THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Lieswyn, Thorburn lead Nature Valley GP
Health Net-Maxxis is riding a big wave of momentum, and John Lieswyn shot the curl on Thursday.
The veteran rider and former champion of the Nature Valley Grand Prix overcame a deficit of more than two minutes to catch a break of 16 and then kept motoring to win the second stage of the Minnesota race, the 92-mile Mankato Road Race. It marked the fourth consecutive road-race win for Health Net, by four different riders.
“It was a team victory of the greatest magnitude,” Lieswyn said. “Right now, it feels like we have a V-8 under the hood.”
Lieswyn shared the spotlight with teammate Tyler Farrar, who took fourth in the stage and grabbed the sprint leader’s jersey as well.
“Once you get the momentum going, it’s like it doesn’t stop,” Farrar said of the team’s performance.
The four-man Health Net squad animated or controlled much of the race from the start and then put two riders in the final selection of 24 that powered to the finishing circuit, leaving larger teams like Jelly Belly-PoolGel and Advantage Benefits-Endeavor wondering how they missed their chance to disrupt the Health Net flow.
“We messed up,” said Danny Van Haute, Jelly Belly-PoolGel’s director, despite Caleb Manion’s runner-up finish, ahead of Shawn Milne (Navigators Insurance). “We’re just going to go back and get reorganized.”
“No one expected this to be as selective as it was,” said Advantage Benefits’ Brent Bookwalter, who made the initial break with his teammate, Jake Rytlewski. “I think everyone expected it to be Saturday or Sunday.”
On paper, the course’s profile was a bit flat, with rolling hills through the countryside of south-central Minnesota and only one climb of significance. But high crosswinds in the country, and that one climb – a three-quarter-mile ascent pitching at 13 percent in some spots – proved more than a challenge for many of the riders.
With attacks coming early and often from Fiordifrutta’s Jon Hamblen and his teammates, Advantage Benefits, Jelly Belly, and Lieswyn’s teammates Greg Henderson and Gord Fraser, the field strung out quickly in the crosswind, whittling down to only three-quarters of the field in a lead pack less than 30 miles in.
Then at 36 miles, a group of 17 rolled off, and it proved more decisive than many people had expected.
“That big group got clear, and it’s like we just pulled away,” Farrar said.
“I was impressed with how well everyone was working,” Milne said.
But while the break had strong representation from Jelly Belly (Manion and Brice Jones), McGuire Real Estate-Laugdale Pro Cycling (Eric Saunders and Devon Vigus), Fiordifrutta (Mike Dietrich and Dan Timmerman), and Endeavor (Bookwalter and Rytlewski), it only contained one rider each from Navigators and Health Net. And its organization seemed to fall apart late in the race.
“The bunch sort of went half-hearted,” Manion said.
Lieswyn knew if the right chase formed, he could catch the break.
“[Navigators’ Chris] Baldwin came up to me as we were pulling away and said that the break was gone, just give up,” Lieswyn said. “You can’t say die.”
With Navigators’ Siro Camponogra, Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home’s Aaron Olson, and current NCAA road race champion Bobby Lea in the chase with Lieswyn, the group had more than enough power to catch the break, reeling them in on a small hill 73 miles into the race and four miles from the circuit.
From there, it was just a suffer-fest.
“That hill on the circuit took its toll,” Lea said.
Facing six trips up the hill, riders started shedding after the second. It was not until lap four of the 2.3-mile circuit, though, that the final selection was made. Lieswyn jumped on the diminished pack for the king of the mountains points and took Manion and Milne with him. Then on the last lap, he dropped them, too.
“That’s all I had,” Milne said after trying to catch Lieswyn with 500 meters to go.
While Friday night’s criterium in downtown Minneapolis will prove to be a day for the sprinters, Saturday’s course in Red Wing along the bluffs of the Mississippi River and Sunday’s tough circuit race still leaves a lot of intrigue for the men, especially since Health Net only has four riders to defend the jersey.
“We’re going to have to come up with a good strategy,” said Lieswyn, who also took the King of the Mountain’s jersey.“Things will change,” Navigator’s director Ray Cipollini said.
Thorburn extends lead
In the 75-mile women’s race, the first hour went by at better than 24 mph as sprinters tried to wear down climbers in anticipation of the big hill they’d face four times before the finish line.
“That’s going to hurt. Especially after 75 miles,” said Shawn Heidgen (TDS-Schwalbe) before the start.
But the climb and some strong crosswinds were not enough to prevent Christine Thorburn (Webcor Builder) from taking her second win in two days and padding her margin over T-Mobile’s Kimberly Baldwin and Kori Seehafer.
Numerous attacks were launched and retrieved, with only Magen Long of the Bicycle Store getting more than 30 seconds up on the group. Then a crash at mile 32 took down TDS’ young rider hopeful Michelle Hyland, Ford’s Kele Hulser, and two T-Mobile riders, sprinter Ina Yoko Teutenberg and former NVGP champ Katie Mactier.
