June 20, 2010
Stillwater, MN – Team TIBCO/To the Top won the overall team competition after a hard Stillwater Criterium, the final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.
“It was a gallant effort by all the girls,” said team directeur sportif Emma Rickards. The goal coming into the stage was to throw everything at race leader Linda Villumson (HTC-Columbia) – and everyone else in contention – in an effort to move Ruth Corset up from 3rd overall.
“I did everything I could today,” Corset said.
That included covering late moves and making a couple of her own. With a handful of laps to go, Corset was in a move with Evelyn Stevens (HTC-Columbia), Shelly Evans (Peanut Butter & Co), Erinne Willock (Webcor) and Cath Cheatley (Colavita-Baci) – essentially the top of the overall standings. At four to go, Stevens attacked the group solo.
“I tried to go with Evy, and I was just behind her over the top of the climb,” Corset said, “but I couldn’t quite close it down. Cath caught me and we both tried to bridge.”
With two laps to go, the much-reduced bunch caught the duo. On the final time up toward the finish, Evans went in a bid to regain the overall lead, trying to keep the gap to Stevens small enough to regain the yellow jersey.
“I tried to stay on Shelly’s wheel but she had a lot of power,” Corset said. “Erinne and Cath went around me about half-way up.”
Corset’s teammate, Meredith Miller was there with her on the last climb, as well. Evans closed the gap to stage-winner Stevens down to 0:14, while Cheatley crossed two seconds later. Miller took an excellent 4th place, with Willock and Corset on her wheel, all three arriving 0:17 behind the stage winner.
Evans did enough to get the lead back, while Corset did enough to hold her 3rd overall ahead of Willock, who came into the stage just fractions of a second behind Corset. Miller’s 4th on the stage jumped her up to 7th overall, while Amanda Miller of Team TIBCO put in another good performance to take 12th on the stage and jump up to 16th overall.
“We raced as hard as we could on that course,” Rickards said. “We raced well and kep the pace high and were able to pop Linda off. But Evy was really strong, and Shelly was very motivated.
“But overall, the team rode fantastic every day,” Rickards added. “It was a great team race. I know Ruth did everything in her power to move. It was a bit frustrating for her, but she still rode really well, as did everyone else.”
Notes
An error in the tabulation of the final results initially put Willock in 3rd overall, however the mistake was discovered and rectified, returning Corset to 3rd overall ahead of Willock. Unfortunately, the mistake wasn’t corrected until after the podium presentations, and Corset, therefore, missed out on well-deserved podium time when the top three riders in the general classification were presented.
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