Nature Valley Grand Prix
Minneapolis, MN

June 10, 2005

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STAGE 3: Minneapolis Downtown Classic

Milne takes win in disrupted crit finale at Nature Valley

Navigator Insurance's Shawn Milne was not the most elated rider to sit at the finish line waiting for the awards of the Minneapolis Downtown Classic, the third stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Still, the rookie rider for Navigators did have smiles, having won the stage by several bike lengths over last year's stage winner Dave McCook of Jelly Belly-Pool Gel. The win was not just the first USA Cycling National Racing Calendar victory for Milne, it also meant he pulled on the leader's jersey for the grand prix.
And it meant he got dinner Friday night.

"Before we came here, [Navigator's director] Ray had a talk with us," Milne said. "The motivation he gave us is we get a team dinner if we win." Then he turned to Ray Cipollini and said the team should get two dinners, because he passed the finish line first twice.

That was just one of the problems that seemed to dull the excitement around the finish line, as McCook sat and wondered what had happened that had them race the last lap twice. "There's no way he would have won if they had counted [the laps] correctly," McCook said. Frank Pipp, of Advantage Benefits/Endeavor Cycling Team, took third in the bell lap, but he recognized something went wrong in the last two laps. "They gave us two laps to go twice," said Pipp, who did not cross the finish third in the previous lap.

Milne knew it, too, although he thought he made the right move at the right time for the win.
"I came around the corner and Ray is screaming for me to sprint," he said. "I went for it, but I didn't see anyone jump with me. I have seen too many times riders sprinting for what they think is the last lap and lose it,"

Instead of throwing up his hands and claiming victory too early, Milne continued through the finish line trying to hold his advantage. Milne's mistake and correction turned into his advantage, while the confusion over the last lap left McCook and his teammate Danny Pate, Pipp, and Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home's Jonathan Page to chase instead of contesting for the win.

"I am pretty confident that I would have won," McCook said as he voiced passionate concern over the quality of the officiating he witnessed Friday. "It's just frustrating when things that aren't in your control don't go right." Officials did not have any comment about the mistake.

Still, it was not the first thing to go wrong for Jelly Belly and McCook coming into the last laps. There was no question the team was lining up to see McCook repeat his victory here as they brought five riders together in the last four laps, with Pate pushing the pace. With a solo rider, McGuire Real Estate/Laugdale Cycling Team's Matt Dubberley, just dangling seconds in front, the showdown was building between Jelly Belly and a surging Health Net/Maxxis squad that was trying to form its own train.

But as Dubberley pedaled through the first turn with three laps to go, his pedal hit the ground, sending him across the street and into the barriers. Milne, who was sitting behind the Jelly Belly train, said it was just a mad dash between Jelly Belly and Health Net to find the line that would avoid the crash.
McCook said he and his team checked up and hit the breaks to avoid the wreck as it went in front of them, and that sent riders behind him flying forward. "It screwed up everything," he said of the lost momentum.

The ensuing pile up took downtown sprint leader Tyler Farrar of Health Net along with his teammates Gord Fraser and GC leader John Lieswyn, among others. Farrar seemed to take the worst of the crash, not finishing the race, while Lieswyn was left chasing to catch back onto the pack that missed the wreck. "I've pulled muscles in my legs and back," he said. "I'm pretty scratched up."

The wreck not only left him with wounds, it left him a gap to overcome to McCook, Milne, Pate, Pip, and Page. For McCook, it meant the end of his sprint train, and for Lieswyn, the wreck meant the end of his hold on the leader's jersey, as Milne came into the day second overall at 17 seconds behind.
Lieswyn had no words of praise for Milne and his victory, calling into question Milne's respect for the leader's jersey and his motivation for the win. "It was hard to lose the lead that way," he said. "If I was Shawn Milne, I wouldn't want to get the lead that way. "Evidently, Shawn has no respect for the jersey."

Milne said he knows that the wreck contributed to his victory, especially since he was not aiming for the win but rather pulling for his teammate, Siro Camponogara. But rather than attacking the GC leader while he was down, Milne said he was just following the wheels of the riders in front of him who continued to move ahead with the race. "I wasn't going for time," said Milne, who finished more than 20 seconds ahead of Lieswyn and earned bonus time for the win. "If I could, I would have waited.

He made no apologies for winning and taking the leader's jersey, though. "I'll take a win this way," he said without any emphasis or elation. "I wouldn't have preferred it this way, though. I had some friends go down in the wreck."

