Toone de Cullman 2009

. The results are in:

1. Brian Toone
2. Omar Fraser
3. Scott Kuppersmith
4. Sammy Flores
5. Jacob Brewer
6. Darryl Seelhorst
7. Kevin White
8. Greg McCreless
9. Wes Douglas
10. Robert Vachon

Women:

...1. Amy Gravlee
...2. Katherine Herring
...3. Katie Curtis

A beautiful day for a bike ride, the peleton cruising through Cullman County.

The 15th Tour de Cullman lived up to all its epic fun. Sixty riders headed out at high noon on Sunday. In a nice envelope Brett and Brady Barker lead the riders on Moto 1 and Moto 2 and bringing up the broom wagon was the Branham MotorSports team van. The pace was monitored for the first 20 miles by the motos until the nature break just before the Chamblees Mill bridge. The riders were lead out and the pace soon picked up with a definite selection being made at the top of the first climb. The above photo shows Toone, Fraser, Kuppersmith, Flores, Brewer, Seelhorst and White cresting the first climb. The hammer went down leaving the peleton shattered all over Skyball Mountain.

On the descent off the first climb the riders rode down to Joy road which is known as the "Meat Grinder" for its hand full of short steep climbs. Leading on to the final climb of four miles, Toone, Fraser and Kuppersmith separated themselves and it became evident that this was The Selection.

Brian Toone educated us all on cycling and dropped the very strong riders on the climb up for the KOM. He crossed the summit with Omar Fraser 1:00 back and Kuppersmith at 1:15. The Tria/Donohoo team pulled off the hat trick, they have ridden so strong over the past three years and capped it off with this epic victory.

Rehashing the race on the top of Skyball Mountain.

2009 Tour de Cullman King of the Mountain, Brian Toone.

Amy Gravlee dominated the women's division, proving why she is so successful in racing around the Southeast. Amy was in control from the first climb and rode solo up Skyball Mountain to another trophy as the women's KOM. She was followed by two newcomers to the ride Katherine Herring and Katie Curtis.

The Masters trophy went to Sammy Flores who finished fourth overall in the GC.

Most Aggressive went to the SmithLock Team who made a valiant effort and put Omar on the Podium. The team is lead by Alabama cycling icon James Hall.

Bill St. John took the Cullman trophy in a sprint up the final 200 meters of the climb.

Arthur Patrick won a trophy for being one of the original riders of the Tour de Cullman. Arthur raced around the Southeast and competed in The National Road Race in the 1980's. He also was winner of the Race Across Alabama and had a cult classic race with James Hall.

The 2009 Tour de Cullman was very successful and was composed of probably the best collection of riders in its history. I say collection and not fastest (it was) because its success is bringing all cyclists together for a day and riding together promoting cycling. The beauty is the diversity of having a very elite racer riding with an 18 year old exchange student from Germany.