Toyota-United did it again, taking the top 5 spots this time in the second race of the Tulsa Tough series, the Brady Village Criterium, a USA Crits Series event. World B Champion Ivan Stevic crossed the line first followed by Jonnie Clarke, Caleb Manion, Hilton Clarke and Henk Vogels.
In the women's race, the same names are on the podium as yesterday with a small shuffle between second and third, in the NRC-rated Brady Crit. Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) won her second race, followed by Jen McRae (Advil/Chapstick) and Shelley Olds (Proman).
Full results: Pro 1 Men and Pro/1/2 Women
Tulsa Tough Brady Crit - deja vu all over again
Previewing CSC Invitational
The next race on the NRC schedule is the 1.2-rated CSC Invitational in Arlington Virginia on Sunday June 1.
On its eleventh year, the riders will line-up to race the always fast 1 kilometer course that starts up with a tough uphill drag to the top of Wilson followed by sharp left and after fast turns on the back side, the riders round the last turn for a short rise back to the start/finish line. And repeat for 100 laps.
For the pro men's race, 18 teams will line-up, including two Pro Tour teams, CSC and High Road and one area amateur team, Battley Harley Davidson.
Strong teams are present, hoping to get this prestigious win on their palmares. Rock Racing led by last year's winner Rahsaan Bahati and Fast Freddie Rodriguez. CSC with Edvald Boasson-Hagen, Greg Henderson and Roger Hammond. Colavita/Sutter Home's sprinter Seba Haedo with his very successful leadout train, Successful Living duo of Charles Dionne and Alessandro Bazzana, Kelly Benefit/Medifast with Kelly Cup winner David Veilleux and Keven Lacombe, Health Net-Maxxis with Kirk O'Bee and Rory Sutherland and Slipstream's Tyler Farrar.
Other riders to watch include Scott Zwizanski (Bissell), Jon Cantwell (Jittery Joe's), Bobby Lea (Rite Aid), Nick Sanderson (Jelly Belly), Team Type 1's Emile Abraham and Shawn Milne, Maxime Vives (Calyon) and Jon Hamblen (Time). The always dangerous Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United) will be riding solo as his team sent the other big hitters to the Tulsa Tough series.
The start list for the women's race is not published yet (unfortunate but typical). The teams present include Aaron's, Cheerwine, Colavita Sutter/Home, Tibco, ValueAct, Advil-Chapstick, Van Deissel, PCIM, Kenda and High Road.
Three of the top women racing have an impressive combined resume: six wins and 13 podiums; 6 USPRO Criterium Championships; multiple Olympic appearances; and well over a hundred victories around the world. This is the first time in the event's 11 year history that all three will compete in the same field.
Defending champion Laura Van Guilder (Cheerwine) has participated in all but two of the races held in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, and enjoys the technicality of the course. "Experience at this race will make a difference. You need to be able to read the field to know when you can go with a break, or sit in a wait for the bunch sprint," says Van Gilder, who has won this race three times.
USA National Criterium Champion Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) won the CSC Invitational in 2006, just ahead of Van Guilder. "I always feel that I can step up my game in Arlington," Pic says. "The Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light Team has been working together extremely well this year. We are psyched to do the race and have a lot of cards to play."
Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (High Road) has won twice at the CSC Invitational, both as solo breakaways. In 2001 she demonstrated her renowned strength by lapping the field twice. She just put in a very strong performance in Montreal helping her teammate Judith Arndt win her second World Cup.
The amateur races start at 8:15am, the women's pro/1/2 race at 10:15, kid's races at 11:45am and finally the men's pro race starts a 12:15pm.
Judith Arndt wins the Montreal World Cup
Last year, Judith Arndt (High Road) crashed at 300 meters from the finish line at the Montreal World Cup and finished in third place.
This year, with the help of her teammates including Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, the current World Cup leader Arndt came through by outsprinting defending champion Fabiana Luperini (Menikini), after three hours, eleven minutes and thirty-three seconds in the saddle to win the 11e Coupe du monde de cyclisme féminin de Montréal (Montreal World Cup). Thirty-two seconds later, Leigh Hobson (Canadian National Team) finished in third place.
"Today was really hard, especially with the weather and the roads but our plan was to be aggressive and we did that. Ina [Teutenberg] was out there solo for most of the race and when she got caught, Chantal [Beltman] and Kim [Anderson] attacked.” said Arndt in the High Road team report.
Under pouring rain which stopped during the race, the 123 women started off on very wet and slippery roads for the eleven laps of the seventh World Cup in Montreal. No attacks were successful until Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (High Road) launched from the field on the second lap, and she was off the front gaining a maximum gap of a bit over one minute before being reeled in six laps later, which allowed Arndt and her teammates to rest as much as possible in the field.
With only 2 laps to go, American Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce) attacked, and immediately Arndt, Luperini, Emma Pooley (Specialized Designs for Women) and Sara Carrigan (Australian National Team) jumped on her wheel. Canadians Anne Samplonius, Erinne Willock and Leigh Hobson bridged up to create a group of eight. Arndt attacked on the final climb and only Luperini was able to follow, and the one-on-one sprint was on with Arndt taking the victory.
This is the fifth time in six years that Arndt has been on the podium in Montreal, and her second time on the top step after her win in 2006.
Arndt, with this second World Cup win, after Ronde van Vlaaderen, has increased her lead on top of the overall World Cup Standings with four races left on the calendar.
With her podium placement, Hobson should have ensured her spot at the Olympic Games with Alex Wrubelski, the third rider is still to be named.
Final Results. Photos on cyclingnews.
Tulsa Tough Blue Dome Results
As expected, the 9-man Toyota-United squad controlled the first crit of the Tulsa Tough series, the Blue Dome, and swept the podium. And managed an Australian sweep too.
After lapping the 84-man field with 4 other riders, Hilton Clarke crossed the line first, followed by his teammates Caleb Manion and brother Jonnie Clarke. Dan Holloway (VMG/Felt) was fourth and Jeff Hopkins (Team Inferno) was fifth. And 3 more Toyota-United riders in sixth, seventh and eighth positions.
It was a tighter race in the pro women's race. Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) pipped Shelley Olds (Proman) to take the win with Jen McRae (Advil/Chapstick) in third. Allyson Brandt (Cheerwine) was fourth and Bri Kovac (Team Revolution) was fifth.
Full results here.
Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine sur route UCI
For the eleventh year, Montreal is holding a Women's World Cup event, on Saturday May 31. The seventh event in the World Cup series is the last race to be held before the Olympics selection rules kick in, as far as the number of riders that can represent their country.
At midday, the women will face 11 laps of a 10km circuit that will start & finish at Park Avenue, and will skirt around Jeanne-Mance park.
The best cyclists, from 23 teams, are in Montreal to contest this race. The squads participating include both trade teams and national teams. Italian Fabiana Luperini with her Menikini squad will have her work cut out to defend her title. High Road is bringing a very strong squad with Word Cup leader Judith Arndt, 2005 World Champion Oenone Wood and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg who is currently ranked seventh in World Cup points.
Other women to watch are the always strong Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, second at Mt Hood, American Kristin Armstrong leading her Cervelo-Lifeforce team, New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco), stage winner at Mt Hood.
Canada is currently ranked thirteenth in the UCI Nation Rankings and by virtue of being in the top 16, will be able to send 3 athletes for the road race. The Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) is basing the athlete selection on the World Cup Standings, and Alex Wrubleski (Webcor) is pretty set in the top position. Fighting for the other 2 spots are second placed Erinne Willock (Webcor), Anne Samplonius (Canadian National Team), Sue Palmer-Komar (Advil/Chapstick), Leigh Hobson (Canadian National Team), Felicia Gomez (Aarons) and Julie Beveridge (Aarons). So what does all mean? It means that the race will be even tougher, and to top it off, rain is in the forecast.
Rider Starlist.
Tulsa Tough - 3 days, 3 crits, $150K in cash prizes
The third edition of the Tulsa Tough starts tomorrow, Friday May 30th in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tulsa Tough is more that just a race, it's a riding festival that includes a leisurely ride before the race, and the Children's Hospital Tough Kids Challlenge & Bike Give-away. This year, the organization, with the assistance of the Children's hospital at st-Francis is giving away 300 Trek bikes and a helmet to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. And to make sure the kids would have fun on their bikes, they had to complete a Safe Escape program and a Skills & Drills Bicycle Safety class. Sweet.
The racing is comprised of 3 criteriums and an overall points omnium.
The series starts on Friday evening with the QuikTrip Blue Dome Criterium held on a challenging figure-eight course. The eight 90-degree corner 3/4 mile (1.2km) course passes nearly every bar and club in the Blue Dome District, pretty convenient. (course map)
The second crit, the Brady Village Criterium, on May 31st is part of the NRC for the women and also counts for the USA Crits series for both the men and the women. The L-shaped course with 6 corners over 8/10 mile (1.3km) in the historic Brady Arts district. (course map)
The third and last crit, the technical Riverview Criterium, includes a short but challenging climb and right-hand hairpin curve in a residential neighborhood. In the two previous years, the men's race followed the same pattern, a small break stayed away until the finish, we'll see if it happens again this year. (course map)
The weather will also play a factor in the racing, the riders will face hot and humind conditions with chances of rain and thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday. Last year, the women's race on Friday night had to be shortened due to thunderstorms.
In 2007, Successful Living dominated the series, winning 2 of the crits, and swept the overall series podium with Ricardo Escuela (1st), Alessandro Bazzana (2nd) and JR Grabinger (3rd). This year, the team is focused on NRC points and is not sending a full team, but another team is hoping to dominate.
For the first time ever, Toyota-United team is sending 9 riders to tackle the Tulsa Tough, some serious fire power to control the sprint including Ivan Dominguez, Ivan Stevic, ace lead out man Henk Vogels and sweeper Hilton Clarke. Of note, Dominguez took a small break to welcome his beautiful baby boy - congratulations.
Other teams hoping to pull out a win against the red, white & blue juggernaut are THF Racing, Team Inferno, TxTough/Team Hotel San Jose and Mercy Cycling. Silver medalist at the points race at the 2008 Pan-American Championships, Dan Holloway (VMG/Felt), Michael Cody (Jelly Belly) and Chuck Coyle (Successful Living) will be playing the jokers, trying to fly under radar and surprise everyone with little or no teammates to help them.
On the women's side, the battle will be on between the New Zealand's Jazz Apple Cycling Team with Suzy Pride and Alison Shanks, Cheerwine with Kelly Benjamin and Vanderkitten team. Other riders to watch include Jen McRae (Advil/Chapstick), winner of 2 stages in 2007, Monique Hanley (Team Type 1) who just finished third at the Kelly Cup and Shelley Olds (Proman).
More info:
Riders pre-registered.
Good coverage by Tulsa World
2006 and 2007 results available on usacycling.org
Next up, Tulsa Tough, Montreal World Cup and CSC Invitational
In the final stretch to Philly week, and with the time closing fast to be selected to the Olympic Games, once again, teams and riders have to make choices as far as which race to compete in. Tulsa Tough Ride & Race in Tulsa, OK, the Women's World Cup in Montreal, Canada or the CSC Invitational in Arlington, VA.
Starting on Friday May 30th, 2008 is the third edition of the Tulsa Tough Ride & Race which has 3 criteriums and includes multiple events for the community such as tour riding, Tulsa Townie fun ride. The second race on May 31st is part of the NRC for the women and also counts for the USA Crits series for both the men and the women. In 2008, the organizers doubled the prize money to $150K, which makes the race the second-largest prize weekend in the US, behind Chicago.
At the same time, the Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine sur route UCI (Women’s Cycling World Cup) will be held for the eleventh time in Montreal on May 31st. Montreal hosts the only road cycling World Cup event to take place on the American continent, and is one of the last events on UCI’s calendar before the Olympic games. Therefore another chance to collect the all important UCI points for the Olympic Games selection.
And then, we finish up the weekend with the NRC-ranked CSC Invitational, in its eleventh edition on Sunday, June 1st.
