Nature Valley Grand Prix
Stage Two
June 9, 2005
Webcor Builders Women's Cycling Team
Report by Christine Thorburn

In past years, this race has been won by women who are strong time trialists but also good sprinters, since there are many intermediate time bonuses and rather large finish time bonuses. Most of the courses are flat except for the final Stillwater criterium on Sunday which features a climb harder than the Cat's Hill course. However, this year the organizers added this stage in Mankato which included four finishing circuits through the downtown featuring a significant 1km climb somewhat similar to the Philly Manayunk climb. When we saw this during our warm-up for the stage, the plan was to make the race hard and try for a breakaway with one of our riders (not the yellow jersey) to take up time bonuses and then save Christine for a big move on the circuits to the finish.

We did a 78-mile loop through the flatter farmlands and crosswinds and came into town for the four finishing circuits. The intermediate time bonus sprints were for 5/3/1 seconds at miles 12, 22, 44, and 59. Cat Malone and Katheryn Curi tried to get Christine into good position for the first sprint, but with a right and then left just before the line, we got out of position. There were too many fresh teams wanting to get their sprinters points for the sprint jersey early in the race. Then there was a flurry of attacks but no break would stay away before the second sprint point. Shortly after the 2nd sprint was a stiff crosswind section, and T-Mobile went to the front to gutter everyone. Unfortunately, Stef Graeter had just gone back to the car for instructions from Carmen and to get bottles (it was a long hot day). Soon she was chasing with other dropped riders.

The most significant break of the day was initiated by Kori Seehafer of T-Mobile. Katheryn had to put in a big effort to bridge up and a number of other riders followed her, including another T-Mobile and two Quark. This put us at a disadvantage and Erinne Willock and Cat did a good deal of work to bring back this break. Shortly after this there was a crash involving four riders, including T-Mobile's Ina Teutenberg and Katie Mactier (recent Pursuit World champion and new addition to their team). Magen Long had gotten away solo before the third sprint, and we let Quark chase her back because they were working for Tina to get into the sprint jersey. Then there was a lull to see if Ina and Katie were going to get back on – Ina is too respected of a rider for us to initiate attacks during this time, but we didn't want to stop racing either. The good news about this incident is that Stef was able to work with them to also catch back on. Shortly after Ina rejoined the group, she started to work hard and initiate attacks (we think she was pretty hurt so decided to do her work early before the finish). Felicia Greere and Cat did a great job covering Ina's efforts – we finally kept her in check!

By the final sprint point, many of the riders were too tired to contest, so Christine was able to sneak into the Quark lead out and take 2nd to Laura Van Gilder and ahead of Tina Pic. This was only a 3-second bonus, but you never know when you'll need them! The final small breakaway was by Candice Blickem of Quark with Katheryn bridging up to her with Kate Sherwin of Victory Brewing in tow. We thought this might be a good group, but it was missing T-Mobile, who brought it back before the fast run-in to the first QOM point just outside of the town. This climb was quite gradual, and in fact a sprinter, Rochelle Gilmore (Australian riding as a guest on Victory) took the top points with Annette Beutler in tow and Kim Baldwin and Christine just behind. Kim countered with Christine, but Annette brought them back shortly.

Once on the circuits, it was the climb that caused attrition. Christine watched Annette closely, who led up the first two climbs, but the peloton caught back on down each of the first two descents and through the crit-style finishing corners. Heading into the 3rd climb, Erinne attacked and then Katheryn countered to try to set up Christine to get a gap on those who had chased back on. The 3rd time up the climb was the last QOM for the day, and Annette set a blistering tempo. Over the top, it was just the two of them. Christine encouraged Annette to work, pointing out that she was likely to outsprint Christine for a stage win if they stayed away. Apparently, Annette thought this was the final lap, and sprinted across the line with arms raised! Christine just kept motoring into the final climb and stayed away for the win by 12 seconds over the chase group of 6-8 riders. Nicole Freedman had a great ride to finish 2nd over Tina Pic in 3rd. Kori Seehafer was 4th and Kimberly Baldwin 6th but 2 seconds back, putting Kori into 2nd in GC, now 45 seconds behind Christine, who claimed 15 seconds for the stage win.

The rest of Webcor had done a bit too much work to have great placings today, but Christine was fresh enough to get more time on the GC contenders. Tonight is the fast, flat 40-minute downtown crit. There are lots of time bonuses, so we'll see what we can do about them, but we have a bit of a cushion now.

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