NVGP pics

Here are a few of the pictures I took at the final stage of the NVGP. If you know the identity of any of the pictured riders please feel free to leave them in the comments (I'm better at naming the protour riders, but I promise to be better next year).

The first couple are looking down and up the hill from where we were waiting. It doesn't do the hill justice but gives a rough idea.

Last week on the bike

Not as many miles as I would have liked but not a bad week this week. Of course when you aren't going on a 40 mile ride it kind of reduces your overall total for the week.

It definitely sucks that you can't enter the cedar lake trail from down by the new stadium site anymore because it means that I end up riding the river road all the time and it's hard to get motivated with the same scenery all the time. I will just need to come up with some new routes I guess.

With the expected inclement weather Tuesday it looks like I won't get out until at least Thursday this week but what do the weathermen know?

Weekly Total - 54
Season Total - 604

NVGP - Stage 6

What an awesome time!!!

The Stillwater Crit was a ton of fun to check out in person and I highly recommend it to everyone next year. We unfortunately missed the women's race as we arrived during the last 15 min but it took 20 min to find parking so that didn't work out so well, but the men's race more than made up for it.

L & I staked out a spot in the shade halfway up Chilkoot hill and waited for the fun to begin (Fun only because we were watching). Unfortunately Nathan O'Neill had to drop out due to illness, but even if he had been there I don't think anything outside of a crash was keeping Ivan Stevic from the yellow jersey at the end of the day.

I was impressed with the number of breaks that tried to get away given the insanity of the hill every lap, but they were all brought back until with just over 1 lap to go Frank Pipp, Darren Lill, and Rory Sutherland went off the front and were able to keep ahead of the peleton on the final sprint up the hill to the finish. It was crazy watching Stevic move up in the pack to ensure no one got enough gap to make a difference in the standings.

Heck just the power the riders had left at the end to "sprint" an 18% grade to the finish is insane. Given the lack of sidewalks, those of us on the hill could practically reach out and touch the riders. This wa a great vantage to watch the strategy even of the riders. You could see the peloton all strung out on the bottom of the hill, but every time they would reform and stretch out across the road and you could see people go from mid pack to the front by moving on the outside. Crazy.

The intensity of the hill had a couple of other affects as well. We saw quite a few chains dropped and luckily enough people knew what was up to give the riders a little send off to get started again and also the large number of riders dropping out after the halfway point.

I will hopefully post some of the pictures I took tomorrow but here is the stage info and final GC standings

Stage 6:
1 Frank Pipp (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 1.00.09
2 Darren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
3 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis
4 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
5 Kirk O'Bee (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis
6 Ivan Stevic (SCG) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team
7 Cesar Augusto Grajales (Col) The Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team 0.07
8 Anthony Colby (USA) Colavita - Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light
9 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health Cycling Team p/b Bissell 0.10
10 Dan Bowman (USA) Kelly Benefit Strategies - Medifast 0.16

GC results:
1 Ivan Stevic (SCG) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team 8.35.48
2 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.27
3 Kirk O'Bee (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.39
4 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 0.40
5 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health Cycling Team p/b Bissell 0.41
6 Darren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 0.45
7 Anthony Colby (USA) Colavita - Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light 0.50
8 Frank Pipp (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.56
9 Cesar Augusto Grajales (Col) The Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team 1.02
10 Jeff Louder (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 1.25

NVGP - Stage 5

I'm a little late on this one so just a quick recap.

Health Net once again won the stage with Rory Sutherland taking the win out of a break that formed in the finishing circuits in Mankato. It was the only break that Toyota-United didn't reel in throughout the day, but in the end it had no effect on the yellow jersey with Ivan Stevic maintaining control ahead of Nathan O'Neil and Sutherland.

It has to be looking good for Stevic to take the overall since he won last year in Stillwater. I'm heading down there to check it out and it should be a great time. If I can get a good spot on the hill then I should have some good pics to post later on today.

Stage 5 results:

1. Rory Sutherland Health Net presented by Maxxis 3.05'01"
2. Anthony Colby Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light
3. Cesar Grajales Jittery Joe's
4. Darren Lill Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
5. Phil Zajicek Navigators Insurance Cycling Team

7. Ivan Stevic Toyota-United Pro Cycling 8"

and the GC with one stage to go:
1. Ivan Stevic Toyota-United Pro Cycling 7.35'39"
2. Nathan O'Neill Health Net presented by Maxxis 23"
3. Rory Sutherland Health Net presented by Maxxis 27"
4. Ben Jacques-Maynes Priority Health 31"
5. Kirk O'Bee Health Net presented by Maxxis 39"
6. Phil Zajicek Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 40"
7. Anthony Colby Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light 43"
8. Darren Lill Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 45"
9. Cesar Grajales Jittery Joe's 55"
10. Frank Pipp Health Net presented by Maxxis 56"

NVGP - Stage 4 pt. 2

OK so here is my wrap up of the stage with all the times and such. IT remains to be seen if O'Bee's strategy of just going for the win in the stage can help him. He did get the big time bonus for that, but thanks to the intermediate sprint bonuses, Ivan Stevic gained an additional 10" on him.

The top five in the stage were:
1. Kirk O'Bee Health Net presented by Maxxis 1.00'37"
2. Ivan Stevic Toyota-United Pro Cycling
3. Henk Vogels Toyota-United Pro Cycling
4. David McCook Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast
5. Juan Pablo Forero Colombian National Team

and the latest GC rankings are:
1. Ivan Stevic Toyota-United Pro Cycling 4.30'30"
2. Kirk O'Bee Health Net presented by Maxxis 19"
3. Nathan O'Neill Health Net presented by Maxxis 31"
4. Ben Jacques-Maynes Priority Health 31"
5. Chris Baldwin Toyota-United Pro Cycling 40"
6. John Murphy Health Net presented by Maxxis 45"
7. Phil Zajicek Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 48"
8. Rory Sutherland Health Net presented by Maxxis 50"
9. Edward King Priority Health 50"
10. Darren Lill Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 53"