Interestingly, Toyota-United is sending a full 9-man team, including Ivan Stevic and Ivan Dominguez, to the Tulsa Tough events, and only has one rider (Dominique Rollin) pre-registered for CSC Invitational. Are they looking for the big paycheck - for example, last year Successful Living's Ricardo Escuaela, JR Grabinger and Alessandro Bazzana pocketed a combined $16470 after 3 days - or is the team wooing a new sponsor in the area? The other top teams are focusing their full squads on the Arlington race.
On the women's side, a very strong contingent is heading to Montreal, but some are also sending smaller teams to CSC to cover all bases. And to complicate things even more, the Tour du Grand Montréal is scheduled to start on June 2nd, and the first race for Philly week starts on June 3rd, but that's for another post.
Quick recap - NRC and USA Pro Tour Standings
With 11 men’s races and 13 women’s events on the 2008 NRC completed, the top 5 are:
Men's Individual Standings
1. Rory Sutherland (AUS/Health Net-Maxxis) 976
2. Ted King (Brentwood, N.H./Bissell) 407
3. Darren Lill (RSA/BMC) 350
4. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Watsonville, Calif./Bissell) 338
5. Sebastian Haedo (ARG/Colavita-Sutter Home) 321
Men's Team Standings
1. Health Net Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis 1726
2. Colavita/Sutter Home Men's Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light 1271
3. Bissell Pro Cycling Team 1214
4. Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 1032
5. Successfulliving.com presented by Parkpre 840
Women's Individual Standings
1. Leah Goldstein (CAN/Valueact Capitol) 596
2. Felicia Gomez (CAN/Aaron's) 576
3. Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./High Road) 550
4. Julie Beveridge (CAN/Aaron's) 547
5. Leigh Hobson (CAN/Cheerwine) 540
Women's Team Standings
1. Cheerwine Professional Cycling Team 2207
2. Aaron's Cycling Team 1617
3. Colavita/Sutter Home Women's Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light 1389
4. Team Tibco 1133
5. Valuact Capitol Cycling Team 780
Following the completion of the first four events on the USA Cycling Pro Tour, the top 5 are:
Individual Standings
1. Levi Leipheimer (Santa Rosa, Calif./Astana) 244
2. Konstantin Sivtsov (BLR/High Road) 140
3. Trent Lowe (AUS/Slipstream-Chipotle) 94
4. David Millar (GBR/Slipstream-Chipotle) 84
5. Juan Jose Haedo (ARG/CSC) 83
Team Standings
1. Astana 358
2. Slipstream Chipotle presented by H30 338
3. High Road 309
4. Team CSC 242
5. Toyota United Pro Cycling Team 96
See usacycling.org for complete 2008 NRC Individual and Team Standings
Tour of Somerville - Colavita/Sutter Home sweep
Tina Pic and Seba Haedo, both of Colavita/Sutter Home won the 65th annual Tour of Somerville, the oldest, continuous major bicycle race in the United States, in new Jersey today.
The name of the game was the lead out train.
The women raced aggressively on the 15-lap, 20-mile course of the 'Kentucky Derby of Cycling', but no breaks were allowed to go, and 67 riders came blasting in the last few laps. And the Colavita/Sutter Home set up their lead out train trying to control the speed, and even though it was a bit chaotic at the end, USA National Crit Champion Pic came through.
The overall USA Crits Speek week winner - and five-time U.S. national criterium champion - Pic outsprinted Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) and Erica Allar (Aaron's) to take her third win at Somerville. Lauren Franges (Tibco) came in fourth place.
Attacks fired from the beginning of the 36-lap, 50-mile men's race, on the flat, four-corner course, hit with gusting winds. The Colavita/Sutter Home team survived all attacks and crashes, one crash with 30 laps and the other with 6 laps to go. But Colavita/Sutter Home didn't flinch and set up their train to win the Tour of Somerville for the first time, as Sebastian Haedo crossed the line first with his teammate Kyle Walmsey, 2005 winner, in second and Jonathan Page (Battley Harley Davidson) was third.
Silver medalist at the 2007 World Cyclocross Championships, Page rides with the Battley Harley-Davidson team in select UCI and NRC events to prepare and train for his 2008-2009 UCI World Cup Cyclo-Cross season.
Race reports and photos on cyclingnews and velonews. Local coverage of all races, not just the pro on My Central Jersey site. Photos from John S on shutterfly
Full results on usacycling.org
Tolleson and Samplonius win at Tour de Leelanau
On Saturday, the 4th annual Tour de Leelanau was held in Michigan.
BMC's Taylor Tolleson came out victorious in the fifth race on the USA Pro Tour Calendar, oustprinting his breakaway companions, with Ben Jacques-Maynes and Teddy King, both of Bissell, rounding off the podium.
As expected, the battle was fought between the three pro teams Bissell, Successful Living and BMC with Bissell feeling the heat as the defending champion with Garrett Pelotonen, and because their title sponsor, Bissell is based in Michigan.
The point-to-point 109-mile (177 km) road race, with 5 KOMs, that runs through much of the Leelanau Peninsula, lived up to its reputation as being tough. Combined with rainy weather, it was a race of attrition as only 48 riders finished.
A 16-man break was formed after about 72 km (45 miles) and included multiple representatives from the top teams, and it was constant attacking to try and dwindle the numbers. With just 20 km to go, five riders escaped from the break, Tolleson along with teammate Darren Lill, Bissell pair Jacques-Maynes and King, and the lone representative from Sucessfull Living, fast man Charles Dionne.
“In the last 20 km, there were a lot of attacks and Darren did a fantastic job; we really helped each other,” Taylor explained in the team report. “I felt confident going into the sprint since it was a longish uphill run into the finish, which is the sort of thing I usually like.”
After breaking his elbow at the Sequoia Classic back in March, Canadian Dionne came back to racing at the Mt Hood Classic last week where he was wearing a brace on the final stage.
"It was a relatively which had a lot of hills, a lot of descents and not many flat parts" said Dionne via a sportcom release. "It was a course that I could have won, but if I consider that two weeks ago, on my first race back in Oregon, I found it pretty hard, I'm really happy of the way I could ride."
"I must have had 100% improvement between those two races," added Dionne, who is still focused on making it to the OIympics. "There is a big stretch that is coming up and that is important in the Olympic selection process. I intend to have good results in the coming weeks," said Dionne who's next race is the CSC Invitational.
Cheerwine's Anne Samplonius soloed to victory in the 69.5 mile (113 km) women's race after breaking away from the field after 12 mile (20 km) mark. The Cheerwine strategy was pretty simple, put pressure on the other teams to chase while their sprinter, Laura Van Gilder could rest in the field.
But the field didn't get organized, and Canadian Samplonius made it to the finish with plenty of time to spare. Her teammate Leigh Hobson came in second, over two minutes behind, and New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) finished third.
"For me, (the finish) wasn't very stressful because I was out front by about two minutes," Samplonius told the Record-Eagle paper. "I could sit up and relax. I could crawl up that final hill, so it was fun."Reports & photos on cyclingnews, velonews, and local coverage in the Traverse City Record-Eagle paper.
Final results: Men and Women.
Photos by Gary L Howe, including this beautiful pic of an out of focus Samplonius as she approaches the shadow of the finish line through puffs of pollen.
Spotlight on David Veilleux
In the cyclingnews report, Kelly Cup winner David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) states that he was an underdog because most of the other riders didn't know him. But his win was not a surprise for those who follow the Quebec and Canadian cycling scene.
The 20-year old Veilleux won the U23 Canadian Time Trial championships twice in 2007, and 2006 and the U23 Canadian Road championship in 2006. He also represented Canada to the Worlds for the past 3 years. He joined the Kelly Benefit/Medifast team in 2008 after spending a year with Jittery Joe's.
After spending time playing hockey - yeah not a surprise - Veilleux took up cycling at the age of 11, starting off with mountain biking and then added road to his repertoire. He started to focus on road only at the age of 16 where he joined his first team, and established a working relationship with Louis Garneau. He joined Garneau-sponsored Jittery Joe's in 2007 where along garnering his U23 Canadian title, he also finished second in the Best Young Rider Competition at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.
"I spend an enormous amount of time recruiting, I don't just collect resumes and just take guys, I actually go out and seek them out and work on it all season and David Veilleux, I tried to bring David on the team last year but he stayed, he signed with the Jittery Joe's because of his close relationship with Louis Garneau." said Jonas Carney, Kelly Benefit/Medifast DS.
Veilleux' stated goals for 2008 are to win the U23 Road and Time Trial Championships, get a top 5 placing in the Coupe des Nations race held in Saguenay, Quebec and to finish in the top 40 at the World Championship.
Also of note, just like his teammate Keven Lacombe, is that Veilleux is still in school.
Other Quebec up & comers to watch are Maxime Vives and Eric Boily.
Kelly Cup
Brief results are coming in for the Kelly Cup Pro Race as part of the BikeJam Cycling Festival held Saturday in Baltimore, Maryland.
For the women's race
1. Shontell Gauthier (Colavita/Sutter Home)
2. Morgan Patton (Team Type 1)
3. Monique Hanley (Team Type 1)
The Colavita/Sutter Home team put together its leadout train on the final two laps and brought Gauthier to victory on the flat and fast 20-lap race around a 1-mile (1.2 km) course with an uphill drag to the start/finish line.
Both Patton and Hanley are athletes with Type 1 diabetes. According to Team Type 1, the duo made history, "in what is believed to be the first time two female athletes with Type 1 diabetes have finished on the podium of a national-level women’s bicycle race." Cool.
Patton said that she suffered from low blood sugar during the race and had to nourish herself fast while her teammate covered attacks.
Unfortunately, a crash took out Anna Milkowski (Advil/Chapstick) and she was diagnosed with a broken fibula. Best wishes to Anna
On the men's side,
1. David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit/Medifast)
2. Kyle Walmsley (Colavita/Sutter Home)
3. Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United)
Charging away from a 4-man break, U23 Canadian National Time Trial Champion Veilleux outsprinted Walmsley and Rollin to take his first NRC victory. According to Veilleux, he knew that Rollin was the man to watch so he took his wheel and managed to come around him at the finish.
On his blog, Veilleux states "I am pleased with my result. The team worked very well toghether to ensure that my breakaway would make it to the line. From the start of the season, I have done a lot of work for my teammates and I am satisfiied to see that they can also help me on certain occasions."
Winning Kelly Cup was very important for his team, as Kelly Benefit is a sponsor of the team and of the race.
"The goals for the team for this year, we're going to focus our energies on the races that are important to our sponsors so those would obviously be the biggest races like the Tour of California, Tour de Georgia , Philly Week, all the major, major events in North America. The second thing that we are going to focus on ins going to be the mid-Atlantic, Kelly Benefit Strategies is based out of Baltimore, Medifast is based out of Baltimore so our two biggest sponsors, anything in the mid-Atlantic region or even on the East Coast is going to be a priority for us so ... that's what we are looking at. " said Jonas Carney, Kelly Benefit/Medifast DS earlier this year.
Race report on cyclingnews
Not a holiday weekend for everyone with Leelanau, Kelly Cup and Somerville on the calendar
While a lot of us are off enjoying a long weekend with Memorial Day - a precursor for summer (or sales) - the pro men & women teams will divide their squads to try and conquer the three 1-day races: the Kelly Cup Pro Race as part of the BikeJam Cycling Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, the Priority Health Tour de Leelanau in Michigan, and the Tour of Somerville, in New Jersey.
The Tour de Leelanau moved its race day to Sunday May 25 from last year's September to attract more of the men's pro teams, as the race was conflicting with Tour of Missouri. With a UCI-rating, the race is part of the USA Pro Tour for the men, and NRC for the women.
The one thing that has not been changed is the course, a rolling and tough point-to-point 109-mile (177 km) road race that runs through much of the Leelanau Peninsula. The men will face 7 intermediate Sprints and 5 KOMs including the steep (21% gradient) climb up Tower Road at mile 60 (km 97).
