July 27, 2007 (Minneapolis, Minn.) — Keven LaCombe, the newest recruit to Jonas Carney’s Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast pro cycling team, injured late last season is back with a bang, taking second place in stage five of the Tour de Toona today — his first official outing for the team.

Racing against the stiffest competition on the circuit, and coming in just behind HealthNet’s Karl Menzies, the 22 year-old Canadian, finished second in an extremely fast 76-mile circuit road race that made up stage five of the Tour de Toona in Martinsburg, PA. He was helped to the line in the closing kilometers by team mate and fellow Canadian Martin Gilbert.

“This is a tremendous performance right off the line,” says Jonas Carney, performance director, Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast, “To be riding new to the team, to fit seamlessly with the dynamic of our riders and to come back so quickly from an injury last year — that’s phenomenal. It’s a sign of big things to come from Keven and a testament to how far our guys have come as a tight, highly competitive squad in this first year.”

LaCombe, 22, who broke his femur late in 2006, also took a third place podium on stage 4b at the Tour de Beauce last month. A Canadian national, he joins the team and will race alongside teammate and Pan Am road race champion, Martin Gilbert. Besides Gilbert, who took second place in stage two of the Nature Valley Grand Prix last month, the Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast pro cycling team also includes Canadians Ryan Roth, Mark Hinnen and former Canadian national champion Dominique Perras.


This year, LaCombe took first place in a stage of the Six Days of Berlin UIV-CUP in Berlin, Germany, first in a stage of the six days of Copenhagen UIV-CUP, Denmark and top ten places in the criteriums of the NRC Sequoia Classic, the NRC Merco Credit Union Classic, and the NRC Redlands Classic in California. Before his 2006 injury, he was first in both the road and criterium races at the Canada Games in Regina, Saskatchewan and third in both the under 23 road and criterium races at the Canadian Road Championships in Kamloops, Canada.

The Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast pro cycling team is managed by Minneapolis-based Circuit Global Sports Management.