Carmen Small and Ryan Anderson win Cannon Falls road race

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Crosswinds caused havoc and shook up the general classification in the men's peloton on the Cannon Falls Road Race, stage 3 of the North Star Grand Prix on Thursday. Two teams, Optum and Jamis-Hagens Berman, took advantage to force a split and stacked a select lead group that made it to the finish line.

Canadian Ryan Anderson (Optum) took the stage win and the yellow leader's jersey from his teammate Tom Zirbel. Luis Amaran (Jamis-Hagens Berman) was second and Heath Blackgrove (Boneshaker D1 Racing), third.

“I don't think I ever went behind and I found myself in all the front splits. And then with 60 kilometers into the race we had the whole team together, it was blowing pretty good through the first feed zone and we just decided to try to split up the race there. Jamis was sitting right with us so the two of us really committed and that caused the big split of the day and then we rolled it.” Anderson said.

“I think it's exciting.” he commented on the yellow jersey. “This is our home race for us, our big sponsors are from the Minneapolis area so it feels good to do well here and be in yellow and we look to continue. I think Jesse [Anthony] made up some time today so I think we're in good position to see how things play out in the next days.”

Anderson has a 16-second lead on Amaran with Blackgrove down one further second. Four riders each from Optum and Jamis-Hagens Berman are now in the top 10 of the general classification, separated by one minute and one second. Team SmartStop lost their GC hopes with US road champ, Eric Marcotte's early crash and Travis McCabe, who faded from the lead group.

Amaran was expecting the winds to be a factor but was surprised to see the resulting shake-up. “On a day like this when it's so windy, it's something that I could expect but what we didn't expect is that it would be pretty much only two teams in the group but we were ready for it.” he stated via a translation from his teammate Ian Crane.

The winds ramped up the nerves in the peloton at the start of the 155km road race causing a few early crashes with riders using the gutter to try and move up and stay at the front of the peloton. The field had to be neutralized after an early gravel section but the aggressive racing resumed six miles into the stage. Attacks flew at the front, some riders trying to escape, others going for King of the Hills points but nothing was sticking.

One crash involved Marcotte, who was second in the general classification going into the stage. Marcotte was never able to catch back on to the front of the race and finished 37 minutes down.

Team Optum put the hammer down, stringing out the field as they turned left on CR 30, 33km into the stage. Soon four echelons were formed under pressure from the crosswinds and the pace. Re-shuffling and re-grouping formed a front group of around 50 riders when Stefano Barberi (California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized) made his move. Behind, the rest of the field shattered into numerous small groups.

“I just rolled to the front, we made a turn and the wind was just super strong from the left so I just rode to the front, 'alright pedal kind of hard now', so I started riding. They just let me go and then about one kilometer later, I looked back and saw Optum on the front just riding super hard and I just waited. They caught us and that ended up being the main break of 13 guys.” Barberi explained.

The 13 riders in the select lead group were Anderson and his teammates Jesse Anthony, Will Routley, Alex Candelario and Zirbel, Amaran and his teammates Crane, Ben Jacques-Maynes and JJ Haedo McCabe, Gerry Druyts (Team 3M), Barberi and Blackgrove.

Rotation was well established in the lead group with each rider taking their pulls, pushing the gap up to two minutes and 50 seconds with 30 miles to go. Then McCabe let a small gap open after the feed zone, a gap that grew and he ultimately finished in the first chase group, over four minutes down.

The 12 riders left in the front continued to rotate through, increasing the gap. Anderson explained his team's strategy at that point in the race. “We were talking to the guys and we wanted to keep our group together as much as possible until the circuits, we wanted to keep as many guys on the team in contention on the GC as possible and I think we did a good job on that today.”

The first attack in the lead group came as they entered the first of four small 3.3km finishing circuits in Cannon Falls. Once again, Barberi made the first move. “As soon as we hit the circuits, I knew that guys were going to start attacking and I can't sprint so I knew I had to try to cause a split. I put in the first attack right when we got into the circuit, made it the first full lap on my own. I looked back and I saw Amaran and Ryan Anderson and Blackgrove trying to come up to me and a split to the rest of the group so I waited for those guys.”

