race move in stage 7, Vermeulen was able to capture 4th on the day, and move up to 2nd overall while the team still hung onto the overall, young rider, sprinter, and team leads.
Updates
Rainville wraps Nationals with 3rd place
After some solids efforts on the road, including a promising break in the road race, Richard Rainville was still eager to grab a medal from this year's 15-16 junior nationals. A trip to Trexlertown, PA for the junior national track championships saw him grab a 12th place in the points race and an 11th in the 8km scratch race. The persistance paid off, though, when he partnered with Alexander Riva to grab the bronze medal in the Madison, the last event of the 2012 junior track nationals.
Two State Championships and a Broken Collarbone
Just two-and-a-half weeks after breaking his collarbone while at the Junior National Road Championships in Augusta, Georgia, John Murdock grabbed both the Ohio state time trial and road race championships this past weekend.
The 15-16 junior didn't set his fastest time of the season on what was essentially his home TT course, but at 26.3 mph he was still going fast enough on Saturday to top all the juniors in attendance. His speed continued on Sunday when his early solo attack turned into a 9-minute gap at the finish, again besting even the 17-18s.
We're looking forward to John continuing to heal the collarbone and be back at full speed soon.
