With a final stage breakaway at the International Tour de 'Toona in Pennsylvania, Health Net’s John Lieswyn and Scott Moninger were able to snatch the race lead away from Webcor Builders’ Chris Horner, with Moninger capturing the stage win and Lieswyn nailing down the overall title. In the women’s race, Quark’s Lyne Bessette led the seven-day event from start to finish, beating Canadian Olympic teammate Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis Scuba) by 34 seconds in the overall. In the men’s race, Colavita Olive Oil’s Nathan O’Neill made an impressive return to the race where he suffered a crash that nearly ended his career last year. O’Neill won the opening 3.5-mile time trial in 8:10, 15 seconds ahead of Health Net’s Jason McCartney. The following day, however, O’Neill’s bad luck returned when he crashed out of the race on a rain-soaked stage 2 in Johnstown. O’Neill was taken to the hospital, treated and released, but was out of the race for the second straight year. In O’Neill’s absence, Jelly Belly-Aramark’s first-year pro Doug Ollerenshaw took the stage win over Ofoto’s Jason Bausch, while McCartney assumed the yellow jersey. Stage 3 saw Horner and Lieswyn escape in a two-man breakaway that would propel the Webcor rider into the yellow jersey, but set things up perfectly for the Health Net squad to make its final push in the second half of the week. Lieswyn took the win in the 99-mile stage that took the race from Johnstown to Altoona. But with Horner pushing the pace, the pair was able to finish the day 35 seconds ahead of the peloton, putting Horner into first overall, with Lieswyn second, eight seconds behind. However, filling out the top four were McCartney and Moninger, lurking just over 40 seconds behind. Colavita scored back-to-back wins in stages 4 and 5, with Ivan Dominguez outsprinting Jackson Stewart (Ofoto) in the GM Hollidaysburg race and Aaron Olson taking a solo win 13 seconds in front of Bausch in the Hoss’s Martinsburg road race. The battle for the overall was played out on the final day for the men, the stage 6 Verizon Blair County road race, 92.9 mountainous miles with three King of the Mountains climbs. On the damp, foggy day, Lieswyn and Moninger were able to pull away from Horner, and by the finish in Altoona had put 1:20 on the race leader, with Moninger taking first on the stage and Lieswyn second. That allowed both riders to jump ahead of Horner on GC, with Lieswyn taking the hard-earned overall victory. The women’s race was never in much doubt, as Bessette jumped out to a 15-second lead on Palmer-Komar in the opening time-trial, and then saw her Quark team keep a firm grip on the yellow jersey. Stage 2 saw Genesis Scuba’s Tina Pic take the first of three stage wins, as she continued a dominating run through the U.S. domestic schedule. Pic won the sprint finish, but Quark teammates Magali LeFloch and Bessette were just behind, picking up the second and third-place time bonuses to stretch out Bessette’s lead over Palmer-Komar. The Westsylvania Johnstown-Altoona road race on stage 3 marked the longest stage of the week, 98.7 miles, with the finish coming down to another sprint battle, this time with Lynn Gaggioli (Velo Bella) taking the win over Pic, but with Lefloch and Bessette once again right in the mix, in third and fourth respectively. After Genevieve Jeanson (RONA) picked up a stage win in stage 4 ahead of Bessette and Palmer-Komar, and Pic scored the second of her wins on stage 5, the last real possibility to dethrone Bessette came on the second-to-last day’s Blair County road race, covering the same difficult 92.9 miles where the men’s race was decided. Bessette, however, had no chinks in the armor, with both her and teammate Manon Jutras riding away with the day’s break that also contained Palmer-Komar and RONA’s Erinne Willock. The would finish the day 2:50 ahead of the main field, and all that was left to cap the week was a win by Pic in Sunday’s criterium finale.