The women will race 69.5 miles (113 km) and face 6 intermediate Sprints and 4 KOMs including Tower Road.
It's a tough race. Last year, only half of the 88-man strong field crossed the finish line and only 22 riders were not timed-cut.
Power riders will be looking to make a mark. On the men's side, the battle will probably be between the 3 strong teams of Bissell, BMC and Successful Living.
Defending champion Garrett Peltonen will be counting on his Bissell team for assistance especially Teddy King who is coming a strong spring with a stage win at Joe Martin and 4th Overall at Mt Hood. Extra pressure on the team, as Bissell is based in Michigan.
BMC is sending a full squad led by Tony Cruz and Michigander Brent Bookwalter. Successful Living is bringing Alessandro Bazzana, third at the last stage at Mt Hood and Sea Otter winner JR Grabinger. Other teams to watch are Team RACE Pro with Mark Walters and Rite Aid.
With three races on the same weekend, and with the upcoming Philly week, the women's field only shows 48 registered riders.
Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) riding a streak of victories through USA Crits Speek Week and two stage wins at Mt Hood, is returning to defend her title. While everyone is watching Pic, her teammate MacKenzie Woodring, Leelanau winner in 2007 and 2006, might surprise everyone. Second last year, Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) is hoping to move up to the top step, and Tibco's Joanna Kiesanowski, Sprint winner at Mt Hood, is one to watch.
Others to watch are: 2008 Collegiate Nationals Criterium Champion Julie Bellerose (Cascades), second in 2005 and 2006, and third in 2007. Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Verducci/Breakaway Racing) winner of the 2007 Chris Thater Memorial Criterium.
More info - check out
- Tour de Leelanau blog
- Garrett Peltonen talks about Tour de Leelanau on youtube
- House the bikers, feed the bikers in Glen Arbor Sun
On Saturday, May 24th, is the flat and fast criterium, the Kelly Cup Pro Race.
As one of their team sponsors is also the race sponsor, the Kelly Benefit/Medifast is bringing a full squad with fast men Martin Gilbert, Keven Lacombe and David Veilleux, second at last week's Wilmington Grand Prix. Colavita/Sutter Home's leadout train is hoping to bring Annibal Borrajo or Seba Haedo to the line first.
Other riders and teams to watch are Wilmington Grand Prix winner Scott Zwizanski (Bissell), Bobby Lea (Rite Aid), Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) and Francois Parisien (Symmetrics). Last year's winner Hilton Clarke is not listed on the roster but his Toyota-United teammate Dominique Rollin is riding solo, training for the upcoming Philly week.
On the women's side, last year's winner Laura Van Gilder is also not listed on the roster. Riders to watch are Wilmington Grand Prix winner Laura McCaughey (Juice+), Nichole Wangsgard (Colavita/Sutter Home), Anna Milkowski (Advil/Chapstick), and Rushlee Buchanan (Tibco).
The fun continues on Monday with the Tour of Somerville, the oldest bicycle race in the United States which has been held on Memorial Day for the past 60+ years. The men race 50 miles on a flat, four corner course, and the women do 20 miles.
Most of the same riders and teams that are racing Kelly Cup will also do Tour of Somerville. The online pre-registered riders also include Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) and Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home). And Ed Beamon, Team Type 1 DS is also listed as a pre-registered rider, he is a Jersey boy, so we'll see.
Note that the Tour of Somerville will be the last race for Parisien with Symmetrics as he will be joining Team RACE Pro on June 1st in his attempt to garner UCI points to make it to the Olympics (from CanadianCyclist.com).
More info - check out
Wilmington Grand Prix and NRC standings
While the Mt Hood Cycling Classic was happening in Oregon, the Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix was held last weekend in Delaware. On only its second year, the race was added to the NRC calendar in 2008. The course was a .9-mile rectangle in the heart of the city, 4 corner affair with slight false flats and winds, howling through the gaps in between the buildings. The pro/1 men raced for 50 miles (56 laps), and the pro/1/2 women for 30 miles (33 laps).
Along with his teammates João Correia and Steven Howard, Pensylvannia-native Scott Zwizanski (Bissell) came in motivated to do well in a race he used to do as an amateur. His attack launched the creation of the break which grew to about 15 riders after 30 minutes of racing. The break included 4 riders from Colavita/Sutter Home, two riders from Kelly Benefit/Medifast and riders from the Battley Harley Davidson, Rite Aid and Time Pro teams.
With 10 laps to go, the break was whittled to 6 riders, and the intra-break attacks started.
With less than 2 laps to go, Zwizanski gave it a go one more time, and this time, it stuck. Zwizanski soloed to victory for his first NRC win with David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) coming into second, and Tyler Wren (Colavita/Sutter Home) third.
Zwizanski is no stranger to solo wins this year, as he did the same move with 5 laps to go at the Santa Cruz Classic Criterium in April.
Earlier this season, Zwizanski described himself as hard one-day racer. "I have good endurance, I'm not much of a sprinter, I'm much more of a break away type, long hard day type of guy."
Zwizanski is honing his form before Philly week, his personal goal for the year, especially the race in Philadelphia itself. "That race is the reason I became a bike racer you know, watching it in high school got me interested in cycling."
With the help of her teammates Holli Steelman and Rachel Warner, JuicePlus+'s Laura McCaughey outmaneuvered Jennifer McRae (Advil-Chapstrick) and sprinter ace Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) to claim the first NRC victory for the team at the Trellist Women’s Pro/1/2 race.
Warner came immediately to the front of the field and set a high pace from the start of the race. Only two riders managed to escape, Van Gilder and McRae. As Warner was fading, Steelman helped McCaughey bridge to the duo in front, and the women were off for the rest of the race. With less than 200 meters to go, the Australian national scratch race champion McCaughey jumped and outsprinted the other women to victory, with McRae finishing in second, and Van Gilder in third.
With 9 men's races and 11 women's events completed, the top 5 of the NRC standings are:
Men's Individual Standings
1. Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) 976
2. Ted King (Bissell) 407
3. Darren Lill (BMC) 350
4. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) 338
5. Bradley White (Successfulliving.com) 321
Men's Team Standings
1. Health Net Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis 1726
2. Bissell Pro Cycling Team 1214
3. Colavita/Sutter Home Men's Cycling Team p/b Cooking Light 1092
4. Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team 992
5. Successfulliving.com p/b Parkpre 840
Women's Individual Standings
1. Leah Goldstein (Valueact) 596
2. Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) 576
3. Mara Abbott (High Road) 550
4. Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) 547
5. Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) 450
Women's Team Standings
1. Cheerwine Professional Cycling Team 1751
2. Aaron's Cycling Team 1617
3. Colavita/Sutter Home Women's Cycling Team p/b Cooking Light 1204
4. Team Tibco 910
5. High Road 888
Final thoughts about Hood
Health Net-Maxxis' Rory Sutherland is showing amazing form right now, and with two back-to-back wins, starting off with Joe Martin, he has taken a tremendous lead in the NRC standings. More importantly though, Sutherland hopes that these results with help in recruiting a sponsor for next year, as the team is on the final year of their contract.
"That's a huge, pretty big lead in two weeks that I managed to take and I hope that takes a lot of stress of the team for the future as well. We're coming to the end of a sponsorship year, like a lot of teams, there could a disbandment unless something drastic kind of happens and I know that we're not the only team that it's happening in, hopefully we can keep the same guys together, it's a winning formula that works together well. " said Sutherland.
Zajicek, back to racing after being diagnosed and under treatment for Crohn's disease worked hard for his leader and should be a force to reckon with later in the year, probably when he defends at Cascade Classic in July.
The Bissell team showed great tactical sense by forcing breaks and sending threatening riders up the road. The 25-year old Teddy King is coming into his own, winning a stage at Gila and being a GC threat at Hood, finishing in fifth place overall. And Ben Jacques-Maynes is a force to be reckoned with.
Toyota-United showed a depth of sprinters with Hilton Clarke coming to the forefront supported by Ivan Stevic and an onform Caleb Manion is always dangerous when the road starts going up.
The BMC team came in stealth mode and delivered. At just 26 years old, Darren Lill is showing that he is a threat on the overall especially as his timetrialing keeps on improving.
Successful Living team set an aggressive goal at the beginning of the year, to win the NRC team classification. By putting riders in the breaks, and finishing top 10 on stages, the team finished in fifth place on the overall team classification and showed that they are serious about their goal. Also, Charles Dionne was back to racing after breaking his elbow and is looking to win again after two years of injuries and recovery. It will be interesting to see what the Bazzana-Dionne duo can produce at Philly week.
Rock Racing worked cohesively as a team, with David Clinger protecting Doug Ollerenshaw's sprint jersey in the final stages, and Creed sacrificing a spot in the GC when he had a teammate up the road in a break. Speaking of Creed, he rode a great race, finishing in sixth place in the time trial, and in ninth place on the queen stage.
And, the Cal Giant Strawberries team showed that they are one of the top amateur teams in the country, and that there will be a bidding war for U23 Champion Max Jenkins when he's ready to move up to a pro team - or at least there should be.
Kudos to Mitch Trux of Metromint, we shared a looonnnng bus ride, on a yellow school bus, back to the start of the Wy'East stage, over 100 miles in a slow moving vehicle. While the team had multiple riders at the race, Trux was racing the pro/1 event by himself, no support in the feedzones, no ride back to the start.Trux finished in 72th place.
It should be good competition all year long in the women's NRC racing.
The Aaron's team brought in new strong riders in 2008 to bolster their team, and is aiming for the top of the NRC team competition. Great teamwork led by Meredith Miller to support teenager (for a few more weeks) U23 Canadian Time Trial National Champion Julie Beveridge for the overall win.
New arrival to the Tibco team, New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski is using the NRC races for her preparation for the Olympics and will bolster the team in the next two months.
The Colavita/Sutter Home proved that they are the team to watch at crits. Tina Pic dominated the USC Crits Speed Week and won the 2 crits at Hood. Can she and the team continue the streak?
Finally, race director Chad Sperry puts on a great race, and the Mt Tabor crit was a wonderful addition to bring in the Portland bike-crazy folks. Hopefully, more people will show up the for the prologue if it's held in Portland.
Mt Hood Cycling Classic photos can be seen here.
BMC did it the old-fashioned way - no team cars, no mechanics, no radios
The BMC team came in under radar at Mt Hood Cycling Classic, as the race was not an official scheduled race for the team. Six riders decided to go to Oregon on their own to refine their form, and have some fun. Jonathan Garcia, Jackson Stewart, Darren Lill, Mike Sayers, Ian McKissick and Nathan Miller counted only on each other and girlfriends and wives for support.
No stranger to this race, Lill (then riding for Navigators) won the Wy'East stage and finished tenth overall in 2007, and McKissick (riding for Recycled Cycles/Raleigh) claimed fourth overall in 2006.
"We don't have full team support, the guys that are here we came on our own. It's not a team race, just getting some good fitness in, a few guys are here for training, a few of us are definitely here to race. I'm here to race. It's kind of put us in a good position for the week, for my strengths and for the other guys." said Garcia.
That means no truck, no mechanics, no soigneurs, no directeurs, no radios, just old fashioned racing.And the team came out swinging. In the short, pancake-flat prologue Jonathan Garcia placed 2nd, Darren Lill, 6th and Ian McKissick finished 10th.
"I would like to think we were flying under the radar, but I'm not sure that we are. Not now. Jonathan did a really good ride in opening prologue but you can't really fly under the radar after that." said Lill when asked if the team was underestimated.
In the first stage, Lill finished 8th, putting three BMC riders in the top 11 in general classification at less than 10 seconds from the leader before the first climbing stage. Lill attacked in the final climb of the Cooper Spur Circuit race to win stahge 2, and announce to everyone that the team was here to race and win. After three stages, Lill was in the lead with Garcia in ninth place at 17 seconds back."Mike Sayers and myself, Mike is the most senior member on the team, he's got a lot of experience and even though I'm quite young, I do have quite a bit of racing experience. " answered Lill when asked about who was in charge. "Between him and myself, we don't have race radios, it's a little bit difficult and I'm trying to find out time gaps from the motorbikes and things like that, it just makes us ride closer together so we can communicate between the riders, it's actually a good thing sometimes, makes us ride more closely knit as a team."The time trial shuffled the GC as winner Rory Sutherland laid claim to the yellow jersey and Lill found himself in third place, 31 seconds off the lead. McKissick, with a fourth place finish on the TT, moved up to fifth place, at 1:41 from the top, and Garcia dropped down to eleventh.
