Kristin Armstong smackdown but it doesn't really count in stage 1 of Nature Valley Grand Prix

When do stage results not count for the overall classification? when the officials decide to neutralize a stage - during or after the stage - for the men and the women's stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Minnesota was hit with torrential rain today and it impacted the first stage, the Downtown Saint Paul Criterium. With thunder threatening, the officials decided to shorten the women's race from 40 to 30 laps. As soon as the gun went off, defending champion Kristin Armstrong (Cervélo-Lifeforce) wasting no time and was off as hard as she could and never looked back. The field shattered behind her with a group of 4 riders chasing. But the combined strength of the Tibco trio of Brooke Miller, Lauren Franges and Joanne Kiesanowski combined with Rachel Lloyd (Proman) could not catch Armstrong.

As she kept hammering and avoiding crashes, Armstrong caught up to riders littering the course and finally lapped almost the entire field. Adding to the chaos, the officials pulled more than half of the women’s field while the chase was happening.

With this amazing show of strength, Armstrong not only got the stage win, but also grabbed the Wheaties Sprint jersey, the Jelly Belly Queen of the Hills jersey and the Nature Valley GP Overall Leader yellow jersey. Kiesanowski and Miller took second and third respectively in the stage.

After the stage, the officials made the decision to neutralize the stage. This means that not only are all riders advancing to the next stage, but that Armstrong and the TIBCO team gained no time advantage for their efforts and results - which made for unhappy riders.

“If they do [neutralize the time results], I’m going to be really outraged,” said TIBCO’s Brooke Miller, before the final decision had been made, “…as a sprinter I wouldn’t normally spend half a race solo up the race in a break. That’s not what my strength is. That burns a lot of matches for me later on in the race. Not to mention, Kristin had a heroic race today. To take that away from her is outrageous. She deserves the time and we deserve the time. Our girls raced really hard today to make sure that we are in good standing for the rest of the race, and for girls that sat in the pack, you know, it’s not fair.”

Update: Post-stage interview with a frustrated Kristin Armstrong at BroadbandRacer

The men started off fast in their 45 laps race, and the field started to shatter under the attacks, wet roads and crashes. On lap 11, Aaron Olson (Bissell) and USA National Crit Champion Kirk O'Bee (Health Net-Maxxis) dropped their 2 break mates and grew a gap of 20 seconds to a dwindling field. Leading the 30-man group was the isolated defending champion Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) with Kelly Benefit/Medifast and Heath Net-Maxxis riders massing behind him.

With 25 laps to go, nearly half the field had been pulled before being lapped, and more riders had been told to stop racing, but many didn't obey the order. And then it happened, a motomarshall crashed, and the break and riders in the front group had to avoid him and try to get around the lapped riders. Chaos ruled. So the officials stopped the race and actually asked the riders on the course, including the lapped and dropped riders, what they wanted to do. By a show of hands, the majority of the riders decided to neutralize the stage completely - no winner, no jerseys awarded.

So O'Bee and Olson worked to get off the front, avoid crashes and were left with nothing for their efforts. Matt Crane and Roman Kilun and Steve Tilford were not happy with the decision.

Hopefully the weather will improve for the next stage, the Cannon Falls Road Race on June 12. The men start at 5pm and the women follow at 5:30pm.

The 60-mile Cannon Falls Road Race winds through scenic Goodhue County before finishing on a 4-lap circuit in downtown Cannon Falls.