If there were any questions about whether Cervélo-Lifeforce rider Kristin Armstrong was looking for a three-peat performance at the 2008 Nature Valley Grand Prix, those questions were answered during a windy, rain-lashed criterium in Saint Paul.

Armstrong took off like a bandit from the starting gun at the first stage of the six-stage race, demonstrating the combination of guts and skills it takes to be a World Champion. During her astounding effort against what is a broad and deep pool of women’s talent, Armstrong eventually lapped almost the entire women’s field. The nearly superhuman performance not only gave Armstrong the stage win, but also put her in the Wheaties Sprint jersey, the Jelly Belly Queen of the Hills jersey and the Nature Valley GP Overall Leader yellow jersey. While she was trouncing her competitors, officials pulled more than half of the women’s field and made the decision to let the entire group advance to the road stage in Cannon Falls tomorrow.

Heading into the race, Armstrong took a conservative stance. “The number one goal I have is Beijing in two months, so I need to remember that,” she said. “With these conditions out here tonight I just want to be safe and I hope the Peloton has the same feeling about being safe and we work together tonight.” But when the gun went off and the rubber hit the road, Armstrong took another tack. “When there’s rain and there’s a criterium, those two equal ‘try to go by yourself,’” said Armstrong. “I knew that it wasn’t going to be the safest course and I just wanted to stay safe and the only way you can do that is either stay in front or try to break the field, so I just decided to sit up and go as hard as I could.”

And go as hard as she could she did. Team TIBCO put forth an outstanding team effort chasing Armstrong, with Brooke Miller, Joanne Kiesanowski, and Lauren Franges all finishing in the top five and Kiesanowski and Miller taking second and third in the stage respectively. PROMAN Racing’s Rachel Lloyd took fourth and also made chase with the TIBCO riders for Armstrong. Franges’ efforts earned her the BOOST Best Young Rider jersey for the evening.

TIBCO’s effort was part of a bigger goal for the team. “TIBCO has a really strong team here and we are racing for the overall,” said Miller. “We have eight strong riders and the reason why we were racing so aggressively and chasing Kristin is because we want to win this race. We don’t want to win just stages, we want to win this race.”

Race officials made the decision to neutralize the stage results, meaning Armstrong and the TIBCO team gained no time advantage for their dominating efforts. The official’s decision was based on rain-soaked conditions making it impossible to score the race fairly at the end.

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Cervélo SA is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Marx as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Company. A former World Team Pursuit champion, he shares with Cervélo an uncompromising pursuit of excellence.

Michael’s varied work experience over the past 27 years uniquely equips him to head-up Cervélo’s growing organization. His experience in the bike industry ranges from retail, as a bike shop owner, to sales representative, to almost a decade as the Managing Director of Continental Tyres, two-wheel division. At Prym Fashion (apparel industry) he was the Managing Director for subsidiaries in Germany, Romania and Turkey where he was responsible for the setup and establishment of these divisions. Michael also worked for BMW in sales management providing marketing and business consultation to car dealers. Prior to joining Cervélo he ran his own management consultancy and training company, Balanced Performance. With his diverse background in management, sales and marketing he will provide strong leadership as Cervélo continues to increase its market share in global cycling. Michael’s presence also provides the founders with the autonomy they desire to concentrate their focus on what they do best – engineering, product design and strategic issues.

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Kristin Amrstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce) crushed the competition in the Sequoia Cycling Classic Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial, winning the race of truth with a lead of four minutes seventeen seconds ahead of Alex Rhodes (High Road) and four minutes fifty seconds in front of Felicia Gomez (Aaron’s).

The US national champion Armstrong blitzed the finishing line in perfect form giving her a final time of one hour, one minute and thirty-one seconds. For anyone counting, Armstrong would have finished 26th in the Men’s Time Trial held earlier.

“It’s early so everyone is going to be at a different fitness level this time of year, March is early to be fit, people that are out here doing well today may not be the same people here in two or three months. It was a great course, a great organization I’m happy I came out here.” said Armstrong.