In the tough 101-mile Wy'East stage with 11,200 feet of climbing, the BMC riders sacrificed themselves to keep Lill in contention. With a dangerous break up the road, they had to help out with the chase, and Lill paid them back by moving up to second place on GC by outsprinting his closest competitors to the finish at Mt Hood ski resort.
As expected, the last stage, a criterium, didn't change the GC and Lill finished in second place overall. Garcia placed thirteenth, and McKissick was twenty-eighth.
"We're having a good time here, I think we're making a good showing." said Lill about racing at Mt Hood Cycling Classic.
Sprinters come out of hiding in the final stage in the Hood
Barring disasters, the GC was set before the final stage of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic, the traditional technical criterium in Hood River.
A final test for the fast twitch muscles, the 1-mile loop that starts off with a sharp right hand turn, quick descent into a left hand curve followed immediately by a sharp right hand turn coming back nearly 120 degrees. Then a long flat straight to gather speed, before a series of three 90 degree right hand turns and then a left that brings the riders back the start/finish line.
Yellow Jersey Rory Sutherland and his team Health Net-Maxxis, including US Criterium Champion Kirk O'Bee, controlled the race and made sure that no threatening riders were allowed to escape. Sutherland and his shadows, second on GC Darren Lill (BMC) and third Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) could be seen at the front third of the field at every lap.
Crash involving Best Young Rider Morgan Schmitt (Bissell) who flew over the hay bail. He was okay and returned quickly to the race.
In the first few loops, the men initiated a break that would actually survive until the end. Lap after lap, riders joined to form a 10-man group. The escapees included familiar names to breaks, Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living), Toyota-United pair Ivan Stevic and Chris Wherry, Dan Bowman (Kelly Benefit/Medifast), Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics), Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe’s), Jesse Moore (Cal Giant), Rock Racing duo of David Clinger and Doug Ollerenshaw looking to lock up the Sprinters Jersey for Ollerenshaw. In a familiar refrain, the last rider to join the break was Teddy King (Bissell).
Canadian Pinfold focused on the final prize
Clinger led out Ollerenshaw in the intermediate Sprints to clinch the overall Sprints competition. Ollerenshaw would try and return the favor, lead out Clinger for the final win but disaster struck for the RR pair.
All the riders in the break worked well together and kept the field at bay until the end. The Heath Net-Maxxis team was happy to let them go and concentrated on keeping tabs on the danger men to Sutherland, Lill, Jacques-Maynes and Mike Creed (Rock Racing).
Health Net-Maxxis at the front of the field
The break was still together in the final lap when the Rock Racing duo crashed with Bazzana and Shirley caught behind them.
Pinfold never looked back, got on Wherry's wheel and outsprinted Stevic for the win. Bazzana was able to sprint back to the break and got third. Stevic was obviously unhappy during the podium ceremony, refusing to shake Pinfold's hand. Here are the photos from the finish, make up your own mind:
Sutherland won his second stage race in two weeks, Lill finished second and Jacques-Maynes third. Even though he crashed, Ollerenshaw won the Sprints classification, Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) won the KOM, Schmitt, the Best Young Rider and Bissell won the overall team classification.
In the women's race, the Colavita/Sutter Home continued with their winning streak with crits. As expected the pace started off high, and US Crit Champion Tina Pic was stuck behind a rider at the start line and had to work her way up to the front.
Keeping the tempo high was Kiesanowski getting the sprints points as she finalized her hold on the Sprinter’s jersey.
Then with a few laps remaining, Jeannie Longo came to the front to start her assault to the finish line. Kim Anderson, riding for the composite team Discover Bicycles/Athletes for a Cure, also gave it a go in the final laps and managed to get a small gap before being reeled in.
Jeannie Longo
Beveridge on her teammate Felicia Gomez' wheel
Pic outsprinted Kiesanowski and Longo, riding for the composite team River City Racing, to cross the line first.
Canadian Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) kept the leader’s jersey even though she crashed in the last 100 meters, as she was given the same time as the field. With time bonuses for third place, Longo moved up to second place on GC bumping three-times Mt Hood winner Leah Goldstein (ValueAct). Amazingly, the 49-year old Longo had already won three World Road Championship before Beveridge was born in 1988.
Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) won the QOM jersey, Beveridge was also the Best Young Rider and the Aaron's team won the best team classification.
A mountain runs through it - Mt Hood Queen stage
The Queen stage of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic was the last opportunity for the contenders to shake up the GC but after all the attacks, no changes to the leader of the overall after Stage 4.
In the men's race, only 31 seconds divided the three men at the top of the classification before the start of the stage, Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) in front of Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) and Darren Lill (BIMC).
The pace was high as soon as the race got started, so much so that the media car was stuck behind the peloton as they started so fast. Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe’s), Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), Symmetrics and Bissell riders and other were all trying to launch the break for the day to challenge the 101 miles with 11,200 feet of climbing course that finished off at Mt Hood Meadows ski resort.
Finally at around 35 miles (56 k) into the race, a 10 man break escaped from the field - Omer Kem (Bissell), Caleb Manion (Toyota-United), Kelly Benefit/Medifast pair of Andy Bajadali and Dan Bowman, Cal Giant teammates James Mattis and U23 National Champion Max Jenkins, Alister Ratcliff (Fiordifrutta), Jamie Sparling (Trek Red-Truck), and Successful Living duo JR Grabinger and Alessandro Bazzana were off. Sensing that this was the right break, Aaron Olson and Teddy King, both from Bissell jumped from the peloton and started to chase. Kem dropped back to assist his teammates.
Bissell trio trying to bridge to break below Mt Hood
At about 50 miles into the stage, the trio connected with the break, and working well together, the dozen riders started to increase the gap to over two minutes. Perfect tactics by Bissell to put pressure on Health Net-Maxxis, as King, with 1:41 from the leader before the start of the stage, became the virtual leader on the road.
Health Net-Maxxis at front of the field, chasing the break
The break continued to work well together and the gap went up to 4 minutes and 15 seconds
The only hiccup in the break, were the KOM and Sprints points, and as soon as the line was crossed, the riders went back to working together.With less than 20 miles to go, and with the gap hovering above 3 minutes, other teams sent riders into the rotation to assist Health Net-Maxxis in trying to reel in the break. BMC sent in two riders to protect Lill's GC position which was threatened by King. Symmetrics also sent in riders, but their motive for doing so is much more nebulous.
BMC and Symmetrics assisting in chase
With 10 miles to go, the gap was down to 2 minutes and 50 seconds. With 3 miles to go, Bazzana, Kem and Bowman came to the front to try and set up their respective teammate for the stage win, and Mattis took advantage of the opportunity.
Mattis attacks the break and Manion chases
“Coming up the climb with 5K to go, and I knew that we were on where the course came in last year, basically three of the teams sent one guy in at front, one guy pulled off and there was a gap behind him, the guys were sort of waiting for the finish, they all started to play games. I just like ‘boom’, and they just sort of looked at each other back there, and Caleb came up.” said Mattis.The field was close on the heels of the disintegrating break, and they could see the pair up ahead in the final uphill meters to the finish. Winner of last year's Wy'East stage, Lill launched an attack to drop Jacques-Maynes on the final climb as the field caught the remnants of the break. GC leader Rory Sutherland jumped on Lill's wheel.
In the final 200 meters, Manion outsprinted Mattis to take the win ahead Sutherland.
Jacques-Maynes could not keep up with Sutherland and Lill, and lost 16 seconds, and moved down to third place on GC.
Sutherland was not firmly established as GC leader before the final stage, the Hood River criterium. In second place, was Lill at 31 seconds back, and in third place Jacques-Maynes at 46 seconds.Bajadali kept the KOM jersey with the help of his teammate Bowman.
The Sucessful Living team was satisfied with the results of today's stage as they moved up from eighth to third place in the team classification, with Brad White finishing at 1:29 from Manion.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to cover both the women's and the men's race during this stage, so no photos.
In the women's race, an early break composed Martina Patella (ValueAct) and Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) was off the front, and the Aaron’s team, driven by Meredith Miller, led the chase. Jeannie Longo added her tremendous power to the chase in the final miles.
"The way the course was laid off, you knew that it was going to come down to the last 2 miles which is a shame because then a lot of time the people will sit around and wait." said Mara Abbott, riding for the composite team Discover Bicycles/Athletes for a Cure.
After praticing patience, Abbott jumped from the field led by a weaving Longo to catch the break of the final climb to Mt Hood Meadows ski resort to win stage 4.
Longo, also riding for a composite team River City Racing, crossed the line 23 seconds behind with GC leader Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) on her wheel. Last year’s overall winner, Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) finished in fourth place, 29 seconds behind Abbott.
Beveridge kept her lead in the overall classification with 13 seconds ahead of Goldstein, and fifteen seconds to Longo. Abbott, in fourth place, reduced her gap to 27 seconds before the final stage.
Sutherland wins Hood TT and takes over lead, Goldstein win TT but Beveridge is still in command
As expected, for the men's race at least, the 18.5-mile time trial with 2 categorized climbs shuffled the GC once again.
Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) won Mt Hood time trial in a decisive manner, stopping the clock with the fastest time of 37:29, with an average speed of 29.61 mph (47.64 kmph). Slotting into second place, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) was 25 seconds slower, and GC leader into the stage, Darren Lill (BMC) finished in third place, at 32 seconds back.
Not only did Sutherland take over the overall lead going into the queen stage, he gave himself a small cushion of 30 seconds over Jacques-Maynes and a second more over Lill.
The riders set a very fast pace from the get go with idyllic conditions including a tailwind, very different circumstances than last year where they faced tough headwinds
"But with the tailwinds as opposed to brutal headwinds, it's a total different race, the climbs are the same, all the pieces in between were radically different, you could sit there and really conserve your energy, hit it when the going is good and save the energy when there's no point. You can pedal hard in the eleven tooth or coast along in the eleven tooth for 1k an hour slower so you lose 5 seconds in the downhill but you gain a minute from saved energy." said Jacques-Maynes cooling down.
Mike Creed (Rock Racing) put in a great ride to finish in sixth place at 1:04 off the winner
As in previous years, Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) put in the best time, stopping the clock at 43:01 with an average speed of 24.83 mph (39.95 kmph). Best Young Rider Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) crossed the line seven seconds off and Jeannie Longo (composite team River City Racing) was eighteen seconds back.
Longo missed by her start by over one minute as her bike, specifically her handle bars did not pass the UCI measurements, and she was forced to change the position.At the finish line, she told me that she had missed her start by 1:20 which would have given her the fastest time and the lead in the overall classification. But the judges did not rule in her favor.
In a new twist in the pro women’s race, the winner of the Mt Hood Time Trial did not take over the general classification at the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Beveridge took over the general classification, with Goldstein moving into second place at seven seconds back, and Longo at fifteen. GC leader Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) crossed the line with a time of 45:04 which pushed her down to sixth place.
Mara Abbott finished in fourth place at 39 seconds
Kiesanowski & Lill win first climbing stage at Hood and take over GC (after stage 2)
The first climbing stage at Mt Hood shuffled the general classification as expected but with no big time gaps, the race is still wide open for the contenders.
The women started off extremely slow in the first of the 3.5 loops of the 18.7-mile circuit, and well it was boring in the caravan. Finally, after 17 miles or so, Helen Kelly (Tibco) broke away and got one minute on the field. Three riders, Rebecca Larson (Aaron’s), Kristin McGrath (Colavita/Sutter-Home) and Alison Shanks (Jazz Apple) bridged up to her, and the break was off with the Cheerwine-led field chasing. After Kelly dropped from the break, the trio was caught in the final lap by the field getting ready for the final uphill sprint.
