THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Redlands opens with Jeanson, Saturn men atop Mount Rubidoux
Under bright, sunny skies and intermittent winds, the 19th annual Redlands Bicycle Classic kicked off April 1st in Southern California with a hard, fast 5km prologue time trial ending atop Riverside’s Mount Rubidoux. The day’s winners included Geneviève Jeanson (RONA), the talented young Canadian who set the course record last year, and a heavily favored Saturn men’s team that swept the podium and took control of the six-day event almost before it had begun.
Although characteristically known as the grand season-opening National Racing Calendar (NRC) stage race, the Redlands Classic was scheduled several weeks later this year, in tandem with the Sea Otter Classic (April 9-12). Organizers from the two California stage races have announced plans to merge the two road events next year into one two-week-long joint UCI-event titled “The American Cycling Classic.”
The course for Tuesday’s time trial was, while essentially all uphill, far from steep, gaining only 400 feet of elevation in 3.2 miles of technical neighborhood switchbacks before bending towards the summit of Mount Rubidoux (elevation 1197 feet).
Five former Redlands winners were among the 103 women at the start line: Kiwi Susy Pryde, riding with Velo Bella, who won in 1997; American Mari Holden, riding with T-Mobile, who won in 1998; Canadian Lyne Bessette, Saturn, who won in 1999; Jeanson, who won in 2001 at the age of 19; and former cross-country world champion Alison Dunlap, preparing for the Sea Otter with her LunaChix mountain-bike team, who has won the event twice, in 1995 and again in 2000.
Riders were sent in 30-second intervals. T-Mobile’s Amber Neben set the benchmark with a 10:06; however, the women in contention knew they’d have to do better than that, as Jeanson’s record-setting time last year was 9:26. Next atop the leader board was Neben’s teammate Kimberly Bruckner, who, fresh off her victory at last week’s hilly Solano Cycling Classic, posted a time of 10:03.
Dunlap put in a respectable time of 10:37, but fell a few spots short of the podium as Jeanson came across in 9:43, 17 seconds slower than last year but still the only woman to post a time under 10 minutes, landing her in the yellow leader’s jersey. Saturn’s Manon Jutras and Bessette rounded out the top five.
“I did 9:26 last year,” Jeanson said afterwards, “so I wanted to do 9:15, but the wind was blowing up there, and there was a head wind. It’s a good result, it was a great race, but I still have the blood in my throat.”
Shortly after the women’s results were posted, the 154 men prepared for their test up the hill. Among those mentioned as favorites atop Mount Rubidoux included Trek-VW All-Stars’ Roland Green, the current mountain-bike world champion; Saturn’s Tom Danielson, winner of the Tour de Langkawi and, more recently, the Pomona Valley stage race; and his teammate Chris Horner, two-time Redlands winner and recent winner at McLane Pacific and Solano. Also among the favorites was Prime Alliance’s Jonathan Vaughters, who won the overall in 1998 riding for U.S. Postal.
However, both Danielson and Horner had pegged their teammate Nathan O’Neill to win. After briefly holding a new course record with an 8:47 time, Danielson conceded that O’Neill was one of his picks to win the prologue. “If you asked me who was going to win the time trial,” Danielson said, “I would have said ‘Nathan.’ The guy is just unbelievable in the time trial.”
And so it didn’t surprise his teammates when O’Neill, a former Australian national time-trial champion, smashed Horner’s course record from last year with a time of 8:29, 19 seconds faster. As defending champion, Horner was the last man to start and put in a time of 8:31, catching Vaughters, his “30-second man.”
“I didn’t think I’d catch him,” Horner said. “I thought I’d maybe do 15, maybe 10 seconds or something. We got a little tangled, because three of us caught at the same time. He caught his guy and I caught him all at the same time, so I had to wait until he passed him, and then try to accelerate again.”
“This is a similar situation as Langkawi,” O’Neill said with a smile afterwards, referring to Saturn’s January sweep at the Tour de Langkawi’s opening time trial, where O’Neill, Danielson and teammate Eric Wohlberg took the top three spots, and Danielson later took the overall. “Somebody just asked me how we race when we have the top three spots,” O’Neill laughed, “Well if we did it in Langkawi for three days, I think we can do it for six here.”
Race Notes:
• Prime Alliance’s David Clinger had an unexpected spill during a morning warm-up, when his carbon time-trial handlebars snapped. “I went down hard. The bars snapped right in the center, and there was nothing I could do about it. I just rolled. I was just sitting on my ass in the street, the bike was up the road.” He ended up with patches of road rash on his wrist, back, shoulder and butt.
• Steve Larsen, 2000 NORBA national champion and top-10 Ironman Triathlon finisher, put in a strong showing for the new Monex team, placing ninth, 38 seconds back.
• Contrary to rumors, Saturn’s Phil Zajicek did not use his infamous iPod mp3 player during the time trial. “Too much weight disadvantage,” he explained.
• The following riders did not start:
Remi McManus, Jelly Belly-Carlsbad Clothing
Scott Price, Trek-VW All Stars
Seamus McGrath, Canadian National