The Sequoia Cycling Classic Time Trial is the second race in the NRC Calendar for the women, and the heavy hitters came out to play. The first race, the Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium held in Santa Rosa, was won by Tibco’s Brooke Miller.

The 40 kilometer (24.6 mile) course started off with a 400 feet climb over Rocky Hill and into rolling and twisting Yokhol Valley gradually climbing 400 feet again before the turnaround and return to the start/finish line. The valley was absolutely beautiful with blooming mustard wildflowers but I doubt that anyone has a chance to enjoy it during the ride.

Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team), winner
“It was great, it was very terrained, tail wind going out, headwind coming back, lots of twisting and turning. They call it the race of truth for a reason and I really think that you couldn’t… there was not a minute out there that you could relax or take the pressure off, so I think that the people that are going to be up on the podium today are going to be the ones that raced hard the whole way.”

“I’m going up, I’m just now kind of coming into a little bit fitness. I leave for Europe on Monday, I’m going to do the Spring campaign with my new team Cervelo-Lifeforce and I’ll come back and race Montreal, Philly, Nature Valley with my team and then I prepare specifically for Beijing. My team is based out of Lucerne, Switzerland it consists of riders from all over the world and I’ll be the only American, but there’s a New Zealander, an Australian, some German girls, Swiss girl, Austria so it’s just a variety of gals, really nice, our team is really into time trial specialists, I think that so far, so good. It’s been a really fun time working with international gals.”

Alex Rhodes (Team High Road – Women), second place
“It was pretty, long obviously. I was happy with my ride, to come second to Armstrong, she’s awesome so to be on the podium, I’m stoked.

“Winds were not too bad. I sort of like the wind, it’s the only time where being a little bit heavier kind of helps (laughs) , see it helps when you eat ice cream. Obviously, with the team this year it’s nice to repay all the faith they have in me. “

Felicia Gomez (Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team), third place
“It was hard, it’s a hard course which definitely suits me better. Like short, flat prologue-like that’s not really my thing, give me something that’s strong, hilly and hard , I can stay out there for a long time. It was good, what can I say, I’m really pleased, it’s a big year, Olympic year, you’ve got to be coming out the starting block guns blazing. I feel like my fitness is where it needs to be, you know to lose against Kristin Armstrong, I mean geez, and then Alex Rhodes who’s one of the best in Europe, I’m pretty happy, really I couldn’t ask for more.”

“We got these new bikes, I’ve been on it for a week, I love the bike, they are great, they’re hand me downs from Quickstep, I’ll take Bettini’s bike any day (laughs). It’s great, the bikes are fast. I’ve been working a lot of my TT and so to finally put in a really good one, to see that the hard work has paid off, I’m thrilled.”

“I’ve been doing at least once a week of intervals on my TT bike and then riding it a lot. Last year I had drastically changed my position and obviously it didn’t work for me because I sucked so this year I went back to what I was a couple of years ago and just really worked on being comfortable on the bike and I always knew that I could put out the power but it was being in a position that would allow me to generate the power and go fast so I think I was able to do that.”

Time Trial podium (l-r): Felicia Gomez (Aaron’s), Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce), Alex Rhodes (High Road)

On a personal note, I’d like to thank the good Samaritan that came to my assistance in Visalia on Saturday evening. The gentleman not only to my help to fix my car but he went the extra mile (or 10 actually) to make sure that everything was okay, and then to top it off, he flabbergasted me by offering up his discount at the car shop. Wow. Thank you so much.

Women’s TT Top 10

1. Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team) 01:01:31.89
2. Alex Rhodes (Team High Road - Women) +04:17.07
3. Felicia Gomez (Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team) +04:52.19
4. Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine Cycling) +05:09.91
5. Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team) +05:41.18
6. Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine Cycling) +05:41.88
7. Mara Abbott (Team High Road - Women) +06:11.37
8. Molly Van Houweling (Metromint Cycling) +06:35.50
9. Kristin Sanders (Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team) +06:52.69
10. Carmen Mcnellis (Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team) +06:54.29

Full results here.