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Home » Top Stories » Road » Nature Valley Grand Prix

Sutherland in yellow at NGVP; Armstrong pads lead

By Hans Eisenbeis
Published: Jun. 14, 2008
NVGP Stage 5 - Rory Sutherland (HealthNet) celebrates his victory after a hard fought battle
NVGP Stage 5 - Rory Sutherland (HealthNet) celebrates his victory after a hard fought battle
Photo: Action Images, Kurt Jambretz

Health Net’s Rory Sutherland is a rangy Australian who is built a little too lean for a typical sprinter but a little too long for a typical climber. It may be that he’s a perfect fit for a race like the Nature Valley Grand Prix, which features a lot of flat roads that suddenly tilt up in a rider’s face and require a short burst of intense power.

That’s the sort of course riders faced Saturday at the 90-mile Mankato road race. Under sunny skies and a stiff Northwest breeze of 15mph, they threaded their way through corn fields and cow pastures and picturesque farms before diving into the steep ravines around this old river town. Once they returned, the course climbed Main Street Hill four times. The hill is a mile long with several steep ramps and an average 14-percent grade. Sutherland’s win on this brutal course was a repeat of last year’s performance.

The bulk of the race was a long episode of meat-tenderizing. Temperatures reaching into the 80s, the hot sun, and the heavy winds created an angry peloton that wasn’t going to let Ben Jacques-Maynes and his Team Bissell keep the yellow jersey without a fight. Toyota-United and Health Net kept the pressure on all day, and Bissell responded heroically — to a point.

The hard work had the riders biding their time until the resupply restriction lifted at 35 miles. A bout of widespread hydration followed, and soon after, the pack settled in and rode tempo. Ten miles later, Jered Gruber (TIME) took a solo flier and built up a 30 second lead. But that eroded after an intermediate sprint 13 miles later, and he was reeled in.

With two thirds of the race behind them, the course turned into the teeth of a strong headwind, and the field shattered. The result was a split in the peloton of 40 riders leading, 40 riders chasing, followed by the wreckage of the remaining field. The lead group, driven by Kelly Benefits Strategy, contained the yellow jersey and his keepers. It was an odd and aggressive attack that spread riders out all over the road, but amounted to nothing: Just two miles later, a feedzone brought them all together again.

At 77 miles, the course snaked into the hilly country around a local ski area, and Bissell drove the field hard up a long climb. But the stress was beginning to show. A mile after the climb, Anthony Colby (Colavita/Sutter Home) slipped up the road pursued by Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing) and David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies). HealthNet took the opportunity to drive the chase hard and bring everything together as they hit city limits and charged to the base of Main Street Hill.

Jacques-Maynes said, “My Guys rode great. It was very windy out there, we tried to contrl it as best as possible. We kept having Health Net and Toyota coming over the top of us, we had to keep taking it back. It made for some hard racing, some pretty intense gutter action.”

In an astonishing performance, Colby ratcheted up the circuit climb four times in or near the front position. He was one of the strongest riders of the day, but the GC was getting churned behind him. Rory Sutherland joined during the final climb and the two established a small gap on Rock Racing’s Ollerenshaw and Cesar Grajales. A hard-charging chase, five seconds back, contained Ivan Stevic and Caleb Manion (Toyota United), as well as Andrew Bajadali and David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies).

Sutherland and Colby manage to hold on to a 5 second lead coming through the final chicanes. Sutherland won by a length. Bajadali, Veilleux, Murphy and Stevic finished 7 seconds back. The exhausted yellow jersey, Ben Jacques-Maynes, arrived in the pack 20 seconds later.

After the stage, Jacques-Maynes was circumspect. “When you come into this circuit, everyone has to do what they can. Unfortunately, all my guys ran out of juice, so after two hills I was left alone. There was no way to win at that point. I was going as hard as I could, and it just wasn’t very fast, just trying to keep the gap as best as I could.”

Sutherland commented, “When you have a stage like that with a big hill finish, it really does show who’s strongest at the time… and if there’s a course that suits me, it’s this one and tomorrow’s course that really suit me down to the ground.”

Sunday’s final stage is a criterium in Stillwater, another river town with a bluff road that’s been compared to the Koppenberg in Belgium. Although Chilkoot Hill is not cobbled, it is pitted with potholes and it rises to a 24-percent grade ─ so steep that chicanes would actually slide down the hill. Riders will get a good look at it, as they ride the pitch three dozen times among thousands of screaming fans.

Armstrong adds to her lead

Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo LifeForce) is truly in a league of her own, and Mankato has for two years been an ideal proving ground for that theory. With just one teammate along for the race, Armstrong’s domination has been decisive. The tougher the stage, the greater the time gaps ─ give or take a brilliant sprint by TIBCO’s Brooke Miller or Colavita’s Tina Pic.

But there were other heroes Saturday, too. Early in the stage, Kathryn Curi (Webcor), undertook a brave solo campaign and stayed away for 30 miles in the heat and wind. “Sometimes you just take a gamble and go for it,” she said cheerfully. “It was fun! But it was pretty brutal too.” Eventually she was reeled in.

At 64 miles, 9 riders established a 15 second gap – incuding two Cheerwine riders, Stacy Marple and Marisa Asplund-Owens, as well as Colavita’s Tina Pic. But Armstrong led the chase and quickly quashed the effort.

Fifteen miles later, the group was still unifed when it reached the base of Main Street Hill, but Armstrong made sure she had a line and she stomped on the gas. Joanne Kiesanowski (TIBCO) was able to hold her wheel for one lap, but by the second, she’d ceded 30 seconds and fallen back to the chase group. From there on out, it was a race for second place. Armstrong crossed the line 40 seconds in the black, while Lauren Franges (TIBCO) and Kathryn Carroll (Aarons) brought in second and third.

Armstrong was emotional after the race. After signing autographs for several children and chasing down much-needed water, she wiped away tears and took a moment to get her bearings. “That was really hard,” she said. “A tough race. I’m not going to go out there and sit in and let them attack me and have to fight it off. You know, I’m only human.” Her interviewers laughed politely. “Seriously. There’s a limit to how many attacks I have in these legs.”

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