THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Bessette, Jacques-Maynes lead at Nature Valley
On a day that began in disarray for the pro men’s field and ended in disasterfor a handful of pro women, Gina Grain (Victory Brewing) and Dave McCook(McGuire Pro Cycling) took chaotic field sprints to win the second stageof the Nature Valley Grand Prix in Virginia, Minnesota.
With high winds blowing across Northern Minnesota for the Iron Rangeroad race, both the women’s and men’s fields found it difficult to escapethe safety of the peloton, culminating in the pair of field sprints after80-plus miles of racing. (The women raced 84.79 miles, while the men raced83.) Both finishes could be considered upset victories, as key sprintersfrom both fields were stifled under differing circumstances.
In the women’s race, Laura Van Gilder (Genesis Scuba-FCCC) and SarahUhl (Quark Cycling) tangled up in the final straightaway, ending on thepavement and taking down Van Gilder’s teammate and best Under-26 riderCandace Blickem along with them. In the men’s race, McCook came aroundNavigators Insurance teammates Marty Nothstein and Henk Vogels to takea commanding win by multiple bike-lengths.
Men’s time trial
Uncertainty over timing mistakes in the men’s 5.4-mile time trial leftriders and officials wondering who actually won the opening stage. (Thewomen’s TT was raced Wednesday night, won by Quark’s Lyne Bessette.)
Officials initially thought that Health Net-Maxxis's Jason McCartneyhad won the stage with a time of 9:59.81, but his time was later changedto 10:29.81; it was precisely a 30-second error, the same time frame inwhich riders were sent out of the start gate.
Preliminary results then pointed to Navigators Insurance’s Henk Vogelsas the stage winner, but after race commissaires spent hours hand-calculatingtimes, it was announced that Sierra Nevada's Ben Jacques-Maynes had wonwith a time of 10:09, while Vogels’s 10:24 was good enough for third. Jacques-Maynes’steammate Eric Wohlberg took second, seven seconds off the winning pace.
“I thought I had it in the bag, but not that good,” Jacques-Maynes said.“To beat Eric is quite an honor.”
Health Net’s John Lieswyn, winner at the NVGP in 2002, was clearly unpleasedwith the results. “[Health Net] is the team that probably lost the mostwith the questionable results,” Lieswyn said. “There's no doubt in my mindthat Jason won the time trial. Now they have me in 44th. It's really hardto accept an unjust result.”
Women’s road race
The sentiment at the start of the women’s race was that the windy conditionsmight make it a day for teams well rehearsed in the art of echelon riding.However the complex tactic was never employed, and instead, after VictoryBrewing’s Emma Rickards and Grain went 1-2 at the first intermediate sprint,RONA sent off Erinne Willcock on a lone breakaway at mile 32, opening upa maximum gap of 1:52 six miles later.
“That was our focus, the intermediate sprints,” said Grain, who tooksecond and third on two of three intermediate sprints. “It was a reallygood opportunity, actually this whole stage race, to work on the lead-outtrain. We’ve been working on it the whole season.”
But even with Bessette in the leader’s jersey, Quark wouldn’t initiatethe chase to reel in Willcock, forcing Victory Brewing to pick up the pacein order to collect more sprint points.
“Why should we have to chase?” said Quark team director Giana Roberge.“Other teams were willing do to the work. There were still a lot of sprintpoints on the road, and it was still a long way to go. Bike racing is alwaysa gamble, but when there’s just one rider out there, you can’t waste yourteam trying to reel her in. We still have plenty of racing to do. Saturday[an 80-mile road race] and Sunday [the tough, hilly Stillwater criterium]are going to be very hard days.”
As the peloton approached the third intermediate sprint, in the townof Mountain Iron at mile 51, a fading Willcock was finally brought in.Once the group reorganized and several short-lived breaks were attempted,the peloton settled in for what would become a field sprint.
Due to the nature of the final finishing circuits in the town of Virginia,GC time was recorded just outside of city limits in order to prevent thechaotic mix of breakaways and the main field on the circuit that occurredlast year. Instead, the finish line was given two sets of time bonuses— the first at the first crossing, with 15, 10 and 5 seconds up for grabs,and the second after six finishing circuits, with 30, 20 and 10 secondsavailable.
Over the final six two-mile finishing circuits, a main group of about60 riders remained. Crossing the first finish line was Van Gilder, collecting15 seconds of time bonus and moving her to within 20 seconds of Bessette’slead. Second in the sprint was Megan Long, (Sportsbook.com) and third wasUhl.
With RONA controlling the front, looking to set up sprinter KatrinaGrove, riding became aggressive in the final circuit. In the final corner,Van Gilder and Uhl — both teammates at Saturn last year — were vying forthe finish when the two came together, hitting the pavement hard.
“It was pretty bad,” Long said. “I was right on Sarah’s wheel, and Sarahand Laura hooked handlebars. I was looking ahead and saw it, and I hitthe brakes and immediately started turning and slammed on my brakes. Ihaven’t been in a sprint like that before. I was getting elbowed and bumped.It was intense. People were going to the curb. It was crazy. It was likea BMX race or something.”