Aaron's at the front of the field after the break was caught
The eternal Jeannie Longo put in a few attacks on the false flat and then came to the front and set a high tempo. Prologue winner Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) covered every move and outsprinted Longo and Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) to take the win and the yellow leader's jersey. Canadians Julie Beverdige and Felicia Gomez, both of Aaron's round off the top 3 on GC with Longo a close fourth.
Kiesanowski wins the uphill sprint
"Just coming up the last time up the climb, there were lots of attacks, I was pretty much following making sure that I was always in the front selection, just riding top 5 all the way up the climb, just making sure that I was always make the front selection. Longo did an amazingly long leadout, she was extremely strong, I just managed to come around her. " said Kiesanowski .
Longo made it clear in today's stage that she came to race and is interested in the overall win.
As in previous years, a break launched from the men's peloton on the first lap, and included Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefit/Medifast), JR Grabinger (Successful Living), Chris Wherry (Toyota-United), Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell), Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe’s), Oregonians Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), U23 National Champion Max Jenkins (Cal Giant) and two Health Net-Maxxis riders Matt Cooke and Best Young Rider Matt Crane.
Unfortunately, with some riders such as Swindlehurst, Crane and Cooke under orders to sit and not work, the break was doomed from the beginning. The complete Bissell came to the front of the field, leading the chase keeping the gap to less than three minutes trying to keep Ben Jacques-Maynes in contention for the final yellow jersey. GC leader Hilton Clarke and his Toyota-United team were content to sit behind the red train.
Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) announced his KOM ambition by sprinting for the pointsWith the field together, in a perfectly timed attack with 1k to go Darren Lill (BMC) got a gap, put his head and sprinted to the line. On his heels were Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) and Chris Meier (Symmetrics) - oh and the com3 car.
"I saved everything for the final kilometer, and I knew that it was probably the steepest pitch of the whole climb, none of the climbs are really all that steep, the guys are obviously at their most tired, it just flattens out with 200 meters to go and I thought if I could just get over the crest with 200, 250 meters to go with a bit of a gap, I should be able to hold on for the win, I just put my head and prayed like mad, I thought my legs were going to fall off at the end but managed to hold on." said Lill.Lill took over the GC ahead of Sutherland and Jacques-Maynes with only 6 seconds separating the 3 men before the time trial and the queen stage.
Unseasonable warm temperatures made the 85 miles in the saddle, tougher than expected for some riders riders.
"It was a hard day, it's one of those races which is only 85 miles which doesn't so much especially with the descent in it, but it was definitely a lot harder than some teams might have expected. Consistently on the pedals, even on the descent you have to pedal down, there's a crosswind, I think it was pretty hard, definitely a hard stage you could see that by the ... it's not a real climb coming into the finish and it comes in by drips and drabs." said Sutherland.
The contenders came out strong in today's stage, Lill, Sutherland, Jacques-Maynes and maybe Meier.
Apologies for delay in posting reports; multiple and unexpected issues to be dealt with during the race.
The sprinters came out and played at Mt Hood Stage 1
On an absolutely beautiful course in downtown Portland, the sprinters came out and had fun in the Mt Tabor Criterium, stage 1 in the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. The riders went around an extinct volcano surrounded by lush foliage on a 1.3 mile course with 135 feet of elevation.
The riders hit the climb immediately after the start/finish line, then went around a 90 turn and then bombed down the baskside with a final turn back with a slight uphill to the finish line. Not your typical crit, and the crowd loved.
I was started to wonder if Portland was really a bike crazy town as the crowds were disappointing during the Prologue, but they made it for it at the crit. Under sunny skies, they came out and parties, families, tattooed and pierced cyclists and even mountain bikes (ha) cheered on the riders.
The biggest cheers went for the local guys, Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), Evan Elken (Jittery Joe's) and Erik Tonkin (Kona). I always knew when one of the Oregonians tried a move because the screams could be heard all around the course.
Back to the race, the women started off with a high tempo, with Meredith Miller (Aaron's) giving it a go at first, but then Jeannie Longo came to the front and pulled for a few laps (yes laps).
Her husband and coach was screaming at her to keep it going because she was pushing everyone to their limit. Sweet.
Riders were dropped pretty early and then the women settled in, the flurry of attacks decreased in number. A few attacks were still tried but nothing went away.
"I don't know if people are saving it for the rest of the week, I was kind of expecting it more today." said Meredith Miller (Aaron's) when I asked about the low number of attacks during the 60 minute crit.
US Crit Champion Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) was worried when she saw the course the first time during warm up. But that didn't stop her from outsprinting GC leader Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) and Julie Beveridge (Aaron's).
"I was scared of that course when I saw it. First I thought this climb is pretty brutal, it's funny when we got in there, it wasn't so bad because this part you could actually... you had a fair draft coming up, it leveled a bit, really it was just this little bit and in the pack it wasn't as bad as alone. It was actually quite fun, it was a really cool course. It was a surprise." said a very happy Pic afterwards.
Longo came back to the front in the final lap, drilling it again before the sprinters came by her, and she finished in 19th place in the sprint.
Continuing her winning ways Pic picked up the yellow jersey, and celebrated with her whole team."My team did so much work today, as usual, we're really cohesive this year, I sat, I didn't do much today." said Pic.
The crowd was bigger and louder when the men took to the line. Bissell came immediately to the front of the field, patrolling and setting a high tempo, covering anything that moved. Attacks were attempted left and right, and riders tried to placed themselves the top 30 everytime over the climb, and Bissell was feeling the pressure but still nothing went.
On the final laps, Toyota-United came to the front to set up their sprinter Hilton Clarke, according to the pre-race plan.
"We made a pretty good plan before the race if it comes to the sprint to do it for Hilton, and I cover his wheel and see what comes up but at the end we were short with the leadout and I had to move in front and do a leadout for him which was perfect, that was the plan to make him win today, everything went perfect." said Toyota-United's Ivan Stevic.
Clarke crossed the line first with Stevic on his wheel, and Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) in third.
Again, with the time bonuses, Clarke picked up the yellow jersey for his efforts.
"I'm going to plan to win the overall" laughed a delighted Clarke at the end "Just kidding. We're just going to keep racing day by day and see what happens."
Value Act - ready for the Mt Hood Challenge
The ValueAct Capital Professional Women’s Cycling Team came to Mt Hood Cycling Classic with the aim of getting rider Leah Goldstein on the top step of the podium for the fourth-time. In a row.
Last year, while riding for the Symmetrics team, Goldstein along with one and only one teammate Marni Hambleton, took the yellow jersey on the fourth stage, the time trial and successfully defended against onslaught of attacks, especially from the Aaron’s Women Pro Cycling Team. Ironically, Goldstein took the yellow jersey from the ValueAct team.
I caught up with the team prior to the start of the prologue to get their thoughts on the upcoming race.
Read more on RoabBikeReview.com
A track runs through it.... the Mt Hood prologue
Four of the top six in both the pro men's and pro women's races are track specialist or are using the track to help in their training. And no wonder, the riders faced a pancake-flat 1.7 mile course running through the downtown streets of Portland, in an out and back course alongside the Tom McCall River Front Park. The only difficulty was the turn around on wet roads as rain came down all day in Portland and stopped just before the women started at 4pm.
A field of 85 women started, and the top three finishers raced one after each other, the last 5 women to take the course.
Points race specialist, Joanne Kiesanowski, on her second race with her new team Tibco, won the prologue in downtown Portland with a time of 3:08 average a speed of 32. m/hr (52. k/hr). Pursuit specialist Alison Shanks (Jazz Apple) came in second with less than a second behind the winner. The two women, both from New Zealand, are using the races in North America to refine their form before the Olympics warm ups.
"I rode the course a lot of times before, I just went around and around it. I just knew that I had to have a good turn around, it was important not to lose too much time around there, just went hard." said Kiesanowski.
Rounding off the podium is Dotsie Bausch (Colavita/Sutter Home), also not a stranger to the track, as she has just returned - the day before - from the Pan American Championships with a gold medal in the Women’s 3000 meter Individual Pursuit.
Returning champion Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) was joking before the race that she just wanted to finish in the top 50 as a short, flat prologue is not her strong point. She finished in 14th position, seven seconds behind the leader, and just ahead of French powerhouse Jeannie Longo. Climber Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) put in a great result, finishing just 2 seconds behind. In preparation for this Olympic year, Felicia had been working on her time trial position and it's showing.
On the men's side, a huge field of 244 riders were ready for their race of truth with the first rider starting at 6pm. The 175th rider Jonathan Garcia (BMC) set a fast time of 2:48.700 which stood at the fastest time until powerhouse Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), the third to last rider to leave the start gate, put in a 3 seconds faster ride.
With his 2:45.45 time, BJM pushed out an average speed of 37 mi/h (59 km/h).
"I found the biggest gear I could and muscled it all the way into the line." said BJM. After Tour of the Gila, where he helped his teammate Burke Swindlehurst finish second overall, BJM came home and got in some practice on the track. "I went to the track on Friday, I was working on my 5k efforts, I did a couple of miss and outs, scratch races, perfect. Hit the power, leave it on and see what happens."
In third place, was Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) happy to be back to racing after working on knee problems for the past 6 (or was it 9) months.
Joe Martin winner and current NRC leader, Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) finished five seconds behind BJM. Sutherland flew in from Arkansas on Sunday.
The race is still wide open, and most protagonists think that the Time Trial and the Wy'East stages will be decisive. However, today's stage, the Mt Tabor Criterium is reputed to be much tougher than it looks on paper. The women will race for 60 minutes and the men 90 minutes over extremely winding course with nearly 135 feet of elevation for every 1.3 mile lap.
Women's Prologue Race Report, Men's Prologue Race Report
Mt Hood Cycling Classic Preview
The scenic 6th annual Mt Hood Cycling Classic returns bigger than ever as one of only three UCI women’s point races in the United States making it a very important stopping point for the women hoping to earn a selection for the Olympics. On the men's side, the race also earned the highest ranking, a 2.1, on the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar (NRC).
Race director Chad Sperry moved the two beginning stages to cycling friendly, or is that cycling crazy, downtown Portland to increase its potential spectator count. But mother nature also made an appearance and forced another course change. With 20 miles of road still covered in 3-4 feet of snow, the Stage 4 - Wy’East Road Race had to be revised, and a new course was created. As the official site says, 'Welcome to the dry side of the Cascade Mountain Range.' The new point to point stage will start near sea level and finish at the Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort at 5,500-foot elevation.
With UCI points on the line, it will be a full on battle on the women's race. Three-time defending champion Leah Goldstein is returning, hoping to make it four times in a row, and this time she'll have more than one teammate to assist her. Coming off a win at Tour of the Gila, Goldstein is looking to her new team, ValueAct for support, including track specialist, Australian Katie Mactier, winner of two stages in 2007.
Last year, the Aaron's team put 3 riders in the top 4 in the overall classification, won the QOM with Felicia Gomez and only the top step of the podium eluded them. This year, the aim is to get that overall and the team is coming with good form after placing three riders in the top 10 at Gila, Kristin Sanders, Julie Beverige and Gomez.
Another strong team is Cheerwine bringing second place at Gila, Leigh Hobson, Canadian Anne Samplonius and climber Marisa Asplund-Owens. Berveley Harper riding as a guest rider with Touchstone has done well in the past, finishing in fifth place last year as a solo rider. Colavita/Sutter Home with USA Crits Speed Week dominatrix Tina Pic is one to watch in any bunch sprint finish, especially the criterium.
The unknown coming into the race is the composite UCI team including High Road duo of Kim Anderson and Mara Abbot, and the unstoppable, 49-year old Jeannie Longo with an amazing palmares - 4 times medalist at the Olympic games, including a gold medal in 1996, 5 times Road Race World Champion, 4 times Time Trial World Champion, 3 times Track World Champion, 14 times French Road Race Champion starting in 1979 and her last win was in 2006,....
