THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Prologue: Abbott and Sutherland win Redlands opener
Under a dreary Southern California sky that made for nearly ideal time trial conditions, Mara Abbott (Team High Road) surprised few by winning the Redlands Cycling Classic prologue — The Sun Time Trial — by a resounding 25 seconds over second placed national team member Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s). Abbott’s teammate, Kim Anderson, rounded out the podium less than 1 second behind Carroll.
On the men’s side, things played out with much less time separating the top riders, as 2007 NRC winner Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) took the top step, flanked by two Toyota-United men, Ben Day and Dominique Rollin.
Women
Ninety-nine women representing 14 teams raced the 5km uphill course through the city streets of Redlands. Having finished second overall last year, Abbott was all confident smiles sitting alongside teammate Anderson while waiting to take the podium. Abbott finished fourth in the time trial last year and was clearly happy with her improved placing.
“You never know how anyone else is doing, but I felt real confident speed-wise, riding,” she said.
The young phenom made the move from Webcor Builders to Team High Road this year. Last year at the Sun Time Trial, she was bested by then-teammate and former national time trial champion, Christine Thorburn (Webcor Builders). Today the tables were turned, as Thorburn finished in fourth place, 28 seconds off Abbott’s time.
While Abbott is looking forward to Friday’s new Beaumont Circuit Race that will replace last year’s hilly Redlands Ford Road Race that ended on the torturous Oak Glen climb, she is going to miss the old course’s famous hill-top finish. With a huge smile, and her hand over her heart as if hugging last year’s podium flowers, she said, “Oak Glen was fabulous. But there are other great stages out there and someday, I hear, Oak Glen may be back.”
Second-placed Carroll also improved on last year’s fifth place in the prologue. Unlike Abbott, Carroll is happy at the absence of Oak Glen in Friday’s stage, as that climb “kinda killed” her good GC placing last year. Carroll said she knew ut on the course Thursday that she was racing well.
“I felt good coming out of New Zealand and Australia,” where she raced earlier in the season with the U.S. National Team, and “I was hoping that my fitness was still there. I just knew I could ride hard, and it ended up being a good day.”
While Abbott’s and Carroll’s stellar placings today were not surprising, no one was more surprised at Anderson’s performance than Anderson herself. As she waited for the podium presentation, the strong climber acknowledged, “This is a super surprise for me. Time trials are not my thing, [but] I just have been actually feeling really good … and just had good legs today.”
While Abbott did put good distance between herself and her main contenders already, there are members of four strong teams represented in the top 10 heading into Friday’s stage 1 circuit race, and all but one — Colavita / Sutter Homes p/b Cooking Light — have at least two racers there: Team High Road, Webcor Builders, Aaron’s, and Cheerwine.
Men
With a field nearly 200 strong, the men’s prologue resulted in a top 10 separated by only 19 seconds. Second-placed Day is just two seconds behind Sutherland, and Toyota-United teammate Rollin trails the leader by nine seconds, as does fourth placed Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing).
Sevilla may be particularly hungry to regain some seconds in the coming stages after losing the overall at San Dimas last weekend by just one second to Symmetrics’ Cameron Evans. Tyler Hamilton, Sevilla’s teammate who said it was “fun to be out racing” in Thursday’s prologue, acknowledged the buzz around Sevilla’s fall to second place last week.
“Hats off to those guys in the breakaway on Sunday. They rode very strong … Everybody’s kinda looking at us like, ‘You guys really messed up.’ But, you know what? ... those guys also rode a helluva race.”
Aussie Sutherland recognizes that he and his team will have to work to keep Thursday’s yellow jersey on his back, given the strength of the field. He said the change from Oak Glen to Friday’s Beaumont Circuit Race suits his strengths.
“Oak Glen, I have to say, it’s a little bit too much climbing for me, But, hey, you never know … Obviously, things are going reasonably well, but we saw last year that things can change drastically from day to day.”
With two of his Toyota-United men on the podium and four in the top 10, team co-director and two-time Redlands overall winner Scott Moninger recognized — after racing Redlands about 17 times himself — that the absence of Oak Glen changes things.
“I think it’s going to be a waiting game until Sunday,” he said. “That’s really going to be the decisive and selective day, I think, of all of them.”
Like many others, he anticipated that Friday’s circuit race will end in a field sprint, and is counting on heavy-hitter sprinters like Henk Vogels, Rollins, and Ivan Dominguez to get the job done for his team.
As they waited to step onto their second and third spots on the podium, both Day and Rollin agreed that Toyota-United is ready for the impending challenge.
“It’s the first stage of Redlands and … we’re gonna have some big team tactics to play, and that’s what we’ll have to do,” Day said. “There’s a massive, massive big field here, 200 riders. That’s gonna be interesting tomorrow.”
With almost the entire month of March off except for some smaller local races for most of their riders, Rollin appreciated that Thursday’s team results showed they are on their game.
“I was afraid by not racing at a high level for the last month … and not knowing where I stand [with regard to fitness]. And after today, I know I’m still up there. It feels great.”
Photo Gallery
