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.

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By Lyne Lamoureux, Nature Valley Grand Prix

Menomonie, Wis. — The Menomonie Road Race lived up to expectations Saturday at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. At the end of the more than 100 miles of hard racing in the lush rolling terrain of Wisconsin, the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team’s winning streak was stopped at four.

Amidst a shattered peloton that saw fewer than two dozen riders allowed onto the finishing circuit, Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) attacked his fellow escapees on the last of four laps around the two-mile course to claim the victory.

“I died a thousand deaths, but I ate plenty of Sports Beans in the race and also on the circuits and it all worked,” Van Ulden said. “Without my sponsors, none of this would be possible. I’m very happy. This is a dream come true.”

Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) celebrates his victory Saturday at the Menomonie Road Race that snapped UnitedHealthcare's string of four straight stage wins at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth) finished second on the stage and took over the yellow jersey as the general classification experienced a big shakeup.

“We’re really, really happy to have the lead in this race especially with OptumHealth, one of our title sponsors here,” Anthony said. “We’ve been racing aggressively and it’s awesome to finally see it pay off. This is a team effort, I wish all my teammates could wear the yellow jersey with me, we all worked for it equally.”

Jay Thomson (BISSELL Pro Cycling) was third on the stage.

After watching UnitedHealthcare win the first four stages – including a podium sweep in St. Paul on Stage 2 – the rest of the peloton was determined to try and wrestle control from the blue train. The course was equally as conducive for it, featuring plenty of twists and turns and four Sports Beans King of the Hills climbs. With an early break already off the front, the Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth squad lined up at the front heading up the the second tough climb and exploded the field.

“We knew today was going to be a decisive day as well as tomorrow,” Anthony said. “We just had to race real aggressively and use the strengths that the team has. Today was a good long road race of attrition and we raced as hard as we could. The guys threw down, as hard as they could, we just kept attacking and we didn’t give up.”

By the time the attacks ended, only 20 riders remained at the front, including multiple riders from Kelly Benefit Stategies, BISSELL, Jelly Belly, Team Exergy, Jamis/Sutter Home, and only one from UnitedHealthcare – defending champion Rory Sutherland.

The decisive move of the men's race is made with 15 miles to go in Saturday's 101-mile Menomonie Road Race at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Jay Thomson (leading) split an already select group with an attack that drew out seven riders who survived to the finish.

The next round of hostilities were opened up as the breakaway approached the four finishing circuits with a gap of five minutes on the field. Seven riders (Van Ulden, Anthony, Thomson, Heath Blackgrove and Logan Hutchings (both of ELBOWZ Racing), Luis Amaran (Jamis/Sutter Home) and Freddie Rodriguez and Andres Diaz (both of Team Exergy) were battling for the stage win and the yellow jersey.

“Coming into the circuits here, I was dying a thousand deaths,” Murphy said. “I started cramping and I knew I didn’t have the legs to go against the sprinters so I figured my best chance was going to be either keep it together and try not to lose time because I was relatively high up there on GC, or to try to get off the front.”

In addition to the stage win, Van Ulden was also awarded the Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Rider jersey. His UnitedHealthcare teammate, Robert Förster, kept his lead in the Wheaties FUEL Sprint competition. Chad Haga (Team Rio Grande) retained the green jersey as the Nature Valley Top Amateur and Joseph Schmalz (ELBOWZ Racing) is the new leader in the white TRIA Orthopaedic Center Best Young Rider competition. Kyle Wamsley (BISSELL Pro Cycling) defended his Sports Beans King of the Hills in an early heated battle.

Sunday’s Stillwater Criterium is billed as “the most brutal criterium course in North America.” Last year, Kelly Benefit Strategies lost the overall in a battle to the wire with UnitedHealthcare. With a similar situation this eyar, Anthony said he is ready to defend his lead.

“It’s going to be an amazing race,” he said. “That course just explodes the race. It’s hard the whole time and hopefully I have the legs. We’ve been working on this for the whole year. We’ll go out there and see what we do.”

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By Lyne Lamoureux, Nature Valley Grand Prix

Cannon Falls, Minn. – The UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team made it three in a row Thursday night by winning the Stage 3 Cannon Falls Road Race at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Robert Förster took top honors and the race lead, while teammate Jake Keough was second and Ken Hanson (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) finished third.

