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Wherry and Thorburn lock up Redlands titles
Haedo and Teutenburg repeat Saturday wins
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It wasn’t easy, but after fending off serious challenges in Sunday’s Sunset road race, both Webcor’s Christine Thorburn and Health Net’s Chris Wherry held on to the leaders’ jerseys they’d won in the opening prologue to take the overall titles at California’s Redlands Bicycle Classic.
Despite heading a team weakened by illness, injury or plain old attrition, Wherry managed to protect a slim seven second advantage over Australian Trent Lowe of Jittery Joes/Kalahari to earn his first overall title in two years.
After marking a late move by Lowe, Wherry threw his arm up in victory as he crossed the line knowing his overall win was secure.
“It’s been a long dry spell for me and I’m really stoked for myself and the team right now,” Wherry said afterward. “We were so short handed this week. Gord [Fraser] is sick. Mike Jones is hurt and sick. And the other teams threw everything they had at us today.”
And the team that appeared to be doing the majority of the damage midway through the twisting 148.1 km stage was Jelly Belly, which lost its talented sprinter Alex Candelara to a broken collarbone in Saturday’s criterium.
A seven-rider break containing Jelly Belly’s Brice Jones stretched its lead past a minute after attacking up the first major climb. Jones’ teammate Ben Brooks – who sat fourth in the GC overall, only one minute down on Wherry – then made a quick attack and bridged up to the group.
Adding some horsepower to the break, Brooks helped increase the gap to over 1:30.
“That was kind of the plan all along; to either send me or Danny up the road,” Brooks said.
The Health Net train moved to the front of the pack to try and pull the group back, and after three more laps the time gap was still over a minute, but falling. With help from the Kodak Galleries and Colavita Olive Oil teams, the peloton slowly ate away at the chase group’s time.
But with eight of the 12 10-km laps completed, Health Net’s Scott Moninger took control of the front of the peloton and brought the pace to a new level. As the pack took the final descent and headed back to town to complete the five 1km loops around downtown, Moninger’s efforts caught the chase.
Still, Jelly Belly wasn’t done attacking, and sent former U-23 world time trial champion Danny Pate off the front. Lowe too attacked, but his move was countered by the ever-watchful Wherry.
In a finish reminiscent of Saturday’s criterium, Colavita’s lead-out train took control on the last lap and set up Juan Jose Haedo for the win, a wheel length ahead of Webcor’s Charles Dionne. Brooks, who somehow managed one more hard effort, sprinted in for third.
“We went down today but we went down fighting, and that’s all you can do,” Brooks said after the sprint. “We never race thinking we can’t beat Health Net. They may be strong, but we’re not intimidated.”
Like Health Net, the Webcor Women’s team came into today’s circuit race with the primary goal of protecting Christine Thorburn’s slim lead over T-Mobile’s Kim Anderson (6-seconds back) and Quark’s Annette Beutler (7-seconds back). And, as in the men’s race, the other team’s challenging for the jersey unleashed a hail of attacks on the final stage.
The first attacks came on the initial QOM climb, with 2003 Redland’s winner Geneviève Jeanson having a go first, with Beutler in tow hoping to earn some coveted time bonuses. But Webcor’s duo of Thorburn and Erinne Willock countered the move, and helped make the first split of the day, as the two were joined by Buetler and T-Mobile’s Kim Baldwin and Kristin Armstrong and Lynn Gaggioli of Monex. The move quickly gained time on the field, with Baldwin and Armstrong pressing the pace alongside Gaggioli.But the move only stayed away for three laps, and as the peloton drew to within 15-seconds of the group, Saturday’s crit’ Christine Thorburn winner Ina Yoko Teutenberg of T-Mobile threw down her second race-deciding move in as many days, bridging to and overtaking the breakaway.
“Ina attacked through us and was gone,” said Thorburn. “I was a little weary that Kim might try to bridge up to her, but thankfully Ina wanted to win the stage.”
Webcor surrendered its chances at a team GC victory to hold the yellow jersey, and instead let Quark try and chase for the time bonus points.
But Teutenberg stayed off the front, and the German national champion crossed the finish line almost one minute ahead of the chasers. On the final descent into the finish, Thorburn still had to hold Teutenberg’s wheel to hold her meager advantage. Although Beutler was the first in the pack to cross the line after a leadout from teammate Tina Pic, Thorburn finished with the same time to give her the yellow jersey by two seconds.
2005 Redlands Bicycle Classic
Stage 3: Sunset Road Race
MEN
1. Juan Jose Haedo (I), Colavita Olive Oil, 3:29:04
2. Charles Dionne (Can), Webcor Builders
3. Ben Brooks (Aus), Jelly Belly-Pool Gel
4. Richard England, Advantage Benefits
5. Matty Rice, Jelly Belly-Pool Gel
6. Trent Lowe (Aus), Jittery Joes/Kalahari
7. Liam Kileen (GB), California Giant-Village Peddler
8. Chris Wherry, Health Net
9. Eric Wohlberg (Can), Symmetrics Cycling
10. Danny Pate, Jelly Belly-Pool Gel, all at st. WOMEN
1. Ina Yoko Teutenberg (G), T-Mobile, 2:35:07
2. Annette Beutler (Swi), Quark, at 0:00:57
3. Tina Pic, Quark, at 0:57
4. Amy Moore, Victory Brewing, at 0:00.57
5. Christine Thorburn, Webcor Builders, at 0:00.57
6. Erinne Willockn (Can), at 0:00:57
7. Kimberly Anderson, Colavita Olive Oil, at 0:00:57
8. Felicia Greer, Webcor Builders, at 0:01:02
9. Kori Seehafer, T-Mobile, at 0:01:02
10. Kimberly Baldwin, T-Mobile, at 0:01:02Final General Classification
MEN
1. Chris Wherry, Health Net, 9:47:55
2. Trent Lowe (Aus), Jittery Joes-Kalahari, at 0:00:07
3. Liam Killen, California Giant, at 0:00:31
4. Ben Brooks, Jelly Belly-Pool Gel, at 0:00:56
5. Eric Wohlberg (Can), Symmetrics Cycling, at 0:01:22
6. Danny Pate, Jelly Belly-Pool Gel, at 0:01:23
7. Scott Moninger, Health Net, at 0:01:47
8. John Hunt, California Giant, 0:01:55
9. Andrew Bajadali, Vitamin Cottage, at 0:01:59
10. Anthony Colby, Texas Roadhouse, 0:02:15WOMEN
1. Christine Thorburn, Webcor Builders, 8:02:19
2. Annette Beutler (Swi), Quark, at 0:00:02
3. Kimberly Baldwin, T-Mobile, at 0:00:13
4. Erinne Willock (Can), Webcor Builders, at 0:00:44
5. Kristin Armstrong, T-Mobile, at 0:01:03
6. Tina Pic, Quark, at 0:01:34
7. Katheryn Curl, Webcor Builders, at 0:02:30
8. Chrissy Ruitler, Ford-Basis, at 0:02:32
9. Kimberly Anderson, Colavita, 0:02:39
10. Amy Moore, Victory Brewing, at 0:02:39