On the men's side, with defending champion Nathan O'Neill out on suspension for a doping violation, last year's (and in 2006) second place finisher Phil Zajicek will wear #1 for the Health Net-Maxxis team. Working with a on form Rory Sutherland, winner of the Joe Martin Stage Race, Zajicek is aiming for the win.
According to Zajicek, his main competitor is Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes, who finished third last year. Jacques-Maynes will be able to count on a strong team including Burke Swindlehurst, second at Gila, Aaron Olson and Oregonian Omer Kem. Tom Zirbel originally scheduled to start the race was injured in a crash at Gila and will be back later this year.
Rock Racing's Cesar Grajales is finally starting his first race of the season after being injured during training camp. The Colombian climber's team also includes Oregonian Dougie Ollerenshaw and Australian track specialist Peter Dawson.
Toyota-United is sending a team made for stage wins with sprinters and brothers Jonnie and Hilton Clarke, climber Justin England, and GC contender Chris Baldwin and Ben Day. The ever aggressive Symmetrics' team can be counted on for attacks and counter attacks, look for Chris Meier to light it up.
Other teams in the mix are Kelly Benefit/Medifast led by Andy Bajadali and strong time trialist Reid Mumford, Jittery Joe's with Neil Shirley, Successful Living with Brad White, sixth place at Gila, and BMC's Ian McKissick who finished fourth overall in the 2006 Mt Hood race.
Other names to animate the race are Kahala-LaGrange's Matt Seagrave, local Kona's Ryan Trebon and the rumored presence of Astana's Chris Horner also from Oregon.
The stages. The 1.7 mile prologue runs through the downtown streets of Portland, in an out and back course alongside the Tom McCall River Front Park.
Stage 1 on Wednesday, the riders will be challenged by the Mt Tabor Criterium. The women will race for 60 minutes and the men 90 minutes over extremely winding course with nearly 135 feet of elevation for every 1.3 mile lap.
Stage 2 is the Cooper Spur Circuit Race, the first test of the climbing legs, with 1750 feet of climbing for each 18.7-mile circuit as the riders work their way through the fertile farmland and orchards of the upper Hood River Valley and into an alpine setting at Cooper Spur Resort. The pro men will complete 4.5 circuits for a total of 9000 feet of climbing and the pro women will complete 3.5 circuits with 7150 total feet of climbing.
The Scenic Gorge Time Trial. The 18.5 mile Stage 3 starts off with a flat 5 miles before the first obstacle, 2-mile (cat 3) climb up the Rowena Loops. The road gradually descends into the town of Mosier, and then back up a cat 4 climb to the Historic Mosier Tunnels, than finish off with 5 miles of rolling terrain to the finish line. Beautiful scenery but I doubt that the riders will see any of it.
Stage 4, the now changed Wy’East Road Race. The pro men's course starts off with rolling terrain before hitting the cat 2, KOM Tygh Ridge Summit. Then a plunge down to the valley, and the definitive climb of the race, a 35-mile, 4500-feet ascent to the summit finish at Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort. The final two-mile stretch to the ski resort has an average gradient of 10%, including sections that approach 12 percent. The pro men will cover 101 miles with 11,200 feet of climbing and the women will cover 74 miles and 8000 feet.
The final stage, the Downtown Hood River Criterium. Stage 5 is a technical crit with tight corners over a 1mile loop that starts off with a sharp right hand turn, quick descent into a left hand curve followed immediately by a shard right hand turn coming back nearly 120 degrees. Then a long flat straight to gather speed, before a series of three 90 degree right hand turns and then a left that brings the riders back the start/finish line. And then they get to do it again, the men raced for 75 minutes and the women for 50 minutes.
2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Schedule
Chat with Phil Zajicek
 |
Chat with Health-Net Maxxis' Phil Zajicek who's been battling a disease almost all his career. It was finally diagnosed as Crohn's disease and now he's back at full strength and really wants to win this race. "I feel great, I'm going to Hood to win it. " said Zajicek. Posted on RoadBikeReview.com |
| Photo by Ken Conley |
Getting ready for Mt Hood Cycling Classic - Longo is in town
Greetings from Troutdale, Oregon. The teams are starting to trickle in, bikes are being assembled in parking lots, and riders are limbering up their legs.
I've just found out that the amazing Jeannie Longo - 4 Olympic medals, 9 Road World Championships, 4 Gold medal in World Track, ..... - is racing Mt Hood as part of a composite UCI team with Mara Abbott.
More to come soon on Mt Hood.
Sutherland repeats, Health Net four-peats and Cheerwine owns the podium at Joe Martin
Health Net-Maxxis won the overall general classification of the Joe Martin Stage Race for the 4th year in a row, with Rory Sutherland successfully defending his title.
The final stage, a criterium held in downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas, held on a technical 1.3-mile, 8-corner course concluded, as expected, with a bunch sprint to the line. Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita/Sutter Home) won his second stage ahead of Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis) and Anibal Borrajo (Colavita/Sutter Home).
The Health Net-Maxxis squad controlled the race from the beginning when Sutherland won the initial Time Trial prologue with a small lead 10 seconds, and then finished second on the next stage and grabbed those important bonus seconds to increase his lead to 20 seconds. His team protected the lead and chased down all breaks in the remaining stages.
“The guys are well-drilled in defending leads,” noted directeur sportif Jeff Corbett (in the team press release), who has guided the team to all four of those wins. “Everyone on the team was there to defend Rory’s lead last year, and Kyle (Gritters) and Tim (Johnson) were here in ’06 as well. There was never any concern that our guys wouldn’t be able to defend the lead.”
Rory Sutherland won the general classification with Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly) rounding off the podium.
Colavita/Sutter Home took the overall team classification ahead of Health Net-Maxxis and Team Type 1.
With her nine minute cushion going into the final stage, Robin Farina concentrated on finishing safely to win the overall GC, which she did protected by Cheerwine squad. But the squad also wanted to win the stage and move their other riders up onto the podium and so they raced aggressively. Their tactics worked almost perfectly.
Nichole Wangsgard (Colavita/Sutter Home) outsprinted the Cheerwine duo Laura Van Gilder and Catherine Cheatley to win the stage.
Cheerwine swept the overall general classification, Robin Farina on the top step, Catherine Cheatley in second place and Laura Van Gilder in third place.
With their two stage wins, and lead in the overall GC, Cheerwine also won the overall team classification ahead of Team Revolution and Team Kenda Tire.
Full results here.
Teddy King wins Joe Martin stage 3; Robin Farina's nine minute break shuffles the GC
Going into the third stage of the Joe Martin Stage Race on Saturday, May 10, leader Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) only had 20 seconds buffer ahead of Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home).
With 24 riders separated with less that one minute in the general classification, attacks came early to put pressure on the Health Net-Maxxis team, as the contenders were hoping that the team had been weakened by the chase on the previous day. But as with previous years, the stage ended with a bunch sprint.
Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1) and Luis Amaran (Colavita/Sutter Home) escaped in the first of the three 23-mile loop and managed to establish a gap of over 2 minutes. The field led by the Health Net-Maxxis squad was happy to let them dangle in front until the last lap when the duo was reeled in. As the sprinters' train were forming, Bissell's Teddy King timed his attack perfectly and used the downhill to the finish line to his advantage to win his first NRC race of his career. Sebastian Haedo (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) crossed the line in second and third place, with Sutherland finishing in the same time and keeping his leader's jersey.
A completely different scenario occurred in the women's race, Catherine Cheatley (Cheerwine) started as the leader with a 9 seconds lead, and her teammate Robin Farina won the stage and took over the lead with over 9 minutes gap over her closest competitor.
Farina escaped from the field on the first of two laps and never looked back. The field under the direction of second placed Mackenzie Woodring and her Colavita/Sutter Home squad couldn't get organized to chase and the gap kept on growing. Then the women's field has to be neutralized, ie stopped, to let the pro men's field pass through. Farina crossed the finish line, alone with a gap of over 10 minutes.
The field came barreling in, getting ready for the field sprint won by Farina's teammate Laura Van Gilder and Woodring came in third.
Robin Farina is no stranger to breakaways as she was off the front in a suicide breakaway for a few laps of the 2007 Commerce Bank Reading Classic, and finished 15th for her efforts that day.
Farina took over the GC lead with a huge gap of 9:35 over her teammate Cheatley and 9:39 over Woodring.
Full results here.
Haedo and Van Gilder win Joe Martin stage 1; Sutherland & Cheatley in the lead
After over four hours in the saddle and over 5,400 feet of climbing, Colavita/Sutter Home pulled out another bunch sprint, this time with Sebastian Haedo crossing the line first, with the Health Net-Maxxis duo Rory Sutherland and John Murphy breathing down his neck.
By finishing second in Stage 2 of the Joe Martin stage race, Sutherland gained an extra 10 seconds of bonus time to increase his lead to 20 seconds in the GC competition.
The Health Net-Maxxis team had to expand a lot of energy chasing down 3 breaks during the race with the last attack happening in the last miles of the race. We'll know on Saturday's 92-mile (148 km) road race if it was too much energy for the Health Net team.
The women faced over 3,500 feet of climbing and the same finishing straight with an 6% uphill grade over the last 350 meters as the men. Sprinting powerhouse Laura Van gilder (Cheerwine) outsprinted her teammate Catherine Cheatley and Bri Kovac (Team Revolution) to take the win.
With her second place finish and 10 bonus seconds, Cheatley is now the new leader going into the third stage.
Team Revo..who? In yesterday's prologue, Sydney Brown finished seventh, 29 seconds slower than the winner, and today Bri Kovac finished third. Let's take a closer look at Team Revolution.
Team Revolution is a women's-only cycling education and advocacy group, and includes a professional cycling team and a development team. It was established and is run by a dedicated (underpaid) group of local female cyclists promoting every level of women's cycling in the Midwest.
Sydney Brown is a cat 2 Road & Cross rider who started racing in July ‘06. Bri Kovac is a cat 1 racer on the road and track.
Team Revolution's goal is to create a resource and network for women to explore and discover what cycling is all about. They offer weekly rides, training advice, seasonal and targeted educational clinics. In 2007, Team Revolution went from two club members to 54, and their race team traveled 11 states to participate in 47 races.
Good luck to Team Revolution.
Full Joe Martin results here.
Sutherland and Woodring win Joe Martin prologue
No major surprises after the Joe Martin prologue - a short, uphill time trial.
Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) continued showing his great form, winning another time trial, similar to the Redlands TT. He raced through the 2.5-mile course in 8:14, climber Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) was 10 seconds slower, and Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly) was third.
On the women's side, Mackenzie Woodring (Colavita/Sutter Home) crossed the line with a time of 10:28, with only one second to spare ahead of Catherine Cheatley (Cheerwine). Marisa Asplund-Owens (Cheerwine) was third, only 3 seconds behind the winner.
Great to see Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) in the top ten, as he has been going through rehabilitation for a knee problem.
Full results here.
update: the results posted on velonews & cyclingnewsare wrong as updated results were sent later by the organizer and are posted on the Joe Martin website. Many errors were corrected, for example, Brad Huff finished sixth and was not timed cut.
Donation Fund for Fausto Munoz Esparza
The Tour of the Gila has set up a Donation Fund for Fausto Munoz Esparza who was seriously injured on the last stage of the 2008 race. Esparza 33, a former Mexican Nation Champion and father of three children, is in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit of El Paso’s Thomason Hospital in Texas with a broken back which has left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Donations can be sent to:
Wells Fargo Bank
Attn: Fausto Munoz Esparza Donation Fund
1201 N Pope St.
Silver City NM, 88061
You may send cards to Fausto but please do not send flowers or plants, his address is:
Thomason Hospital
C/O patient Fausto Esparza
4815 Alameda Ave.
El Paso, TX, 79905
Best wishes to Fausto Esparza, his family and teammates
Joe Martin Stage Race
Next on the NRC schedule is the Joe Martin Stage Race in Northwest Arkansas.
