Stage 2 – Oak Glen 125km The second stage of the ProGel Redlands bicycle classic was contested today under bright clear sunshine with the famous Santa Ana winds once again blowing. The peloton was hesitant at first to brave the winds and most riders were seeking the shelter of the peloton when the first sprint of the day took place […]

Redlands Stage Race Stage 1 – Prologue Christine Thorburn (Webcor)  over came a very difficult field as well as winds gusting to over 50 mph to win the Watermaker Mount Rubidoux Time Trail in the opening stage of the ProGel Redlands Bicycle Classic. Thorburn was the only rider to break the 10:00 minute mark posting a time of 9:59 for […]

Philadelphia, June 6, 2004 The Wachovia Liberty Classic consists of four laps of a 23km course in the streets of Philadelphia. The course consists of two climbs, the Manuyuk wall reaching a gradient of 18% and a short steep climb, known as Lemon Hill. The first three laps were marked by a few attacks with no consequence. With a record […]

The Tour of Greater Montreal After celebrating Rona’s Montreal World Cup win, we rolled our legs over very slowly on Sunday, along the lake frontage in Lachine, near Genevieve’s home.  It was incredible windy but so picturesque with many people out sailing, jogging and cycling. The Tour of Greater Montreal is made up of 4 stages over 3 days with […]

Stage 5            Sunset Road Race                   100km Today’s stage, a 100km race on a scenic and tough course in Redlands, was activated by Canadian Nicole Demars (Victory Brewing) right from the first climb.  RONA was happy to let her go, as she was down more than 28 minutes in general classification before the stage.  Her lead over the main field reached […]

Stage 4 – Criterium With Gen still feeling less than 100% as result of her post race crash 2 days ago, our main focus was to maintain Gen’s 2nd GC position. RONA and the other leading teams controlled the race and pre-empted any serious threat during the race.  All the GC leaders finished in the field and the stage had […]

Stage 3 – Panorama Circuit Race     68km After warming up on the circuit, Gen told us her back was troubling her and our thoughts turned to how we could tactically complete this race and still retain the leader’s jersey.  The peloton shattered on the very first lap, but regrouped just before the 2nd ascent.  The pace was painfully high during […]

Stage 2 – Oak Glen Road Race         129km Today was a really hard day for team RONA.  There were a number of early crashes which saw a few riders abandon and after the first climb the peloton had split, with about 80 riders remaining in the front group out of a starting field of 140. There were several solo breaks […]

Redlands Classic 2004 Prologue – 5km The Redlands Classic was RONA’s first big stage race for the 2004 season.  I have fond memories of Redlands as I won the green Sprint Jersey here, last year.  This year I rode in support of our lead rider, Geneviève Jeanson (Gen).  Here is how the tour unfolded. The first stage of the Redlands […]

Nature Valley Grand Prix, Minnesota Team Rona stayed with the Falks, long time family friends of mine in Middleton, Wisconsin, en route to Virginia in northern Wisconsin, for the first two stages of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.  After fuelling up on pasta, salad, grilled chicken and salmon we were ready to race hard and see if we could put […]