Just like Förster said it was drawn up at his team’s pre-race meeting, the German sprinter took the race lead from teammate Rory Sutherland with the help of a 12-second time bonus at the finish.

“I knew that I was only 11 seconds behind Rory, so we tried to make the leadout for me today, Förster said.

With a slim, one-second lead over three-time Nature Valley Grand Prix champion Sutherland, Förster said he wants to defend. But he also said he has no problem passing the leader’s yellow jersey on to one of his teammates. “I want to hold the jersey as long as possible but when Rory comes back or another rider, I don’t care as long as it’s the team, the main thing is the team.”

Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare) takes the race lead with a 12-second time bonus. Teammate Jake Keough takes second and Ken Hanson (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) finished third.

Racing was fast and aggressive on the 66.5-mile road race as the riders sped  through gently rolling, but wide open farmlands. Attacks and counter-attacks were flying at the front but no one was able to escape until 30 miles into the stage. Four riders – Tom Zirbel (Jamis/Sutter Home), Andy Jacques-Maynes (BISSELL Pro Cycling), Marsh Cooper (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Optumhealth) and Mat Stephens (ELBOWZ Racing) – sped free, but never managed more than a 35-second gap.

UnitedHealthcare riders worked hard to control the front for most of race and were content to let the four-man group dangle off the front. But the break was doomed from the start and the field was all back together before making the right-hand turn into the gravel road section on its way back to Cannon Falls. The fast pace was even higher on the six finishing circuits that included a short, steep climb to the finish line.

The United Healthcare Team put in some hard work in Cannon Falls to continue to control the peloton.

“It was a fast race, with a 48 kph average speed,” Förster explained. “All the teams tried to attack us and it was difficult to stay together. We lost some boys from the hard work in the first 70, 80 kilometers and then we came to the loops.”

Once on the circuit, the battle for control at the front was on between several teams, with the Jelly Belly squad taking over with four laps to go.

“We knew our best chance was to just ride the front and keep me out of trouble and then UnitedHealthcare was going to take over and try to lead out the sprint.” Hanson said. “Jelly Belly rode really great to get organized.”

Chaos reigned with the sprinters fighting for position behind the leadout train of UnitedHealthcare on the final lap. Sutherland was at the front, followed by Karl Menzies, Förster, Keough and Hanson. The battle to stay on the train intensified and Hanson said he had to work hard to close down a gap. After reconnecting to Keough’s wheel, he got boxed in when the leadout riders peeled off at the front.

“Once I lost the momentum on the hill, that was it. So I ended up third,” Hanson said. “I’m happy to get on the podium, but it could have been better.”

Kyle Wamsley (BISSELL) will be wearing the polka-dot Sports Beans King of the Hills jersey after taking top points in the first two sprint lines. Tom Zirbel (Jamis/Sutter Home) was awarded the Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Rider jersey. The other special  jerseys remain the same: Carlos Alzate (Team Exergy) in the black Wheaties FUEL Sprint Competition jersey, Chad Haga (Team Rio Grande), in the green jersey as the Nature Valley Top Amateur, and Joey Rosskopf (Team Type 1-Development) in the white jersey for the TRIA Orthopaedic Center Best Young Rider.

Racing continues Friday with the Minneapolis Uptown Criterium, the marquee event of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, attracting what many observers consider to be the largest criterium crowd in the country. Uptown is a major entertainment district that abuts dense, upscale residential neighborhoods. The flat, six-corner course and a pumped-up crowd traditionally makes for high speeds. A long drag up Lake Street leads to a short dash from the final corner to the finish line on Hennepin Avenue.

Förster hopes to make it four straight for UnitedHealthcare with another performance like Wednesday’s 1-2-3 sweep of the Downtown Saint Paul Criterium.

“We’ll try to do the same as yesterday, but since we lost one rider, Hilton (Clarke), who separated his shoulder, we are only seven tomorrow,” he said. “We used all the guys today to do the sprint, so maybe it can be a little bit different. But the guys are good, they are all in good condition, we all work well together and we know what to do.”

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