By Lindsey Dickinson

Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light rider Tina Pic won the Cannon Falls Road Race, stage two of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, in a sprint finish to earn the Nature Valley GP overall yellow jersey and a spot on top of the podium. Joanne Kiesanowski of Team TIBCO took second and Cheerwine’s Laura VanGilder took third in the stage.

“I was just trying to keep myself up there,” said Pic of her time in the finishing circuits. “It was dicey. You really had to be in top five. Once you got back a little bit, it was that slinky effect and you had to be up there, just fighting.”

Pic’s fighting finish came after 55 miles among the rolling farm fields of east-central Minnesota, marred by one serious crash involving several riders, including Pic. “I chased for a long time,” said Pic. “Then two of my teammates came back to help but I think they didn’t know I was down and it took a long time to get a wheel change… When I got up everyone was gone, so it was just a long time chasing…I’m okay. I landed on people, poor things.”

The Jelly Belly Queen of the Hill jersey went to Felicia Gomez of Aaaron’s Professional Women’s Cycling Team, while Joanne Kiesanowski of TIBCO took home the Wheaties Sprint jersey. Cheerwine’s Catherine Cheatley earned the BOOST Best Young Rider jersey

If the prior night’s rainy, cold criterium in Saint Paul was a bike racer’s hell, then Thursday’s Cannon Falls Road Race was a little slice of heaven for the women’s peloton. In a stage that has historically been marred by adverse weather—extreme heat one year and tornadoes the next—today’s race presented what can only be described as a beautiful sunny day, complete with moderate temperatures and light winds. The teams started from scratch after a controversial decision by the officials to cancel the results of the first stage due to the negative weather events. The decision negatively impacted riders and teams who fought through the weather, including Team TIBCO.

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US Crit Champion Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) made her Stars & Stripes proud on Sunday, winning her second stage, the final criterium at the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Pic outsprinted Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) and Jeannie Longo, riding for the composite team River City Racing to cross the line first after a week of racing in Oregon.

Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) outsprints Joanne Kiesanowski (tibco) and Jeannie Longo to win final stage at Mt Hood

“I have to say that was a bit painful, fifth stage in the race. I was hot and I was struggling to get to the finish because I got a bad start. Jeannie [Longo] was going for the finish, it was pretty impressive, wow, but I got her.” said Pic.

Canadian Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) kept the leader’s jersey even though she crashed in the last 100 meters, as she was given the same time as the field.

“A little bit, after the time trial it definitely was, it’s still sinking in.” said Beveridge when asked if she understood the importance of this win.

By finished second and grabbing important time bonus seconds, Longo jumped to second place on GC ahead of three-times Mt Hood winner Leah Goldstein (ValueAct). To keep things in perspective, the 49-year old Longo had already won three World Road Championship before Beveridge was born in 1988.

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It was a party in Portland and the sprinters came to play at the Mt Tabor Criterium – a crit in name only – stage 1 at the Mt Hood Cycling Classic.

Under beautiful skies, warm temperatures, beautiful setting and an appreciative crowd, Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter-Home) showed why she can wear the Stars & Stripes as the US Criterium Champion outsprinting GC leader Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) at the line. With the time bonuses on the line, Pic picked up the leaders jersey, the points jersey and the QOM jersey to add to her collection. Julie Beverige (Aaron’s) came in third and kept her Best Young Rider jersey for another day.

Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home) wins sprint at Mt Tabor; photo c. Lyne Lamoureux

“Jeannie [Longo] was driving it up there, and then we came down, it was kind of a fight down there, a lot of Cheerwine, they were definitely trying to do a leadout. And I was dodging in and my teammate Tiffany was in there, and Jo [Kiesanowski] went at 150 but she stayed to the right which is smart and I had to back up and come around the long way. It was a really good move on her part, she’s a smart racer. I went with 100 or 50 to go.” said Pic about the final lap.

“I had to try to something, I thought I could see if I could get someone to come with me.” said a Kiesanowski.

Pic was concerned about the course when she saw for the first time during warm up, extremely winding course with nearly 135 feet of elevation for every 1.3 mile lap, and 90 degrees turn at the top of the climb. But she loved it.

“I was scared of that course when I saw it. First I thought this climb is pretty brutal, it’s funny when we got in there, it wasn’t so bad because this part you could actually… you had a fair draft coming up, it leveled a bit, really it was just this little bit and in the pack it wasn’t as bad as alone. It was actually quite fun, it was a really cool course. It was a surprise.”

Today’s course was all about positioning, being at the front at the top of the hill. And of course teammates.

“It was good, I don’t like crits, but it lots of fun, it had a good hill on it, that was great. The end was all Meredith [Miller] and Alison[Testroete] because I’m not such a great sprinter but Meredith drilled up the hill and she lead me to move up into position, it was kind of mess because Felicia [Gomez] went down, Alison came around me at the bottom and was like ‘get on my wheel’, and I was like ‘okay’.” said Beveridge about the finish.

“My team did so much work today, as usual, we’re really cohesive this year, I sat, I didn’t do much today.” said Pic.

“We were trying to make the field a little smaller, we weren’t quite sure what to expect on this course and we just thought… at the beginning try to keep it fast, whittle the field down a bit, just for safety purposes but it turned out that Jeannie [Longo] was at the front quite a bit so we thought okay we’ll let her do it. And after that, just trying to keep the race hard, keep it fast. We had a bigger group come to the finish line than we were expecting so might not have been as hard.” said Meredith Miller (Aaron’s) about her effort at setting a high pace during the race.

The time bonuses on the line brought a small change to GC with Pic at the leader, followed by Kiesanowski and Beveridge. And then the whole circus moved down to Hood River for the Cooper Spur Circuit race, the next stage where the climbers will come out and play. It’s only fair that they get their turn.