Midwest Madness as KBS Victory Train Rolls On
Barely midway through the 2009 season, the KBS program, as Jonas Carney points out, has already won more races than in all of 2008, which was in itself a very successful year. This past weekend, Hoag, Bajadali and Keough almost pulled off a hat-trick of victories in the Midwest when Hoag and Bajadali took second and third in the opening stage of the Tour of America's Dairyland, Keough won the Waterloo Criterium and Bajadali went on to win the NRC Tour de Winghaven Circuit Race in St. Louis on Sunday.
The triple threat of Baj, Hoag, and Keough dominated the midwest this weekend
"We placed our focus on races from mid-May through June and it has paid off," says performance director Jonas Carney. "Our team is on a roll and we're demonstrating real depth and diversity with our program. We are winning time trials, criteriums, road races and stage races – and doing it with different athletes. That's far from being a one trick pony."
The wins follow last week's victory at the Tour de Beauce in Quebec, Canada and are a testament to the Kelly Benefit Strategies program of selecting and racing a wide mix of races to help each athlete reach their top form, critical with three riders recovering from shoulder injuries in the early part of the season. The mix includes everything from domestic criteriums, stage races, time trials and road races plus challenging international multi-stage events. This season the KBS team has raced in Portugal and won races in both Thailand and Uruguay.
"Our racing in Portugal has paid off and helped with the fitness level of the guys," adds General/Performance Manager Ken Mills. "We had four days of super hard, competitive racing in Portugal that really helped keep everyone at the top of their game. We came close to a stage win on day one with Keough and Baj really showed his return to form after breaking his scapula."
"Our wins this past weekend come as a direct result of hard work by everyone but also because our program looks outside of the normal race schedule to find tough, challenging events for our riders to grow as individual athletes and as a team."
"Even with three of our guys suffering from shoulder injuries," says Carney, "we've already won more races than last year with more to come. The great news is that my guys aren't tired like some of the teams that have been going full throttle since January and February. We are ready and excited for the second half of the season."
The Canadian portion of the KBS team heads to Saint-Georges, Quebe this week where David Veilleux will defend his two U23 national titles in the Canadian Nationals, June 26-28th. The team will then head to the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in Massachusetts, July 2nd through the 5th.
