Nature Valley adds sixth stage

This year's Nature Valley Grand Prix will be longer than the previous eight editions with the announcement of a sixth stage for the five day stage race. Organisers announced overnight the addition of the Downtown St Paul Criterium, a six-corner course staged around St Paul's Mears Park.

The Downtown St Paul Criterium will kick off the 2007 edition of the American National Racing Calendar event which then moves on to the Cannon Falls Road Race, a 60-mile road race of rolling hills and cross winds in and around Cannon Falls. Riders return to St. Paul on Friday morning for five-mile time trial and then race in the Minneapolis Downtown Classic that evening. Stage five is the Mankato Road Race, which finishes on a challenging circuit in downtown Mankato. Racing finishes in Stillwater where the famed Chillikoot Hill, with a gradient of more than 20 percent, is one of the biggest spectacles of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.