The Vitamin Cottage Cycling Team pb XP Companies made a huge splash in the national calendar waters last night in the Tour De Nez, Truckee Criterium. To start things out, Dirk Friel was away for a long time in break with Alex Candelario (Kelly Benefits).  Dirk took second to Candelario in an intermediate points sprint.  Jon Baker countered the Friel/Candelario move.  Roman Kilun (Health Net) and Justin England (Toyota United) bridged up to Baker and they stayed away to the finish. Baker was 2nd in front of a huge crowd.  Kilun won with England 3rd.  

The team received huge props throughout the race from rock star announcer Dave Towle.  Tomorrow is the hardest stage with tons of climbing with Jon Baker sitting in 9th on GC.  Baker will rely heavily on teammates Friel, Joe Pinkerton and Randy Riechardt, all of whom are having a great race so far.

See pictures and a race report on the cyclingnews tour de nez coverage.