Tour of Gila Stage One: The Dan Potts Memorial Tyrone Individual Time Trials

In 25-30 mph winds, with gusts to 50 mph - all cross winds across the road, it was Chris Wherry of Mercury and Gila defending champion, RONA pistol Genevieve Jeanson, in today's Tour of the Gila kickoff time trial. In these conditions, there was no cover for anybody. As the day progressed, clouds moved in and it got colder. But there were no crashes in spite of the wind, just some time trialer wheels that acted more like sails.

Eric Wohlberg of Saturn and Scott Moninger (Mercury) placed second and third respectively. Derek Brouchard-Hall, who placed third at the Shelby Criterium on April 21, was tenth.

The pro men's surprise today was Sandy Perrins, who placed 7^th. From the Logan Race Club in Logan, Utah, there are only two riders from his club in the field.

With only a 2 minute spread among the first ten in the men's ITT, there is not much comfort for Moninger if he wants to take this Tour again this year. As for the balance of the teams: Mercury holds four places in the top ten, and Prime Alliance has a good presence with two top ten places and Svein Tuft at number eleven.

Pate and Horner (Prime Alliance) are both strong climbers, but at this point it looks like anybody's race - the time trial seems not to be decisive here.

Before the race Vaughn talked with Chris Horner and asked him how his foot would be, and he said he didn't know, but he felt pretty good. Horner finished 1'20 down from Chris Wherry and did an incredible job.

In the evening 7UP's Chuck Coyle commented. Of the time trial he said, "It was like a blow dryer out there today." On the DP message board he said, "I almost got blown off my bike twice during the TT today. I had my 55x11 wrapped out and was hit with some crazy wind gusts that almost blew me off the road.....Tomorrow will be interesting if the wind keeps up."

As for tomorrow's 92 mile, 5650 feet of climb race he said, "Since none of us did anything to speak of today we are hoping tomorrow will go a little more in our favor. We may try and gutter the race 5 miles before the climb and try and shake things up a bit." He also thought he might be the workhorse tomorrow.

The women's picture is different than the men's. Genevieve Jeanson has 58 seconds on Saturn's Kim Bruckner in second, but by fifth place there is a four and a half minute spread. So something dramatic would have to happen tomorrow to shake this out another way. RONA team manager Andre Aubut is very pleased. He had instructed the other RONA riders to assist Genevieve in keeping her lead, and to save themselves for the four brutal stages that await them.

Tomorrow, unless you are on a motorcycle (or a bike), it will be impossible to follow the race, since the roads are so narrow that autos are not allowed. And there is that uphill finish…