Cipollini also came to Milne's defense. "None of our riders would take advantage of the race leader going down," he said. "It's just the way the race turned out."

Even Health Net's director Jeff Corbett said in a criterium, it is hard for a rider near the front to know what is happening behind him, especially in the last few laps. "It's a lot easier to do that in a road race," he said.

But he still did not fully excuse Milne from all implications of using the wreck to his advantage. More of a concern for Health Net was the condition of Farrar, who went into the day as the top sprinter and top espoire and came out of the day with neither jersey and scratches and bruises. Later, after the finish, team officials said he physically would be able to continue the stage race.

The Nature Valley Grand Prix continues on Saturday with the Red Wing Road Race in Red Wing, Minn., about 55 miles southeast of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi River.

Thorburn averts disaster, Teutenberg finds victory in third stage of Nature Valley

Christine Thorburn had everything to lose and nothing to gain Friday night. The Webcor Builder rider came into the third stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, the Downtown Minneapolis Classic, leading the general classification. And with the criterium set over city streets during the 40-minute stage, getting a breakaway would be tough with so many turns in the course. More troubling, being involved in a crash could cost her the leader's jersey.

As predicted, the breakaway didn't come, and a crash did, in the middle of the race taking out a third of the field. "It was a tight turn," Thorburn said. "The woman who crashed hit the burg because of the decreasing angle of the turn." Thorburn went running for the pits when her bike got the worst of it. "I thought I was going to have to get a bike change. I couldn't roll my bike," she said. "They straightened out my bars. Felicia [Greer] gave me her wheel."

For Thorburn, the day was intense, but it left her right where she started in the leader's jersey. It also left Ina Yoko Teutenberg of T-Mobile in a familiar spot, too: atop the winner's podium as champion of the crit, a title she took two years ago. The short course and quick race meant riders were on the redline almost immediately. "It was a fast race from the start," said Victory Brewing's Rochelle Gillmore, who took second behind Teutenberg. "I wasn't ready for the intensity. I didn't warm up enough beforehand. I suffered most of the race."

Gillmore was also involved in that mid-race crash, but received a wheel change and got moving again.
The race appeared to be all T-Mobile. Their star sprinter Teutenberg launched off the front and pulled in the early laps. Then Katie Mactier pulled, followed by Kim Baldwin. There were 35 seconds in time bonuses up for grabs that would have narrowed the time gap to Thorburn.

Even climber Annette Beutler of Quark took the reins up front for a few laps, but with four laps to go it was Victory Brewing's Gina Grain driving. The six-turn course strung out the field and made the most of every rider's cornering skills. Early afternoon rain dampened the roads just enough to put fear in the racers. "It was a pretty technical course," Quark's Laura Van Gilder said, "and you've got to stay up front to make sure you're not caught unaware."

"I love technical courses, coming from a BMX background," said The Bicycle Store's Magen Long. "I'm glad the rain went away. I was afraid when I heard the tornado warnings. I thought I was back in Oklahoma." Long looked like she had a twister behind her as she chased down Teutenberg on the last lap, but it wasn't enough. Teutenberg's two-armed, palms-up salute just seemed to say, "Hey, was the outcome ever in doubt?"

Van Gilder, Quark's Tina Pic, and Long followed Teutenberg and Gillmore to the line. "Ina rode a really good race," Long said, "Kori Seehafer (T-Mobile) was doing a good job blocking." "I wanted to win," Gillmore said, "but I made a wrong move, waited too long. Then there wasn't enough room. Just a mistake I made. I'm confident I have the speed to win."

Teutenberg said it was all teamwork. "I got a good lead-out from my team," she said. "I had no choice. [My director] told me I had to do it today. It's good to have a stage win. Now everybody can relax." That's not likely with a 94-mile road race in rolling Red Wing, Minn., on Saturday and a 50-minute crit in historic Stillwater that includes the 20-percent grade up Chilakoot Hill. Plus, Thorburn only holds the GC leader's jersey by 36 seconds over Van Gilder, who racked up enough time bonuses to leapfrog over Seehafer and Baldwin.

"We were on the defensive today," Thorburn said. "We worked pretty hard on the front." "You're not going to get a minute on someone who's conscious of it," Van Gilder said about the Minneapolis crit. "There's two more hard days of racing. We're not here to roll over either."

Race reports courtesy of James Lockwood