In previous years, Joe Martin was followed by the Tri-Peaks Challenge to provide two NRC stage races in two weeks of racing in Arkansas, but this year Tri-Peaks was replaced by a new race, the Tour of Arkansas, a non-NRC event. Starting just two days after Joe Martin's final stage, is the Mt Hood Cycling Classic in Oregon, which moved up in the NRC Calendar. And this year, Hood is a UCI-sanctioned race for the women, a very important distinction in an Olympic year. What does this all mean? It means that some teams are skipping Joe Martin to focus on the next race, producing a somewhat small field in the women's pro race, with only 42 names showing up in the start list.
The stages. The four stages, two road races, one individual time trial and one crit, are the same as in previous years, but the organizers shuffled the stages around. putting the ITT first in the hopes of forcing a bit more aggressive racing. Both road races have typically ended up in bunch sprints.
The race now begins with the 2.5 miles ITT climb out of Devil’s Den State Park on Thursday, May 8. The course starts off with a brief flat section before the road steadily climbs 680 feet to the finish with an average grade of 6.8%, with most of the climb at 10%.
Friday's road race goes straight into the hills, with multiple climbs - the men’s field will cover over 5,400 feet of climbing and the women over 3,500. There is a 9.2 mile section with an average grade of 2.7%, and the finishing straight has a 6% uphill grade over the last 350 meters.
The third stage and second road race is held on Saturday, May 10. A challenging course with climbs, beautiful scenery and a slight downhill finish. The main portion of the course – which starts and finishes in Fayetteville, is a 23-mile loop that features over 1,500 feet of climbing per lap, with the men doing 3 loops and the women 2 loops.
The final stage is the Sunday criterium in downtown Fayetteville, held on a technical 1.3-mile, 8-corner course with a tough climb to the finish that challenges the field as the race progresses.
The pro men teams. Defending champions for multiple years, Health Net-Maxxis is bringing back last year's winner Rory Sutherland and the team is hoping to make it 4 year in a row in Arkansas. Big man Karl Menzies is the wildcard on the team as he won 2 stages last year and finished fifth overall, and finished second overall in 2005.
Bissell is sending only five men to the race. Richard England, finished 5th overall on GC in 2006, is coming off a strong showing at Tour de Georgia, winning stage 5 in a bunch sprint after keeping up with the field in the climbs.
Straight from Tour of the Gila, Colavita/SutterHome is bringing a full squad including Gila 3rd place Anthony Colby and sprinters Sebastian Haedo and Alejandro Borrajo. Jelly Belly is hoping to reconnect to its past successes at Joe Martin with a full roster including Mike Lange and Nic Sanderson.
One team looking to upset the apple cart is Team Type 1, looking to Glen Chadwick, Valeryi Kobzarenko and Chris Jones to make things happen. Sprinter Emile Abraham took a bunch sprint to win a stage in 2005 and should also be watched.
Other teams present include CRCA/Empire Cycling team, Mercy Cycling Elite Team p/b Zero Mtn, Rite Aid, Team RACE led by Mark Walters, Team Rubicon, THF Racing, TOSHIBA-Santo with USA Crits Speed Week winner Mark Hekman. Notably absent from the list is Toyota-United.
The pro women teams. Aaron's is not present to defend last year's win.
The Cheerwine squad with Laura Van Gilder, who has been on the stage podium multiple times in the past, is always a threat. Colavita/Sutter Home will be hoping to better last year's 3rd place for Nichole Wangsgard. Team Advil/Chapstick led by Sue Palmer-Komar who has finished in the top 10 twice in the past 5 years.
Other teams include Kenda Tire, LoneStarWorks.com, Metro Volkswagen Cycling Team and Team Revolution.
Full roster here.
Kickass
Number of criteriums: 8
Number of crits held on the same day: 2
Number of days: 9
Number of cities: 8 cities in 3 States
Time spent racing: 429 minutes
Distance spent racing: 192 miles (estimated)
Distance driven race to race: 888 miles
Who: the women professional cyclists who raced in the USA Crits Speed Week series, and two 2 NRC crits.
Number of crits won by Tina Pic: 6
The first race, on Saturday April 26, the Athens Twilight Criterium, was followed by a day off before the series reconvened in Beaufort, South Carolina and then it was game on, with a criterium in a different city every evening. After the each evening crit, the racers would then drive to the next city usually arriving past midnight, and do it all over again.
Most of the women participating in these events raced in every event.
Weekend Recap and NRC standings
It was quite the busy weekend in the professional domestic cycling world this past weekend, as the Tour of Gila concluded on Sunday in New Mexico, and the USA Crits Speed Week finished in the Southeast. To top it off, two NRC races, the Sunny King Criterium and the Nalley Historic Roswell Criterium, and the US Pro Tour race, the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic were held.
Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) continued her domination in the crit world by outsprinting her competition at the Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama. Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) came in second and Jen McCrae (Advil-Chapstick) was third.
After the 10-man breakaway lapped the field, Hilton Clarke (Toyota-United) received the help of his teammates to win his third crit in a week, after taking 2 victories in the USA Crits Speed Week series. Rounding off the all Australian podium was Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis) and Caleb Manion (Toyota-United).
On Sunday, the action continued in Georgia, just outside Atlanta for the Nalley Historic Roswell Criterium with almost the same results. U.S. National Criterium Champion Tina Pic did it again, outsprinting the field to take her win in front of Anna Lang (Aaron's) and Jen McRae (Advil/ChapStick).
In the men's race, a 4-man break lapped the field with Caleb Manion (Toyota-United) winning ahead of Cody Stevenson (Jittery Joe's) and Kyle Gritters (Health Net-Maxxis).
On Sunday, was also held the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic in Arlington, Virginia, the third event on the US Pro Tour calendar. The Colavita/Sutter Home squad executed a perfect leadout to catch solo attacker Andrew Randell (Symmetrics) in the final 200 meters to deliver Sebastian Haedo to the line. His teammate, and last wheel, Kyle Wamsley finished second, and Alex Candelario (Kelly Benefit/Medifast) was third. Randell just missed the podium and crossed the line in fourth place. Race report and photos by blacknell.net.
The top 5 in the NRC standings are:
Men's Individual Standings Men's Team Standings Women's Individual Standings Women's Team Standings |
USA Crits Speed Week - Tina Pic rules and Mark Hekman repeats
The 7 crits in 8 days known as the USA Crits Speed Week concluded this weekend. The unstoppable Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) won 4 crits, and placed in the top 10 for the remaining 2 races to easily take the overall USA Crits Speedweek classification.
In the men's series, Mark Hekman (now riding for TOSHIBA-Santo), repeated his overall win from last year by placing consistently in the top 20 of 6 of the 7 races.
The pro men teams were spread thin during the weekend's races, due to conflicting races - the NRC Sunny King Crit and Nalley Historic Roswell, the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic on the US Pro Tour series and the two remaining crits of the USA Crits Speedweek series.
The Athens Twilight Criterium, known for its fast, furious and crash marred crit in front of a party crowd lived up to its billing. Riders involved in crashes included John Murphy (Health Net), and Toshiba-Santo’s Frank Travieso and Mark Hegman. Rashaan Bahati (Rock Racing) emerged unscathed from the carnage to take the sprint using the Colavita/Sutter Home train ahead of Sebastian Haedo and Ken Hanson (Cal Giant).
The women were not sparred from the crashes and early primes only increased the pace of the attacks. Rebecca Larson (Aaron's) out sprinted Catherine Cheatley (Cheerwine) and Jennifer Wilson (Vanderkitten) to the line for the win.
Two days after the Athens Twilight, the riders moved on to South Carolina for the second race in the series, the second annual Beaufort Memorial Cycling Classic. Hilton Clarke (Toyota-United) combined forces with the trio from Symmetrics Eric Wolberg, Svein Tuft and Cameron Evans to set a high tempo and chase down the break. Then once the field was all together, Clarke then pulled a crafty technical move to take the win ahead of Kyle Wamsley (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Keven Lacombe (Kelly Benefit/Strategies).
National Criterium Champion Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) went head to head with Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) to take the win and Rebecca Larson (Aaron's), part of the breakaway with the other two riders, finished third.
Hilton Clarke got his second consecutive win at the Downtown Walterboro Criterium, in South Carolina. WIth no break managing to escape the field, Clarke, again, worked with the Symmetrics' trio, sat behind the Canadian team and timed his final effort around the long straightaways to out sprint Sebastian Haedo (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Alex Candelario (Kelly Benefit/Strategies) for the victory.
The reverse happened in the women's race, with a break of 6 successfully escaping and create a gap of 20 seconds to the field, and that was enough. With two laps to go, the cooperation in the break ceased, and Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) won the battle crossing the line first ahead of Shontelle Gauthier (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Holli Steelman (Juice Plus/NC cycling). Tina Pic, who was not in the break, brought the field home and finished in seventh place.
Kelly Benefit/Medifast climbed to the top step of the podium in the Uptown Greenwood Pro Cycling Challenge where the team used the uphill finish to its advantage and build out its leadout train to bring Alex Candelario to the finish line first ahead of Jonathan Cantwell (Jittery Joe's) and Jake Keough (CRCA/Sakonnet Technology).
Tina Pic took advantage of Cheerwine's leadout train sitting on their wheels and out sprinting Laura Van Gilder and Kelly Benjamin to take the win, again.
Taking advantage of the fact that some of the men's teams had departed for the NRC and/or US Pro Tour races, Aldo Ilesic (Black Sheep Cartel) took his first win on American soil besting Keith Norris (TOSHIBA-Santo) and Adam Myerson (TIME Pro Cycling) at the Steadman Hawkins Cycling. In the women's race, it was deja vu with Tina Pic outsprinting Erica Allar (Aaron's) and Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) to take the win.
On the penultimate day of the series, Aldo Ilesic (Black Sheep Cartel) took back-to-back wins in the Dilworth Criterium in Charlotte, NC. He hopped on the Toshiba-Santo train and jumped clear to cross the line ahead of Juan Forero (Colombian National Team) and Mark Hekman (TOSHIBA-Santo). There was no women's race for this event.
Peter Dawson (Rock Racing) outsprinted his seven-man breakaway companions to win the last event of the series, the Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge, with Bruno Langlois (Myogenesis.com) and Christian Helmig (Metro Volkswagen) rounding off the podium. By finishing head of his closest rival, Mark Hekman (TOSHIBA-Santo) won the USA Crits Speed Week series for the second year in a row.
It comes with no surprise that Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) won the final crit of the series, taking the final uphill sprint ahead of Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) and Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine).
Gila - Goldstein and Ladino prevail
The Tour of the Gila concluded this weekend with its two final stages, the crit on Saturday and the monster, well, Gila Monster stage on Sunday. As expected, the crit didn't bring any changes to the overall classification.
ValueAct's Leah Goldstein defended her pink leader's jersey which she grabbed after the first stage. On the men's side, the jersey changed hands one last time, with Tecos' Gregorio Ladino Vega retaking to lead to win the Tour of the Gila.
Unfortunately, more crashes on Sunday involving 20 riders, with Bissell's Tom Zirbel diagnosed with broken collarbone, ribs and a finger. And sadly, Teco's Fausto Espanza Munoz was flown by helicopter to a hospital in El Paso. According to Velonews, "witnesses at the scene and a team staffer said Espanza reported no sensations below his waist." Damn - best wishes to everyone.
Stage 4 - Downtown Silver City Criterium
In the women's race, an early break managed to stay away from the field, and Tibco's Rachel Heal jumped away from her breakaway mates to win the stage ahead of Alison Testroete (Aaron's) and Suz Weldon (Proman). Leah Goldstein, safely surrounded by her teammates in the field, came in 8 seconds later.
In the men's race, Henk Vogels (Toyota-United), expert leadout man, was on the receiving end, and won the field sprint ahead of Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Hernandez Macias (Tecos).
Stage 5 - Gila Monster Road Race
On their 105.7-mile point-to-point road race with 9131 feet of climbing and 8252 feet of descending, the men tackled five categorized climbs including the 7-mile long, 1600 foot Copperas Vista climb of the Gila Cliff Dwelling to turn around and come back down on a dangerous descent with steep grade and blind corners.
