Gaimon too good in Redlands prologue

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Megan Guarnier (Tibco to the Top) and Phil Gaimon (Kenda/5 Hour Energy) opened the NRC with wins Thursday at the Redlands Bicycle Classic's stage 1 time trial in characteristically sunny and warm southern California.

The 28th annual event started with a five kilometre time trial that finished atop Sunset Drive after 213 metres of climbing with pitches of more than 12 per cent near the finish. Team Exergy's Kristin Armstrong, who dominated the recent time trials at the Merco Classic and San Dimas Stage Race, is in Europe competing with the national team, and Clara Hughes, the Canadian national time trial champ who rides for Specialized-Lululemon, was also not in attendance. The absences left the women's field wide open.

Guarnier, who started 11th out of nearly 90 competitors, set the top mark of 11:19, six seconds faster than defending Redlands champ Amber Neben (Specialized-Lululemon) in second and seven seconds faster than Now for Novartis rider Alison Powers in third. Guarnier had a long stay on the hot seat but said she initially didn't hold out much hope for the win.

"I knew that the winning times in the past have gone 11 minutes," Guarnier said. "So when I got to the top and saw 11:14, 11:19, I thought, 'Oh, that's pretty quick.' But I didn't know what the other women would post. So I didn't think much of it."

But as rider after rider passed through the finish, Guarnier's time held up quite well. Kathryn Donovan (FCS-Rouse-Mr. Restore), who started 14 riders after Guarnier, came close to the winning mark with a time of 11:30. But the real challenges to Guarnier's lead didn't come until Powers, starting nearly an hour after the leader, posted a mark of 11:28.

Three-time Redlands champion Neben, who has won this time trial five times previously, was the last rider to have a shot at Guarnier's winning time. Neben arrived in Redlands late Wednesday night from the Tour of El Salvador, where she was racing with the US national team. She crashed hard while in yellow at that race and was still wearing the bandages over her significant road rash. Despite her injuries, Neben rode just 13 seconds slower than her time from the year before, good enough to claim second on the day.

"I knew coming in with the condition I was in, with all the racing, it was going to be hard to win," Neben said. "but I still always think I can do it, and I went for it. So it's a little disappointing. But (Guarnier) had a great ride, and I don't want to take anything away from her. She's a fantastic rider and I give her credit."

Exergy Twenty12 definitely missed Armstrong, managing only fifth place with Andrea Dvorak after starting both previous stage races with wins. But team director Nicola Cranmer said the absence of some of the peloton's "heavy hitters" would make for some interesting racing.

"After the prologue everyone is pretty close time wise," she said. "So it's anybody's race, which is actually pretty exciting. It's not predictable, that's for sure. So it's going to be fun to watch and see what people's tactics are, especially in the road race tomorrow. We have a few cards to play, so we’re excited about it."

Gaimon gets second consecutive prologue win, first NRC stage

Kenda/5 Hour Energy's Phil Gaimon won his first NRC stage and his second consecutive prologue time trial Thursday, sailing over the course with a winning time of 9:25. Juwi Solar's Julian Kyer finished second at 9:28. Morgan Schmitt (Team Exergy), who started 15th out of nearly 200 riders, set the fastest early time of 9:31 and held the lead through much of the day but was eventually knocked down to third. Schmitt said his early start was part of a team strategy to take advantage of any weather changes throughout the day.

"It's always hard to go early," he said. "It's a bit of a hedge for the team to have a ringer go first and a ringer go last. So depending on how the wind is, you might crack something out, but the wind kind of picked up in the afternoon, so I think it was to our advantage to go out early."

Schmitt's advantage held for nearly an hour until Kyer crossed the line just three seconds faster, although it took him much longer than that to realize he was leading the race. In fact, he said that by the time he found out, Gaimon, who started just three minutes later, had already bumped him into second.

"I finished and one of the volunteers had a bottle of water held out for me, so I grabbed it and went down the hill," Kyer said. "I didn't really know what to expect when I came back into the parking lot. My teammates didn't hear anything from the announcer, so I was standing there getting my stuff and all of the sudden I hear the announcer say I was second, and I was like, 'What?'"

Kenda/5 Hour Energy also placed Nate English in fifth and San Dimas overall winner Andy Jacques-Maynes in seventh, giving the team a few different cards to play when racing resumes Friday with the Beaumont circuit race.

"When I crossed the line at the top I asked the guy if I had the fastest time," Gaimon said. "And he said, 'Yeah, every time one of the Kenda guys goes through it changes.'"

Gaimon had another half hour before the final rider, last year's winner Francisco Mancebo, finished. But the Competitive Cyclist rider came in a disappointing ninth, 20 seconds in arrears, putting Gaimon in yellow for the second time in as many weeks.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," Gaimon joked. "I'm trying not to cry. It's good though."

Team director Frankie Andreu also thought it was good, adding that having multiple riders near the top of the GC puts the team in good position to defend the leader's jersey during stage 2.

"Phil's riding really well, so we're going to support him," Andreu said. "But there are going to be teams out there racing as hard they can to make sure we lose the jersey, and if we can get one of these other guys in the break, then we have a chance to be able to keep that jersey, so we have some options. We also have some really fast riders with Shawn Milne and John Murphy, so I'm fine with a field sprint. And if it breaks up I think we have some riders that can be in that selection also."

Friday's stage 2 Beaumont Circuit Race features a 35.4km loop that riders will circle five times. The women will race three laps on the same circuit.  

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