By James Lockwood

To mix things up in this year’s Nature Valley Grand Prix, organizers added a 1-kilometer climb up the bluffs of the Mississippi River valley to the third stage of the St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial.

Mix it up , it may have, but it did little to change the result as Bissell’s time trial specialist and former Nature Valley champion Ben Jacques-Maynes took the win by 8 seconds over Healthnet-Maxxis’ Rory Sutherland. Along with the stage win, Jacques-Mayne also assumed the overall lead by 7 seconds over Healthnet’s John Murphy, who finished third in the time trial following his third-place finish in Thursday’s second stage Cannon Falls Road Race.

Jacques-Maynes conquered the hill and 6-mile course in 12 minutes, 32 seconds, followed by Sutherland at 12:40 and Murphy at 12:45.
Jacques-Maynes said the hill was the challenge, despite the strong headwinds going out on the first, flat 2.5 miles. However, at only one kilometer and an average grade of 6 percent, it was a course that suited him.

“Little 1-kilometer climbs like this have my name written all over it,” he said.

Still, the hill presented a bit of a strategic challenge for the riders – where to push the pace, where to recover, and how to ride up the climb. “I left it in the big ring,” Jacques-Mayne said. “It was a bit of a gamble, but the gamble paid off.”

Sutherland said if it wasn’t for the climb, the time gap to Jaques-Maynes might have been larger.

“The climb mixed it up a lot,” he said. “If it was flat like last year, I am sure I would have lost more time.”

As impressive as Jacques-Maynes’ time was his team’s performance. Bissell placed five riders in the top 10, and most of the rest of the team stayed within a minute of Jacques-Maynes’ time, including Aaron Olson, who dropped his chain about 100 meters from the finish yet still pushed his bike across the line at 13:30. The team’s performance made up for a lackluster showing Thursday and set the team up for Saturday’s 86-mile road race.

“Yesterday, we were a bit disappointed because we couldn’t get anything going,” said Bissell’s Garrett Peltonen, who finished seventh on the time trial stage at 13 minutes. “Hopefully, we can stack a lot of guys up near the top and force the other teams to have to choose who to cover in the [Mankato] road race.”

He made that statement before Jacques-Maynes finished, but his wish was granted. With the only overall contender outside of Bissell and Healthnet to crack the top 10 being Toyota-United’s Ivan Stevic – who finished sixth at 20 seconds back – Bissell established a strong position going into the final three stages.

Healthnet saw a silver lining to ceding the leader’s jersey to Bissell.

“I think it is good to not have to defend the leader’s jersey going into Saturday’s road race,” Healthnet’s Murphy said. “If the winds tomorrow are anything like today, you can burn through a lot of your guys just trying to hold onto the jersey before hitting the hill in Mankato.”

And, with two third places under his belt, Sutherland’s strong performance, and a criterium looming Friday evening before the 86-mile Mankato road race, Murphy said his team is sitting in good position.

“We’ve got four or five guys who can pop into the lead,” he said. “I am confident we can win.”

Photo courtesy of Matt Moses