Altoona, PA USA – Dr. Vie’s World Track Champion Tara Whitten (Canada) and Jennifer Wheeler (USA) powered their way to the top two spots in the opening prologue of the Tour de ‘Toona in Pennsylvania USA last evening.
Tara Whitten covered the roughly three-mile course in a shade under 5:40, averaging nearly 32 mph. Impressively, teammate Wheeler was les than 1.5 seconds behind her in 2nd place. Carmen Small of our team also made the top 10, slotting in at 9th place, 0:11 behind Whitten, who won the Canadian National Time Trial Championship in 2009 and silver in Time Trials in Ontario two weeks ago.
“This is my favorite type of effort,” our Canadian said. “I’m not always super-confident in my technical skills but I handled the corners and was able to accelerate out of them well. We had a couple days to preview the course which also helped.”
“It was a very technical course but I was confident that Tara would win,” Team Directeur Sportif Lisa Hunt added. “And I thought Jen would do well, too.”
The Tour de ‘Toona continues Thursday with 74-mile road race that finishes atop the climb up to Blue Knob. With Meredith Miller placing 13th at 0:14 back and Carlee Taylor taking 21st just 0:20 back, the Team is in a strong position for tomorrow.
“We have a lot of strong girls here,” Whitten said. “We’ll see who’s riding well, but we have a lot of options, and we can respond to a lot of different scenarios.”
Watch Dr. Vie’s interview with Tara Whitten during her race in Canada last week.
TRAGIC NEWS:
The cycling world awoke to the tragic news of the death of Australian pro cyclist Carly Hibberd. The rider from Queensland was killed after being hit by a car while training in Italy Wednesday morning. Dr. Vie’s TIBCO’s Carmen Small was close friends with the 26-year-old, and was to be part of her wedding this fall.
“We all rode today with armbands with Carly’s name on them,” Tara Whitten said. “We wanted to show our support for her friends and family, and also to our teammate Carmen.”
Mother & I and our entire Dr. Vie team extend our deepest condolences to Carly’s family, friends, teammates and the Australian cycling community.
May her dear soul rest in peace and may her family and friends find peace.
Early last year we lost our South African cyclist Carla Swart who was killed while training in South Africa. In August last year our Canadian rider Alison Testroete was involved in a similar accident while training in Italy. She sustained severe injuries to her face and jaw. Just as she was recovering this year she sustained another accident and is now recovering in Vancouver. Our women cyclists are truly courageous and are always in our hearts as they train and race around the world. May the most positive energies of our planet surround them with love.
Always
Dr. Vie, Founder & Scientist
Dr. Vie, Inc.
Montreal, Canada
514-233-8756