June 18, 2010
Minneapolis, MN – Brooke Miller of Team TIBCO/To the Top took second in the bunch sprint at the Uptown Minneapolis Criterium Friday evening following more exceelent work by her teammates.
“The team rode superbly again today,” said team Directeur Sportif Emma Rickards. “IT was a fast race and the team did a really good lead-out for Brooke.”
Chloe Hosking (HTC-Columbia) won her second consecutive stage of the race, with Shelly Evans (Peanut Butter & Co.) taking 3rd place and earning enough bonus time on the finish and in the intermediate sprints to take the race lead from Alison Starnes, who is now in 2nd overall at 0:19.
“We really weren’t expecting Ali to keep the jersey today,” Rickards said. “She came in with only a two-second lead on Shelly, and Shelly is a very good sprinter. Today’s crit suited her well.”
In fact, Evans won the first intermediate sprint and assumed the race lead on the road. She solidified that lead by taking the next two intermediate sprints, despite the efforts of Miller and Joanne Kiesanowski.
Linda Villumson is right behind Starnes in 3rd place at 0:23 seconds. But Ruth Corset, who picked up one of the bonus seconds in the first intermediate sprint, has gradually crept up the overall, and is in 4th place, tied on time with Villumson at 0:23.
Despite losing the leader’s jersey, Starnes retains the lead in the race’s Young Rider competition as well as the Queen of the Mountains competition, which she earned by virtue of winning the opening time trial.
Tomorrow’s hilly, 77-mile Menomonie Road Race is much more suited to the likes of climbers like Corset rather than sprinters like Evans.
Guarnier 2nd in dicey Reno crit, retains her lead at Tour de Nez.
Megan Guarnier capped off a long and dicey sprint with 2nd place in the Reno Criterium, the second stage of the Tour de Nez.
On the final lap, Kristen LaSasso and Devon Haskell were doing a leadout for Guarnier and Samantha Schneider. Haskell finished her turn at the front and slotted back into the pack hoping to preserve her spot high up in the overall standings after finishing 2nd in the prologue yesterday to Guarnier.
Guarnier started her sprint early, from over 600 meters out, she said. Schneider was on her left, and Anna Lang (Vanderkitten) was tucked on her right. With a few hundred meters to go, Lang tried to push Schneider off Guarnier’s wheel. The two tangled, but didn’t go down. However, it caused a massive pile-up behind that sent several riders to the hospital, and took Haskell down as well with a suspected concussion.
“I was sitting on the front so I didn’t see it, but I heard it,” Guarnier said. “I just kept driving to the line.”
So did Lang, who actually won the stage, but after numerous protests was relegated for unsafe sprinting. The win instead went to Janel Holcombe (Argon 18), who has guest-ridden for Team TIBCO this year, and who narrowly pipped Guarnier on the line.
“It was unfortunate that things were sketchy at the end,” Guarnier said. “It was a good, hard race and I think Sam and I had a good shot at going one-two if things hadn’t gotten dicey.”
Despite not winning the stage, Guarnier held onto her lead in the overall omnium with one stage remaining, a tough criterium run at the Northstar-at-Tahoe resort.
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