Saturday was a day of firsts in St. Joseph for USA Cycling’s St. Joseph Team Time Trial.

The Bicycle Shack Racing team of Phillip Todd, Jeremy Pych and Jeff Winkler took first in the event, which was being held for the first time here.

That Category 1/2 team finished the course in 38 minutes, 32 seconds (the time is determined by the second rider crossing the finish line), averaging 25.86 miles per hour.

Bicycle Shack Racing had a lead of 3 minutes, 40 seconds over the Epic Cycling Team of Phil Gronniger, Tom Luke and Stan Hoehn in the category. Epic Cycling was hampered by the loss of Gronniger, who experienced a flat tire early and was unable to continue pushing his teammates.

In addition, it was the first such event for many of the riders.

It also was the first race ever for a pair of young St. Joseph cycling enthusiasts, Nathan Voelkel and Bryce Frazier, who purchased one-day USA Cycling permits just to get into the event.

Voelkel has been riding for about two years, and he got his friend, Frazier, interested in road racing just three months ago.

“It was tough, but Bryce here is younger than me, so he pulled me the whole way,” said Voelkel, 25. “We had a lot of fun doing it. It was fun just to prepare for it.”

“I loved it, yeah,” said Frazier, 17, who instead of sporting a fancy racing jersey wore a gray Central High School freshman football T-shirt. “I’m a wrestler, and this should help my endurance, for sure.”

Judge Stacie Louthan was impressed with the raw pair, who professed their inexperience to her as they came up to the starting line.

“That’s how we grow the sport,” Louthan said. “They have heart, and I love that.”

Voelkel admitted that he had his doubts fairly early in his race against the clock, once the route crossed South 22nd Street on Southwest Parkway and made a marked elevation change until shortly before reaching Mansfield Road.

“There were a couple of hills where I thought I shouldn’t have done this, but I got up ’em and that was good. Once I got up ’em, that was a good feeling.”

This was the first team time trial entered by the GP VeloTek team of John Sieczkowski, Steve Toalson and Jon Paul Shores. But Toalson said his team, which placed third in Category 4, had a little edge with Shores, who grew up in St. Joseph and began racing under the tutelage of Ride Bicycles and Tim Fuson.

“It was awesome having (Shores), because he knows this course,” Toalson said. “We had kind of a home-field advantage.”

“I was our own built-in GPS,” interjected Shores, who now lives in Olathe, Kan.

Toalson’s son, Christopher, was involved in another first at the event. He, Andy Romisch and Nathan Goldberg comprised a trio of 10-year-olds competing in their first team time trial, riding under the same VeloTek banner as Christopher’s father.

The youngsters covered the course in 1:09.16.

Mark Thomas, Dean Parker and Dennis Weinbeck won the Category 3 men’s class in 43:08 (good enough for third overall), while the SKC racing team of Creg Hendwood and Jeff Lively pulled a surprise by taking first in Category 4 in 42:01, a time that would have placed them second in the race’s top category.