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Bessette, Creed win Laguna Seca at Sea Otter
Jeanson and O'Neill hold on to overall lead
Day three of racing at the Sea Otter Classic pro stage race saw no major changes on the leader board, as Saturn’s Lyne Bessette and Prime Alliance’s Michael Creed took stage wins in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
Originally planned to be a criterium in Santa Cruz, Friday’s course was, at the last minute, changed to the raceway circuit of years past, due both to concerns over the integrity of the Santa Cruz course and a push to intensify the stage race after the pro men protested the controversial Redwood City circuit. Instead, the circuit race course was used, a course that includes a steep climb to the top of the Laguna Seca raceway, a fast descent down the infamous “corkscrew” and a one-mile loop around into a strong headwind.
According to Terry Tupper, road stage race director, the improvisation was made in an effort to "make sure the strongest rider wins.”
However, Rick Sutton, the Sea Otter’s chief operations officer, made it clear that after the debacle Wednesday in Redwood City, where riders refused to race the first stage citing dangerous conditions, race organizers were in no position to chance another similar situation in Santa Cruz, where wide, elongated speed bumps and bumpy roads could draw the ire of racers.
“I didn’t want to exasperate a situation that already existed in the mind set of the riders,” Sutton told VeloNews. “I felt that both in terms of the quality of the stage race for the men, and the course conditions that we could deliver today, given what happened Wednesday, this was the proper place for them to race today.”
In the men’s 60 km race, Creed, 22, took an emotional first professional win after spending most of the day’s 15 laps off the front.
Just three laps in, a break initiated by Chris Fisher (Jelly Belly) contained Creed, Tom Danielson (Saturn), Steve Larsen (Web Cor) and David Zabriskie (U.S. Postal). With Danielson second on the GC and Zabriskie fourth, Saturn and Postal, two of the strongest teams in the peloton, were content to let the break dangle at 30 seconds.
After Fisher quickly dropped off the pace, the four worked together until the mid-way time bonus sprint, where Danielson overtook Zabriskie, protecting teammate Chris Horner’s third-place GC spot as Horner sat only five seconds above Zabriskie. But after the sprint, Danielson looked back and noticed that Zabriskie had slowed.
“I just kind of sat up after the sprint,” Danielson said, “and I noticed we’d gapped Zabriskie, so we just kept it rolling.”
On a windy day, Danielson, 24, and Creed, two of the peloton’s youngest and skinniest riders, kept the field at bay. With Saturn’s Nathan O’Neill the team’s protected leader at the Sea Otter, Danielson, a feared climber, was instructed to stay with Creed, lest he breakaway and replace O’Neill atop the GC. Instead, the pair worked together, maintaining a lead that reached a maximum of one-minute.
“Tom was taking definitely taking the harder pulls,” Creed said.
With the peloton rapidly approaching, Danielson attacked on the approach to the final climb, putting in a hard dig that looked to be the winning move. But Creed reacted quickly, catching Danielson’s wheel and holding it up and over the steep pitch.
“It hurt so bad on that last lap,” Creed said, “I didn’t look up once. I didn’t want to see the top of the hill. I just stared at Tom’s cassette.”
At the finish line, an early sprint attempt by Danielson failed, and Creed came around easily for the win, fists pumping. Health Net's Gord Fraser brought in the field for third, 14 seconds back.
The women’s race worked out similarly. After an uneventful start to the ten lap affair, which saw T-Mobile and Saturn driving at the front, Bessette and race leader Genevieve Jeanson (RONA-Esker) broke away with three laps remaining, putting a 30-second lead into the field.
“Lyne was up the road,” said T-Mobile team director Jim Miller, “Genevieve jumped to her, they got a gap. Our girls that were supposed to cover didn’t cover, and then we had to chase. We spent the last three laps trying to keep it at twenty seconds.”
In the final kilometers it was Bessette powering all the way to the finish as Jeanson conceded the sprint. Taking twelve seconds at the finish and another eleven in time bonuses on the stage, Bessette’s win brings her to within 31 seconds of second-placed Kimberly Bruckner. Saturn's Laura Van Gilder took the field sprint for third in front of French champion Magali Le Floc’h (RONA-Esker).
“Lyne deserved that stage”, said Jeanson. “She worked harder and longer than I did in the breakaway. But I did gain a few seconds over Bruckner in GC, for a little extra margin before tomorrow’s tough stage.”
“It’s okay that [Jeanson] didn’t pull,” Bessette said. “She has the jersey, and it’s my job. It worked out nice – she has the jersey, we get a stage win. She was a good sport.”
With Jeanson 1:31 ahead of Bruckner, and O’Neill 52 seconds up on teammate Danielson, the overall spots look to be locked up — however, with rain forecasted for Saturday’s final-stage 100-mile road race, neither leader will likely rest easily until atop the final podium.