Grain managed to escape unscathed with a strong win over Joanne Kiesanowski(Colavita Olive Oil) and Jenny Eyerman (Red 5 Racing) in third. “Peoplestarted getting cranky after 120km of racing and it got a little ugly,”Grain said. “I had to snap myself out of it. I saw it beginning to happenand stayed away. It’s not worth it.”
It was a bittersweet ending for Quark; Bessette held on to her overalllead, but teammate Uhl required assistance from Roberge to cross the finishline. News was not immediately available on the condition of either Blickemor Van Gilder.
“I didn’t want to be involved in any crashes, so I said I just wantedto be lead-out girl,” Bessette said. “100 meters from the finish, Sarahwas on my right, the girl from Switzerland [Annette Beutler of LeitzsportCycling] was on my left and Laura came between me and the Swiss girl, andthere was not much room and she went straight into Sarah. They crashedon the side and I got around. I just closed my eyes and was like, ‘Pleasedon’t touch me.’ It was very aggressive. People were bumping me and I waslike, ‘Don’t bump me. Stay on my wheel if you want a lead-out.’ You’renot supposed to bump the leader’s jersey.”
Men’s road race
After staying away for over half the day, a three-man breakaway ofJustin England (Webcor Builders), Andy Bajadali (Ofoto-Lombardi Sports)and Christian Foster (Subway-Express) entered the finishing circuits witha 1:02 lead, down from a maximum of almost two minutes on the field earlier.
Jacques-Maynes’s Sierra Nevada squad led the chase into the circuits,however once the break was caught, Jittery Joe’s began working to set thesprint up for fastman Chad Hartley, while Navigators was trying to putVogels in a position to take the race lead. The peloton was spread thinover the windy final lap as an all-out drag race ensued.
“We came out of the last turn and sat up a little bit just for a secondor two and it caused a reaction from behind and forced me to play my handand jump early,” Nothstein said. “I had in mind to get Henk in the leadersjersey. That forced my hand a little bit, to keep Henk and myself fromgetting swarmed from the different riders. I jumped hard, probably a littlebit too hard, because it created a gap from everyone else. I slowed upto see if I could get Henk to follow me, but Dave was already on my wheel,and by then it was a free ride for him for about 200 meters.”
McCook, a 34-year-old veteran who has ridden in the past for Prime Alliance,7UP and Shaklee, timed it perfectly, opening an unbelievable gap over twoof the best sprinters in the game. “Everybody was just trying to do thelead-out train, and I ended up on Marty’s wheel,” McCook said. “It wasjust a drag race all the way down. I was in the right position at the righttime. It’s a great win for our first-year McGuire Pro Cycling team program.”
Vogels was philosophical about a day that saw him rumored to take theleader’s jersey and then finish third in the sprint, taking 10 bonus secondsand ending just five seconds outside of the race lead. Yet consideringhis career nearly came to an end after a horrific crash at the Fitchburg-LongsjoClassic last summer, he kept it in stride.
“We talked about it and decided we were just going to go for our ownsprint,” Vogels said. “That was just the way it worked. Marty jumped, andDave got his wheel. I was behind Dave, but he got the jump on us and beatus, fair and square. No excuses. I’m a little pissed off, but I’m happy.I’m coming back to my old self. It’s been nearly 12 months to come backto where I was.”
Navigators’ team manager Franky Van Haesebroucke was slightly less diplomatic.“It was stupid,” he said. “If Henk had finished second we would have theleader’s jersey. McCook played it smart, and just sat on our train.”
Although Jittery Joe’s didn’t come up with the win — Hartley finished10th — team rider Jonny Sundt was upbeat about the team’s performance inthe final 5km.
“We’ve been doing this [lead-outs] for a few years, and we’re gettingpretty good at it,” Sundt said. “We’re not the strongest, and we don’thave the most manpower, but we’ve got four guys that absolutely lay iton the line for our boy, until they’re chewing cork. I told Chad if hekeeps putting himself in that position, and keeps riding positively, hisopportunity will come. Sprinting is always a bit of a roll of the dice,but you make your own luck in a way.”
The Jerseys
MenRed (race leader): Ben Jacques-Maynes, Sierra Nevada. “I have to give all the credit to my team. They rode hard, and I stayed protected most of the day.” White (best young rider): Nick Reistad, Endeavour Cycling. Blue(sprint leader): Marty Nothstein, Navigators Insurance. “[Sunday’s] Stillwater [criterium] is a difficult course for everybody. You can take me out of the equation, I can tell you that. I’m really motivated, but Stillwater is tough. I’m going to go there and give it my all for the team. You never know, but it’s not my cup of tea. Green(top amateur): Peter Fairbanks, Bianchi-Grand Performance.
WomenRed(race leader): Lyne Bessette, Quark. White (best young rider): Magen Long, sportsbook.com. Blue (sprint leader): Gina Grain, Victory Brewing. “It’s a race of opportunity. It’s a strong field. There’s a lot good racers here, so when opportunity knocks to take out those time bonuses, that’s what we’re going to go for.” Green (top amateur): Anne Grabowski, Nature Valley-Penn Cycle
