Stage 1 – St. Paul Time Trial – Wednesday, June 16
The whirlwind month of June racing continues with the 5 day, 6 stage Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minneapolis, MN. This is also the 3rd race in the women's prestige series. The races opened with a Time Trial "Merkx style" - ie. with no TT equipment allowed. The stage was won by Tibco's Alison Starnes, followed by HTC-Columbia teammates Linda Villumsen and Evelyn Stevens. Some riders time trial relatively better on road bikes and some better on TT bikes, so the results were slightly shuffled from what one might normally expect but it was still a time trial and the strongest riders still finished near the top. Katheryn and Amber finished 13th and 16th respectively around 30 sec. down on the winner.
Here is Katheryn's Report:
After a successful race up in Ottawa, riders and staff made the trip to Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Dave and Jeremy had the 'fun' task of doing the 20+ hour drive and did a great job of packing things up and hitting the road soon after the race finished on Sunday; they arrived at their host house well before 12 on Tuesday, plenty of time for us to pre-ride the TT course.
The five Webcor riders (Joelle, Erinne, Andrea, Amber and Katheryn) who raced in Canada were joined by Ally and Lindsay and it was nice to have the team together again (minus Gina, who we miss and are happy that she is getting her health taken care of).
The TT course was a 6.0 mile course that took the riders out a flat and fast section before making a turn through a parking lot and returned on the same road, going past the start line and making our way up about a 200ft, .5 mile climb.
This would be the third year using this exact course although the biggest change from years past would be the restriction to using only road bikes, no tt helmets or disc wheels (although many teams with wheel sponsors that had deep deep dish wheels could use them). It was definitely a bummer not to use our wicked fast tt bikes, especially before nationals but the race promoter wanted to level the playing field with smaller teams not having access to tt equiptment.
Full official results are not posted, only top 3 but the Webcor riders left nothing behind when tackling this first stage. I can say for myself that I am still getting my legs back after L'Aude (I joke with people that they got delayed in France and were seen by others going around and around on the baggage belt!). Hopefully now that they are somewhat back they can get over being left and the jetlag, ha!
We are now resting up for a fast and furious crit in downtown St. Paul this evening.
Photos: #1 - Errine Willock, #2 - Amber Neben © Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us
Stage 2 – St. Paul Downtown Criterium – Wednesday, June 16
The Nature Valley Grand Prix starts full on with a double day the first day. The evening stage is another criterium. There was a lot of fighting for position in the last lap and Joelle missed the podium by a few inches, finishing in 5th place.
Here is Erinne's Report:
Last night was the second stage of the Nature Valley Stage Race. We had a crit in downtown St. Paul. It was completely flat with 5 turns and some cobble sections. The finish stretch had a left hand corner and then about 400m to the finish. Unfortunately the winter in St. Paul was really bad, and the roads were in very poor condition around many of the corners which caused a higher than normal amount of crashes.
Anyhow, we had 28 laps to do of a 1.4 mile course and there were 3 sprints (every 7 laps) each with time bonuses and sprint points. The finish also had time bonuses of 15, 10 and 6 seconds. Therefore, the race was fast and the sprints were important.
Our goal for the day was to be represented in all breaks and have Joelle either in a break or sprinting at the finish. The race was fast with Colovita and HTC being the most aggressive and Peanut Butter and Tibco either chasing or sitting on. Webcor was being represented and attacking when opportunities were good. Shelley Evans won all three intermediate sprints and was third in the finish, which moved her into 2 in GC. Joelle did a great job of being on the trains at the finish and considering the fact that she didn’t feel very good, she still finished 5th in the sprint.
Katheryn got tangled in a crash with Jessica Phillips at 5 laps to go and wasn’t allowed back in the race but was given pack time. Everybody else stayed upright and finished in the field. Cloe Hoskins from HTC won the sprint and Theresa Cliff-Ryan from Colavita was second. There was not much change in the GC besides Shelly moving into second.
As I’m writing this a day late, we’ve already been and come back from our Cannon Falls Start line for stage 3. And yes it was only a start line as the race just got cancelled because of extreme weather warnings of Tornadoes, Thunder Storms, Lightning and major wind!
Stage 4 – Uptown Minneapolis Criterium – Friday, June 18
The Webcor team was disappointed to miss yesterday's road stage due to the bad weather, but given the conditions, everyone agreed that the organizers and officials made the right call canceling the stage. This meant that next up on the agenda was another criterium on Minneapolis. Joelle finished a strong 5th place in a rather chaotic field sprint.
Here is Lindsay's Report:
The final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix is the Stillwater Criterium, which is really more of a hilly circuit race than a crit! Erinne started the day only 0.06 sec. behind Ruth Corset in 4th place. There were no time bonuses at the finish, so to move onto the GC podium, she had to gap Ruth in the finish by at least 1 sec. Interestingly, this race awarded extra large time bonuses in the flat stages (above the limit of 10 sec), had no time bonuses in the hilly stages and disallowed TT bikes in the TT. It seemed the sprinters were given every possible advantage!
Stage 5 – Menomonie Road Race – Saturday, June 19
Saturday was a new stage for the Nature Valley Grand Prix, and the first RR since the Cannon Falls stage was cancelled due to tornadoes. Jeremy, our team soigneur who lives in St. Paul, had pre-ridden it a couple of weeks ago to give us the inside scoop and said it was a good one! Lots of rolling hills. It was a great team race and Erinne won the stage and moved up to 4th on GC.
