Shelley Olds (TIBCO) and Juan José Haedo(Jamis) win Stillwater Criterium(Nature Valley)

Team TIBCO Goes One-Two on Stage; Shelley Olds Wins Overall Title
By Cynthia Lou for Nature Valley Grand Prix

It was a big day for Team TIBCO as Shelley Olds captured the overall victory, Claudia Hausler and Joanne Kiesanowski took first and second on the Stillwater Criterium stage, Hausler won the SportBeans Queen of the Hills competition, and Team TIBCO won the team classification.

Jade Wilcoxson (Optum p/b Kelly Benefits Strategies) started the final race with a one second lead ahead of Olds but crashed in the last corner of the last lap before what would have been her last trip up Chilkoot Hill. Wilcoxson was unable to finish the race.

“I’m just so proud of my team,” said Olds. “We stuck together the whole stage race, we were composed, we had a plan the whole time and we executed on the final day.”

With Team TIBCO’s strategy to slowly chip away seconds from Olds’ overall time on each stage, today’s move was to set the pace at the front and control the race, which split the peloton early.

Specialized-lulelemon continued yesterday’s trend of aggressive solo attacks, sending Ally Stacher out with seven laps to go out of 13 total laps of the 2.2k, 12-corner course featuring the 18% average grade of Chilkoot Hill.

Perhaps channeling the energy of the Carly Swart jersey which was awarded earlier in the day to Amber Gaffney (Optum p/b Kelly Benefits Strategies), the rider who is voted by the peloton to have sacrificed the most for her team, Stacher stayed away for several laps alone.

She was eventually joined by teammate Tayler Wiles and Team TIBCO’s Kiesanowski. Behind them Optum p/b Kelly Benefits Strategies and Team TIBCO relaxed just a bit, watching each other and resting, waiting until the final few laps to strike again.

At two laps to go Hausler went on the attack and bridged up to the lead group.

“I felt like I could close the gap,” said Hausler about her bridge to the front group. “The people are amazing here, the crowd was amazing, it’s very easy to go full gas up the climb.”

With Wiles and Stacher working together, and Team TIBCO setting up for an overall win, Kiesanowski had been able to sit in on the three-woman breakaway, giving her an opportunity to rest.

Once Hausler made contact with the group, Hausler and Kiesanowski took off ahead of Wiles and Stacher in the final lap, finishing first, second, third and fourth on the stage.

Behind them, the aggressive hunt for yellow saw the Optum train setting up along the outer fence on the downhill before the final turn as Team TIBCO’s Lauren Stephens and Olds set up on the inside. Wilcoxson took the turn wide, hitting a groove on the outside of the asphalt and street gutter and crashed, while Olds sprinted to the finish line for a fifth-place finish on the stage and the overall win.

“Optum was lined up on the left side on the downhill and I had one teammate Lauren Stephens in front of me trying to get me through that corner first,” said Olds. “Jade jumped ahead of us and took that last corner first. I told my teammate to move out of the way, and I took the inside corner. Jade had a huge lead out from me already, but when she went through the corner on the outside she crashed into the gate.”

This is Olds’ second overall victory at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

“In 2010 when I won this race I was so happy leaving here, I kept so many friends from the area that followed me through the Olympics, that supported me on Facebook,” said Olds. “It’s just an amazing community of people here, I’ve made a lot of good friends and have so many great fans from the area.”

Stacher’s efforts earned her the Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Rider jersey. Hausler won the SportBeans Queen of the Hill jersey, Wiles the TRIA Orthopaedic Center Best Young Rider jersey, Anna Christiansen (Nature Valley Cycling Team) the Nature Valley Best Amateur jersey, and Katharine Wells the Xcel Energy Sprint jersey.

For complete results from the women’s race events, visit www.naturevalleybicyclefestival.com/Grand-Prix/Results/StillwaterCrit-Women

Haedo Wins Third Stage While Friedman Takes Overall NVGP Title
By Pat Borzi

J.J. Haedo completed a sweep of the three criterium stages in the six-stage Nature Valley Grand Prix on Sunday, winning the Stillwater Criterium with a spirited final climb up strength-sapping Chilkoot Hill. But he could not keep Mike Friedman from his first overall victory on American soil.

Friedman’s Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies teammates – including last year’s winner, Tom Zirbel – escorted him through the first 18 laps of the 20-lap criterium Sunday, spreading out across the course when necessary to keep general classification challengers Andres Diaz and Eric Marcotte of Elbowz Racing behind them. Friedman, who entered Sunday with a 37-second lead, wrapped up the general classification (GC) by placing second behind Haedo, of Jamis Hagens Berman/Sutter Home.

“That’s a bit of negative racing, but that’s the way it’s played,” said Friedman, whose only other overall victory came at the Tour de Korea in 2010. “We fought for the GC earlier in the week by going for the time bonues and racing hard. Today it was about defending it. These guys did fantastic job.”

Friedman’s overall time of 11 hours, 11 minutes and 12 seconds put him 40 seconds ahead of Diaz. Marcotte, the top amateur who lived in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis for five years, took third, 46 seconds back. The judges did not penalize Marcotte for crashing into spectators peering down tree-lined Chilkoot on his final lap and falling off his bike. Marcotte received the same time as the group he was with when he fell.

“It would have been obviously hard for us to get 30-something, 40 seconds off of Friedman,” Marcotte said.

“Optum raced really well. They played their cards right and we stuck it to them. But the field wasn’t quite as deep as it’s been in the past, which is why it’s harder to shatter things because the other riders aren’t quite as strong to help you get things to rip apart. Jamis did a great job here, too,” Marcotte added.

Friedman and teammate Scott Zwizanski began the day first and second in the GC. Optum’s Michael Creed dropped off the pace early, but Zirbel, Jesse Anthony, Zwizanski and Chad Haga ran enough interference to keep Diaz and Marcotte fenced in behind them. Optum lost its spread capability after a tiring Haga eased up with six laps to go, allowing riders to attack up the right side of Chilkoot.

Time trial winner Serghei Tvetcov of Jelly Belly, Sam Bassetti of California Giant/Specialized and Joseph Schmalz of Elbowz tried to break away with three laps to go, but Zirbel, Anthony and Zwizanski chased them down. Haedo’s teammate, premier climber Janier Acevedo, made a big move for the lead on the final lap, with Haedo and Friedman among those in pursuit.

“The last lap, I told Janier to attack,” Haedo said. “I told him to try to get the win in the breakaway, and I saved myself for the sprint. In my case, I knew I had one shot to do it.”

That was enough to edge Friedman in the stage by two seconds. Jesse Goodrich’s third place finish helped California Giant edge Optum by five seconds for the team title. Zwizanski dropped to fourth, with Anthony fifth.

Zirbel, who saw his chance of defending his title fizzle by finishing 36th in the Cannon Falls Road Race on Thursday, was thrilled for Friedman.

“I was disappointed with myself on Cannon Falls day, taking myself out of the race,” Zirbel said. “But I had the utmost confidence in Mike to pull it off.

“As long as we win, it doesn’t mater who it is. I’m really excited because these guys are always working for me, or whoever. They’re just great teammates. For them to have their opportunity to win, I’m super-excited.”

Other jersey winners included Bissell’s Nicolai Brochner for Best Young Rider, Ricardo Van Der Velde of Jelly Belly for Best Sprinter, Cash Call’s Chris Barton for King of the Mountain, and Schmalz for Most Aggressive Rider.