Sitting in third place on GC going into the final stage, Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) could not shake second place Ladino, and had to settle for the stage win and second place in the final classification. Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) finished 46 seconds behind the duo and protected his overall third place in the GC.
Going into the final stage with a comfortable lead of over two minutes, Goldstein just had to stay with her closest rivals, she survived all attacks and a punishing tempo to safely finish the stage. Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) won the stage, with ITT winner Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) and Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) rounding off the podium. Goldstein took the overall with Hobson in second and Gomez in third.
Full results here.
Thoughts
At the beginning of the season, the Bissell team stated that the new riders to the team, Swindlehurst, Aaron Olson, would bring depth and provide more options as far as GC. They proved that in Gila. Fourth-place finisher Phil Zajicek (Health Net-Maxxis), diagnosed with Crohn's disease and unable to start Georgia due to UCI's delay in providing a TUE, is showing good form. Colavita/Sutter Home's duo of 29-year old Anthony Colby and 27-year old Tyler Wren seem to be coming into their own and provide GC contenders to NRC stage races, but do they have the team to support them? The Tecos team raced aggressively from start to finish, and hopefully, we'll get to see them at other North American races this year.
On the women's side, Goldstein is showing to be a great addition to the ValueAct team. Only time will tell if the team is strong enough to defend in future races against full teams, such as the upcoming UCI-rated Mt Hood Cycling Classic.
Felicia Gomez - professional cyclist and associate professor
Like most of the professional women cyclists, Canadian Felicia Gomez has a full time job. Felicia is an Associate Professor at Fresno State in the Department of Kinesiology where she teaches physiology and nutrition. In her fifth year of competitive cycling, Felicia has a long background of athletic competition; for eighteen years she was primarily a runner, but also engaged in duathlon’s (run/bike/run) for 4 years and went to the World Championships in 2000 and 2001.
In 2008, the 38-year old Felicia took a leave from her job at the University with the aim of making the cut for the Olympics. Known for her climbing prowess, she has focused on her time trialing skills - and the work is starting to pay off. She finished third at the Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial and just won the Tour of the Gila ITT.
I had a chance to ask Felicia a few questions earlier this year...
What's the plan?
Felicia: This year for me is an Olympic year, it's a big year, one of my goals is to make the Olympic team for Canada. In terms of like future racing after this year is probably wait and see. Definitely my husband and I want a family so we'll start trying and see what happens. And I took a leave from my job this semester and so probably if I race again next year, I'll focus more towards the later part of the season instead of trying to be ready in February or March. It's just too hard to do it anymore.
So you took your leave to get ready for the Olympics?
Felicia: Yes, just to be able to train and race, to go to Europe if the opportunity presented itself and you know, I've been able to do a lot working full time. It gets harder every year.
This is your second with Aarons, you had some good successes last year, such as Mt Hood, so what are your goals this year as far as racing and races you want to go after?
Felicia: I'm super excited to be on the team again. I think we have a super strong team, we have young talent which I'm really excited about and the addition of Meredith Miller who has a lot of international experience, I think she can really lend a lot to our team as well. For me, in terms of team goals, I think we can contest the NRC, we finished third last year in our first real pro year and I think with the team we have that we can do better than that this year.
For me personally, like we said the Olympics is a big deal. For Canada, World Cup races are what matters, so I'm hoping to ... Montreal would be a key race for me, and hoping to do some stuff in Europe as well. But then again, I'm a stage race, a climber, so anything that goes uphill I'm pretty happy with. You know Mt Hood is UCI this year, I'll be looking at that race to do well, like I said Montreal, probably Gila although the altitude might kill me (laughs) But also I feel that one that I've been able to do is become more of an all around rider not just uphill so I'm looking to do well on some of those bigger stage races. And if some of my teammates are up there too, then lay it out for them. That's the one thing about our team is that if you're showing that you're the one we're going to ride for then that's who we ride for.
What is it about this team [Aaron's] that works well?
Felicia: You know I think that one thing we carried over from last year is having a lot of fun. We're still racing hard but having a lot of fun. I think that Carmen, our director is the best director in women's cycling and I think when it comes from the top down, I think that really is important. She's been my director now going on for five years, we've both transferred over from Webcor. She's really good at getting the most of our athletes. I think that the girls that we've brought on for this year, is a mix of young talent and then some experience and I think that's really good. And I think that the other really big thing about our team is that we have most of us coming back from last year so we already have a core that we know works well together and how each other races, and so we have a pretty strong foundation I think that we're building on so it's exciting.
And would you consider yourself a mentor to these young riders? Do you see such a role for yourself?
Felicia: I do, that's what I'm definitely hoping for that I can help mentor some of the young athletes. Julie [Beveridge] and Alison [Testroete] both being Canadian and young riders, you know even though I haven't been riding a whole lot, I've had some good mentors as I've come up through and I've been doing elite sports for a long time, I came from a running background, 13 years, and you know most people don't know my history before riding, I've been doing elite sports for a long time, and so being able to mentor the young athletes is going to be really good, really fun.
How do you juggle two full time jobs?
Felicia: You know it's really about time management and I mean there's not a minute in the day that you are not feeling time pressured. And for me being in academia, if I wasn't teaching, I really didn't have to be at the University I say that rather loosely because really in academia teaching is the least of what you do, there's research and all that kind of stuff. Even though I took a leave I'm still working with two masters student so I'm still about one a week. I try to keep it at a minimum since they are not paying me but ....
But you know, it's interesting as I said to my husband the other day, this is the first time in my adult life that I don't remember being time pressured. Before, it's like okay I have this three hour between 10 and 1 and I have to get my work out in there, it doesn't matter if it's raining, it doesn't matter if it's foggy, that's the time I have. And it wasn't necessarily a problem of getting the workouts in because I made sure I did those, what suffered was recovery. You just didn't have any. The other good thing at Fresno Stage is that the chair of my department, I asked him to schedule all my classes in my morning because then I could have my afternoons. Because once I've trained my brain's fried I wasn't good for thinking after that. But again, it was always trying to fit it in. Then I would always try and get back to work.
We have a house, and two dogs and a cat, my husband is amazing taking care of all that stuff but you still have all these responsibilities so I was definitely a challenge, it's why I took a leave this year. It's like 100% or not.
Gila stages 2 and 3 - Amber Rais, Felicia Gomez, Tyler Wren and Zirbelicious!
Gila ate up and spit out another rider - best wishes to Kris Keim who had a nasty crash in the first stage and broke her pelvis.
After launching a solo attack in the last kilometer on Stage 2, trying to setup the field sprint for his teammate, Tyler Wren (Colavita/Sutter Home) crossed the line first ahead of Phil Zajicek (Health Net-Maxxis) and Sheldan Deeny (Empire). With the main group finishing together, no changes in the GC classification after Stage 2. Ben Jacques-Maynes was in the break again today, working for his teammate Swindlehurst - a welcome change this year to have more depth and GC contenders in the Bissell team. The Tecos team rode at the front of the main field all day and set a mean tempo, what is too high? We'll know on Sunday's monster Gila stage.
Starting later than the men, the women faced tremendous winds, 30 to 45 mph head and crosswinds, crazy descents in the Inner Loop Road Race, stage 2 of the Tour of the Gila. Amber Rais (Tibco), Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) and Alison Testroete (Aaron's) formed a break early in the race, working well together to get a gap of over 4 minutes before ValueAct stepped on the gas in the main field. The trio kept it together til the end with Rais, racing with a broken rib, won the 3-up sprint. The field, including leader Leah Goldstein came in together 44 seconds later and she kept the pink leader's jersey. ValueAct's Sharon Allpress' take on the stage - pink is even better.
Zirbelicious and Felicia Gomez rule the Tyrone Individual Time Trial.
Bissell put two men on the podium and shuffled the GC classification. Tom Zirbel won the ITT, putting in a time of 34:26, with second place Ben Jacques-Maynes 17 seconds slower, and Chris Wherry (Toyota-United) in third place. This puts Zirbel in the leader's jersey, two seconds ahead Tecos Gregorio Ladino Vega. The top 7 in the GC, from 4 different teams, are separated by only 1 minute.
Canadian Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) rode the 16.15-mile out and back course, the fastest with a time of 40:27. Leader Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) was second, at 11 seconds off the winner's time, and Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) was third. Goldstein increased her lead in GC to over 2 minutes over Kristin McGrath (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine). Gomez moved up to sixth place on GC.
“I was really focused on beating my closest competition, especially Leigh Hobson,” said Goldstein. “I was happy to see that I beat her, and increased my lead on GC; but I would have loved to win! Felicia rode a great TT.”
Men's Top 10 GC after Stage 3
- Tom Zirbel (Bissell) 7:53:37
- Gregorio Ladino Vega (Tecos) +0:02
- Bernardo Colex Tepoz (Tecos) +0:27
- Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) +0:39
- Justin England (Toyota-United) +0:52
- Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) +0:54
- Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) +0:59
- Chris Wherry (Toyota-United) +1:31
- Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) +1:37
- Bradley White (Successful Living) +1:38
Women's Top 10 GC after Stage 3
- Leah Goldstein (ValueAct) 8:31:48
- Kristin McGrath (Colavita/Sutter Home) +2:19
- Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) +2:27
- Marisa Asplund-Owens (Cheerwine) +3:04
- Kristin Sanders (Aaron's) +3:12
- Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) +3:21
- Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) +4:14
- Andrea Dvorak (Colavita/Sutter Home) +4:28
- Kelly McDonald (Touchstone) +4:30
- Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) +5:54
Tomorrow is the Downtown Silver City Criterium, a 1.08 mile course on city streets, with four 90-degree corners and 80' of climbing per lap. The GC contenders will try and stay out of trouble and wait for Sunday's monster Gila stage.
Watch the Successful Living, Colavita/Sutter Home and Toyota-United teams to set up the sprinters in the men's stage: Borrajo, Bazzana and Clarke respectively. In the women's field, Tibco, Cheerwine, Proman and Metromint will be hunting for a stage win.
Leah Goldstein - one tough broad
Leah Goldstein in Redlands
ValueAct's Leah Goldstein is no stranger to the art of defending the leader's jersey. After grabbing the leader's jersey in the TT, stage 4 in last year's Mt Hood Cycling Classic, she almost singlehandedly - with only one teammate - survived the onslaught thrown at her from the Aaron's team to take the top step in the overall classification. For the third time. In a row.
"I just dug deep, and with a little bit of luck and then at the end with 5 k to go, she just launched and I had nothing left, I would stand on my bike and I think I would almost fall off. I just had a little spin, put my head down and pray to God that I wasn't going to pass out before the finish line." said an exhausted Goldstein after crossing the finish in Stage 5, Mt Hood 2007 and successfully defending her jersey.
Goldstein is no stranger to pain either. The current Israeli national road race and time trial champion was the 1989 World Bantamweight kickboxing champion at the age of 17. Then Goldstein joined the Israeli Military and moved on as an Instructor for the Police Academy.
"I was an officer in the Army, and then I worked for the Academy and I have some connections there and I do some personal training for commandos and officers that need to get back into shape. I'm too old to serve, I'm considered old now." Goldstein continued when I asked her about her current status with the army.
Goldstein had a horrible crash in a high speed descent on Stage 2 of the 2005 Cascade Classic, breaking 17 bones and had to stay 2 months in the trauma unit, and endure face reconstruction. Less than nine months after the accident, the astounding Goldstein returned to racing. But the accident has left scars, physically and mentally.
"I still have a fear, and these girls know that I have fear of descending, I'm very careful, I have to play safe, I am very selective with what I race, I don't do crits. I can't sprint, my mum can beat me in a sprint for godsake." explained Goldstein (in 2007) about her fear after the crash.
New to the ValueAct team this year, Goldstein is the current leader (with a 33 seconds lead) in the Pro Women's race after 2 stages in the Tour of the Gila, a race known for its climbing and scary descents. One tough broad.
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