Zwizanski, Starnes top time trial

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Alison Starnes (Tibco-To The Top) won the opening time trial at the Nature Valley Grand Prix held in St. Paul on Wednesday. The young talent outpaced world-class riders like HTC-Columbia teammates Linda Villumsen in second and Evelyn Stevens in third.

"I'm pretty excited about winning the time trial and because this is my first time in a leader's jersey," Starnes said. "But at the same time we have a really strong team here and a lot of cards to play. My goal is to be the best teammate I can this week. It is up to our director as to how we play out this week."

Starnes will wear the leader's jersey heading into the stage two criterium held in downtown St. Paul this evening.

Executive Director David LaPorte announced that the Nature Valley Grand Prix had opted to invoke a new USA Cycling rule that allowed race organizers to specify that "massed-start legal" bicycles would be required for time trials. The rule was enforced for the six-staged events opening 9.6 km St. Paul Riverfront time trial.

The time trial is among the toughest for its flat and fast start along Lilydale Road followed by a steep finale up the Ohio Street hill to the finish line.

"I think you could definitely benefit from having a time trial bike on a course like this," Starnes said. "It was about a five mile flat section before the climb. But, it was still a time trial and still going hard against the clock."

Zwizanski nabs controversial time trial win

Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) stormed into a convincing victory at the opening time trial held in St. Paul at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Zwizanski bested the overall defending champion Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis) who placed second by nine seconds and teammate Zach Bell by an additional six seconds, good enough in third place.

"This is my first time trial win this year," Zwizanski said. "It feels good to win here because my team is based here so it was important for our team to do well and makes this win extra special. I was confident that I could do well. Plus, it is always exciting to wear a yellow jersey."

Zwizanski took the early lead in the overall classification ahead of Sutherland and Bell heading into the evening's stage two criterium.

The ‘time trial bike ban' rule hit the headlines weeks before the start of the Nature Valley Grand Prix and caused a stir amongst several of the riders and team directeur sportifs, some in agreement and some not.

Controversy over Zwizanki's victory erupted when it became known that he, along with several of his teammates, used a time trial bicycle frame rebuilt with standard road racing parts and road-style handlebars.

As it turned out, the headlines boasted a very general description of the rule that actually stated that the riders must use ‘mass-start legal' bicycles with no aero equipment such as clip on bars, time trial helmets and shoe covers.

"They said they had to be mass-start legal bikes and I rode a mass-start legal bike," Zwizanski said. "We used our time trial frames and the officials approved it before the start of the race. They said my bike was within the rules. I used it so that I could ride close to my time trial position."

"There are guys who race on the road with time trial frames everyday because they like them," Zwizanski said. "We weren't trying to bend the rules. We stayed with in the rules and checked with the officials and they said it was OK so we used them."

Full men's results

Full Women's Results