Nature Valley Grand Prix – Stage 1 – St Paul’s Downtown criterium

The 2007 Nature Valley Grand Prix kicked off with an evening criterium in downtown St Paul’s.  With humid conditions but no rain, 125 women fought it out in an aggressive and fast 1 hour criterium.  The course was 1km in length in the shape of an L with a 300m uphill sprint finish.  With a change in format from the individual time trial traditionally kicking off the tour, we thought it unlikely that a break would stick on day 1.  But we were all proved wrong!

My job was to go for the intermediate sprints, occurring every 10 minutes, and to assist Mara in the 30sec sprint which was actually a Queen of the mountain sprint.  Laura was to rest her legs for the finish whilst Amber and Rach were also to assist in helping us to position near the front for the sprints and the finish.

The opening laps were amazingly fast with us completing each 1km loop in about 1min 15min.  The peloton was strung out in a long line and my heart rate went to 178 by the end of the first minute.  With the first sprint occurring 10 minutes in, I had no time to waste and had to really bury myself for 3 laps to get to the front.  I had reasonably good sprint legs and finished 4^th and 3^rd in the first two sprints.

Mara went down in a crash in the first 10 minutes, breaking her helmet and trying to permanently implant her radio into her lower back.  Luckily, her back and radio survived the ordeal, however team mechanic read a short service to the helmet before tossing it away.  Katheryn had been t-boned by a little kid on a bike path yesterday and was recovering from a painful shoulder dislocation.  But “tough as nails Katheryn” rode conservatively and will be starting stage 2.

The decisive break came after 8 riders contested the midway Queen of the Mountain sprint.  They had a small gap after their sprint and Armstrong (Lipton) sensing the right moment, kept driving it.  When the gap grew to 20 seconds it was time to shut it down, however the break was well organised and their combined effort was matching Webcor’s chase.

Catherine Cheatley (Cheerwine) attacked the break on the last lap and soloed into the leader’s jersey whilst Shelley Olds (ProMan) and Theresa Moriarty (Flanders) finished 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively.  Rach, Amber, Laura, Mara and I all finished 27 seconds down in the main peleton.

With a 10 second time bonus as well as the 27 gap to the main field, Cheatley currently has a 37 second lead, heading into today’s road stage.  Stay tuned to see what Webcor unleashes today!!