TRIA Orthopaedic Center Your Cycling Blog

By Lyne Lamoureux, Nature Valley Grand Prix

Stillwater, Minn. – The Stillwater Criterium once again provided thrills and excitement to conclude the Nature Valley Grand Prix as defending champion Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) attacked the penultimate time up Chilkoot Hill Sunday to win the final stage.

With the assistance of his Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth teammates, Jesse Anthony survived all the attacks to finish second on the stage and claim the overall classification. Frank Pipp (BISSELL Pro Cycling) was third on the stage.

“Everyone here sees the crowd and how many people come out to cheer us on, it’s an awesome stage and it’s fantastic for the city of Stillwater to have such an event, there are not many like this in the country,” Sutherland said.

Anthony, perhaps better known for his cyclocross prowess until now, credited his team for helping him win the first stage race of his career.

“Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth has been working super hard all year,” he said. “We’ve been racing aggressively in every race we’ve done and we threw it down this week as hard as we could. Everyone went in 110 percent, everyone on the team was committed and it ended up working out for us.”

Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) powers up Chilkoot Hill Sunday to win the final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix

Only the strong survive the notoriously brutal criterium course that features Chilkoot Hill’s 21 percent grade at its steepest point during a two-block climb to the finish line. Riders started falling off the fast pace set by Anthony’s green train as it controlled the front, quickly reacting and neutralizing dangerous attacks from Luis Amaran and Tom Zirbel (Jamis/Sutter Home).

With two laps to go, Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) upped the pace on Chilkoot, exploding the dwindling field as the battle for the stage win commenced. Sutherland, Anthony, Amaran and third-on-general classification Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) all went with the attack. Sutherland attacked the next time up the climb and was able to hold on to enjoy his second consecutive victory at Stillwater.

“Last year was beautiful,” Sutherland said. “But this year, being actually able to enjoy the climb on the last time instead of having to sprint up, was nice.”

Anthony battled until the last lap keeping his closest rivals close and then passing them on the final climb to the finish line.

“The crowd here in Stillwater is unbelievable,” he said. “It rivals the Mayanunk Wall in Philadelphia. The hill is unexplainable until you really do it, even if you’re having the best of days, it hurts so much. I had great legs today and all week, but it was a battle to stay up front and stay with my teammates and follow the wheels at the end.”

Halfway through the 20-lap race, Timothy Rugg (Nature Valley Pro Ride) and Jeremy Vennell (BISSELL) got away and built a gap of 25 seconds before being reeled in eight laps later.  Rugg was awarded the red Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Rider for his efforts.

Kyle Wamsley (BISSELL) won the Sports Beans King of the Hills jersey after a tough fight with Logan Hutchings (ELBOWZ Racing) for it the final two stages.

“It makes me that much more happier that I could hold on to the jersey when I have somebody racing me for it,” Wamsley said about his fight for the polka dot jersey.

Förster won the  Wheaties FUEL Sprint Competition. Chad Haga (Team Rio Grande) took home the final Nature Valley Top Amateur green jersey while Joseph Schmalz (ELBOWZ Racing) won the white TRIA Orthopaedic Center Best Young Rider jersey. The BISSELL Pro Cycling team won the team classification.

Frank Pipp,Jesse Anthony,Kelly Benefit Strategies,Minnesota Bicycle Festival,Nature Valley Grand Prix,OptumHealth,Rory Sutherland,Stage Six,Stillwater,criteriums     Comments Off