Martinsburg, PA - Stage 5 of the International Tour de 'Toona went pretty much according to plan for the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis. Which is to say that the status quo was maintained without expending a serious amount of energy, and Karl Menzies of Health Net Presented by Maxxis retained the yellow leader's jersey.

"We let a break go up the road early," team directeur sportif Jeff Corbett said, "then we rode tempo."

The break, which consisted of Mark McCormack (Colavita-Sutter Home), Scott Zwizanski (KodakGallery-Sierra Nevada) and Bernard Van Ulden (Navigators), got out to a lead of several minutes before Health Net Presented by Maxxis began to bring down the gap. "When we got it down to about two minutes, we shut down the chase because we weren't getting any help, and we wanted to see if any other teams would work," Corbett said.

TargetTraining, trying to maintain the second overall position of Frank Pipp, as well as possibly setting him up for a stage win, started working at the front. "Once they began to help, we started back up again," Corbett said. "We weren't too worried about bringing the break all the way back, as none of those guys was a threat to the overall."

In fact, Zwizanski was the highest placed rider, in 28th at 2:48 behind Menzies, and the break didn't come all the way back. Van Ulden won the three-up sprint for the stage 15 seconds ahead of the peloton. Menzies and Greg Henderson were 4th and 5th respectively in the bunch sprint.

"Saturday is the day," Corbett said of the 93-mile road race that packs a load of hard climbing in the final 43 miles. "The first 50 are easy. After that, it's hilly and hard. We expect a lot of attacks once the climbing starts."

Menzies holds a slim nine-second lead on Pipp, and Henderson remains in 3rd place at 20 seconds back. But the top 24 riders on general classification are still within a minute of Menzies. Which means there should be a lot of fireworks once the road turns up Saturday.

Official Results