With their GC contender and star sprinter both on the ground, T-Mobile organized to let them catch back onto the already flying peloton.
“We had to keep it controlled and steady,” said Seehafer. “We had to go up front and slow the pace down and have a presence on the road.”
Other teams complied with T-Mobile’s efforts.
“Ina’s a really respected rider,” Thorburn explained.
Meanwhile, Quark’s Tina Pic and Laura Van Gilder, Victory Brewing’s Rochelle Gilmore and Teutenberg battled for sprint points. Gilmore also took the first Queen of the Mountains contest over Quark’s Swiss climber, Annette Beutler, and T-Mobile’s Baldwin. Thorburn was fourth up the first hill, but continued her attack onto the downtown finishing circuit.
“I knew this would be a good circuit course for Annette,” Thorburn said, “I didn’t want to get gapped from her. The third time up Annette and I crested together, so I said, ‘Let’s work.’”
Thorburn and Beutler worked together to lose T-Mobile’s climbers, Seehafer and Baldwin.
“Kori and I were behind them with a big group and we couldn’t get anybody to help chase. Nobody wanted to pull, so we got stuck in no-man’s land,” Baldwin said.
Up ahead, meanwhile, there was a bit of confusion. After the third lap, Beutler exploded to the finishing line of the four-lap circuit course ahead of Thorburn.
“She just put her arms up. She thought it was only three laps,” Thorburn said.
“I was thinking it was only three laps,” an embarrassed Beutler conceded. “It was my mistake, and that’s the race.”
A lap later, it was Thorburn’s chance to celebrate as she took a second stage and donned the leader’s jersey for a second day, increasing her GC lead to 45 seconds over T-Mobile’s Seehafer with Baldwin a further second behind. Quark’s Grace Fleury, Pic, and Van Gilder are all within a minute, as is Monex’s Lynn Gaggioli.
Pic leads the Freewheel Bike points jersey race ahead of Thorburn and Gilmore. Beutler is holding onto the best climber’s jersey. Alisha Lion of Ford-Basis has taken the best young rider jersey after stage 2.
All the riders talked about how tough stage 2 was and how they looked forward to a rest until stage 3’s Friday night criterium in downtown Minneapolis, where the race will be flat.
“It’s not flat here,” said Baldwin, who grew up in Green Bay, “I should've known that, being from the Midwest. Everything rolls here.”
Nature Valley Grand Prix
Mankato, MN. June 9
Mankato Road Race
1. John Lieswyn, Health Net-Maxxis, 92mi in 3:18:53
2. Caleb Manion, Jelly Belly-PoolGel, same time
3. Shawn Milne, Navigators Insurance Cycling Team, at 0:02
4. Tyler Farrar, Health Net presented by Maxxis , at 0:18
5. Aaron Olson, Colavita Olive Oil – Sutter, at 0:19
6. Emile Abraham, Monex, at 0:26
7. Andrew Crater, Team Wheel & Sprocket, at 0:27
8. Brian Jensen, HRRC-Saddlewood Bikesource Specialized, s.t.
9. Jake Rytlewski, Advantage Benefits-Endeavour, at 0:29
10. Jon Hamblen, Fiordifrutti, at 0:30
Women
1. Christine Thorburn, Webcor Builders, 75mi in 3:46:05
2. Nicole Freedman, Ford-Basis, at 0:12
3. Tina Pic, Quark Cycling Team, same time
4. Kori Seehafer, T-Mobile, s.t.
5. Annette Beutler, Quark, at 0:14
6. Lynn Gaggioli, Monex, s.t.
7. Kimberly Baldwin, T-Mobile, s.t.
8. Laura Van Gilder, Quark, s.t.
9. Meredith Miller, Victory Brewing, s.t.
10. Grace Fleury, Quark, s.t.
Overall
Men
1. John Lieswyn, Health Net-Maxxis, 3:27:41
2. Shawn Milne, Navigators Insurance, at 0:17
3. Tyler Farrar, Health Net-Maxxis, at 0:27
4. Bernard Van Ulden, Webcor Builders, at 0:42
5. Caleb Manion, Jelly Belly-PoolGel, at 0:44
6. Bobby Lea, Team Northwestern Mortgage, at 0:50
7. Aaron Olson, Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home, at 0:54
8. Jon Hamblen, Fiordifrutta , at 1:15
10. Brian Jensen, HRRC-Saddlewood Bikesource Specialized, at 1:18
Women
1. Christine Thorburn, Webcor Builders, 3:55:19
2. Kori Seehafer, T-Mobile, at 0:45
3. Kimberly Baldwin, T-Mobile, at 0:46
4. Grace Fleury, Quark, at 0:54
5. Tina Pic, Quark, at 0:55
6. Lynn Gaggioli, Monex, at 0:56
7. Laura Van Gilder Quark, at 0:58
8. Chrissy Ruiter, Ford-Basis, at 1:06
9. Nicole Freedman, Ford-Basis, at 1:09
10. Helen Kelly, Quark, at 1:12