Here is Erinne's Report:
Today was the new Menomonie Road Race. In previous years we had the Mankato stage that was pretty unselective until the final circuits and then had a major climb in the finishing circuit. This year the new Menomonie course was a total 76 miles and rolling the whole way with lots of turns. We had 2 intermediate sprints that did not have time bonuses and 4 QOMs along the way. The 2nd and 3rd QOM were the most significant and close together so we knew those were going to be a good time to get away. Team plan was to of course, move up on GC and win a stage. Team plan accomplished!!!
In the beginning 32 miles we had Andrea, Lindsey and Ally doing a great job of covering moves and making sure Webcor was represented. Vera Bradly was being aggressive and sending riders up the road which made Peanut Butter have to roll through at the front to protect Shelly Evan's lead. On the second QOM, the field was together and Ruth Corset (Tibco) attacked on the climb which spread out the field. From then Columbia kept the pace high between the 2nd and 3rd QOM and the field continued to be strung out.
On the 3rdQOM I was among 5 riders who crested the top but we didn’t work together so we were soon caught by a small group of about 10 riders including Joelle and Amber. People attacked and Amber and Joelle both went with moves and then I countered one of the moves and got off on my own. Soon, Linda Villumsen bridged up to me and immediately we both started working together. Back in the small group, Shelly Evans was pretty isolated from her teammates at the moment and she had to chase Linda and I with her only teammate Mara Abbott. Linda and I were slowly gaining when eventually our time gap jumped to 1:40 seconds.
I gather that this is when the field finally caught the group of ten, and at this point Peanut Butter was getting organized to start a team chase, because then our time gap started to go down. Linda and I were working well together and we hit the circuits with only about 40 seconds and we knew we had to drive it in order to stay away. The circuits were pretty flat but were 3 miles around and we had 4 laps to do, meaning we still had 12 miles and only a 40 second lead. We put our heads down and went for time. In the end, we were away for about 55km and finished with a 26 second lead over the field and I won the stage! I moved into 4th on GC and Linda into the yellow jersey. Shelly Evans dropped down to 2nd in GC. Also, when the field came in Joelle got 2nd in the field sprint and finished 4th on the day.
It was a great team day!
Photos: Errine Willock © Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us
Stage 6 – Stillwater Criterium – Sunday, June 20
The final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix is the Stillwater Criterium, which is really more of a hilly circuit race than a crit! Erinne started the day only 0.06 sec. behind Ruth Corset in 4th place. There were no time bonuses at the finish, so to move onto the GC podium, she had to gap Ruth in the finish by at least 1 sec. Interestingly, this race awarded extra large time bonuses in the flat stages (above the limit of 10 sec), had no time bonuses in the hilly stages and disallowed TT bikes in the TT. It seemed the sprinters were given every possible advantage!
The team rode a great race, and the race overall was exciting in that the leader's jersey changed every day! Erinne did gap Ruth in the finish by about 2 bike lengths, and was awarded 3rd overall in the podium ceremony based on printed results, but the results on the website today show her in 4th with no time gap at the finish - we are still investigating.
Here is Erinne's Report:
The Stillwater Crit at the Nature Valley Stage Race is well known to be a very selective and hard day of racing. The circuit is very cool and sits in downtown Stillwater where we finish up this major hard hill of about 20%. The spectators are out in full force on the steep hill and it’s quite the rush. We had 13 laps of a few miles each and the race is less than an hour long but GC is always shuffled on this day and yesterday was to be no exception.
The day before, Linda from Columbia had taken the yellow jersey from Shelly Evans and when I was standing on the start line beside Shelly, she proceeded to tell me that she was not happy with 2nd and that we were going to race today! Well that was fine with Webcor too! We wanted to race hard as well knowing there was still chance to move up on GC. I had done a big effort the day before and my legs had felt good so I was hoping I had one more day in me.
Of course the race started hard from the gun and didn’t really let up. Webcor was up at the front showing our presence. Eventually about half way through, a break formed with Evelyn Stevens (HTC), Shelly Evans (Peanut Butter), Ruth Corset (Tibco) and Cath Cheatly (Colavita). The team immediately looked for me (I had gone into the steep hill a little too far back and didn’t make the break) and brought me about half way to the break and then I attacked and bridged up to the four. So it was now 5 of us, up front but I was pretty spent from my bridge. Anyhow, I knew it was a good break, so I took my pulls but eventually I got popped on the steep section of the hill, which I think is when Evelyn attacked. Luckily I had teammates coming up behind me and I jumped on their train. Up front Evelyn had attacked the break solo, Ruth and Cath were together and Shelly was coming back to our now small group. Amber and Mara (Peanut Butter) went to the front and successfully brought back Ruth and Cath, but Evelyn stayed away. Mara was giving it all she had in order to keep Evelyn close enough so she didn’t take over the lead. So, Evelyn won the stage with 14 seconds but finished 2nd in GC. Shelly won our group kick and succeeded in getting the yellow jersey back.
Ruth and I were battling it out on the final climb and initially I was given a one second lead over her which put me into 3rd in GC but this morning it seems the organizers may have taken my one second away and have moved me back down to 4th in GC. So yesterday I got onto the podium with the preliminary results but I’m not sure what the official word is. Either way, we did a great race and we also won team competition for the day since we had myself, Amber and Joelle in the final group.
Photo: © Matthew E. Moses. Amber Neben (Webcor Builders) leads Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12) and Alison Powers (Team Vera Bradley Foundation) over the finish line.