Anderson, Barberi, Blackgrove and Amaran were off to battle the stage win and get those time bonus seconds awarded to top three on the stage. With his teammates behind, including the yellow jersey, Anderson sat on the group waiting to launch his sprint on the final climb to the finish.

Amaran was focused on winning the stage. “The strategy is always to win the stage. It was good to try and get some seconds as well to try and move up in the overall but unfortunately it wasn't the case with Ryan being a little bit further up in the GC.”

Meanwhile, the second group on the road also started their finishing circuits while the remainder of the field was stopped. With half a lap to go, Barberi attacked once again on the final lap but his acceleration was impeded as they were catching and passing the other group on the circuits.

For his efforts, Barberi was awarded the Penn Cycle Most Aggressive Rider jersey. His teammate Ben Wolfe regained the white TRIA Orthopedic Center Best Young Rider jersey while Blackgrove picked up the Sports Beans King of the Hills jersey. Coulton Hartrich (SeaSucker / Guttenplan Coaching) remains in the North Star Top Amateur jersey while Crane keeps the Xcel Energy Sprinter jersey,

Racing continues on Friday with the evening criterium in the Minneapolis' dynamic Uptown area, a neighborhood of trendy shops, bars and restaurants located just south of downtown near the chain of Minneapolis lakes.

Small wins women’s race and moves into overall lead 

Carmen Small (Specialized-lululemon) and her teammates put in a smart race on the long and wind-swept Cannon Falls course, letting the teams with greater numbers of riders battle it out for breakaways and hitting hard when it counted. Her decisive kick up the last hill to the finish line from five riders back gave her the stage win along with a 12-second time bonus, which was enough put her in the yellow leader’s jersey.

Alison Powers (UnitedHealthcare) started the stage 10 seconds ahead of Small, but finished five seconds behind her on the day. Powers is now in second place on the general classification at seven seconds back.

The strong winds and long distance made this a race of attrition, with a third of the peloton falling off the lead pace within the first several miles of the 155km rural course, with a select group of 20 riders formed within the first 36.8km, spurred by Tayler Wiles’ (Specialized-lululemon) attack into the second Queen of the Hills competition. Though she, Flavia Oliveira (FCS/Zngine p/b Mr. Restore), and Amanda Miller (Team TIBCO) made a slight gain, they were quickly brought back and Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies were immediately on the counter-attack. 

This early group of 20 contained all eight members of the UnitedHealthcare team as well as five Optum riders, three Specialized-lululemon riders, and two each from teams TIBCO and Vanderkitten.

UnitedHealthcare was sure to stay on top of every attack, launched mostly by Team TIBCO and Optum, with support from Specialized-lululemon. 

A chase group of nine riders trailed behind the lead group of 20 for about 29km, hovering at 40 seconds back. The two groups eventually merged after the first feed zone, 62km into the race, as the lead group’s momentum was broken and UnitedHealthcare showed signs of wear from the wind. 

Once merged, all but two riders from the chase group stayed on. It was this selection of 27 riders that made it through into the finishing circuits at Cannon Falls. 

Attacks were minimal through the second-third of the race. As the field neared Cannon Falls the attacks started again, and a few groups of four formed that were able to secure up to 30 seconds advantage before being absorbed again. 

A break consisting of Ally Stacher (Specialized-lululemon), Annie Ewart (Optum), Sharon Laws (UnitedHealthcare), and Olivia Dillon (Colavita-Fine Cooking) gained a minute advantage at the 120km mark. Gillian Carleton (Vanderkitten) bridged up to this group, and the quintet entered the final circuits together. 

This break was caught in the first lap of the four laps of the finishing circuit. 

“I stayed calm and collected because it can be a really stressful situation,” said Small of her effort in the final few laps. “I knew that UHC had done so much work that they wouldn’t be able to do a lead out like they had been doing the last few days, and I used that to my advantage. I had a plan about how I wanted to do the sprint, I had that in my head, I had Tayler helping me out getting me up to the front in good positioning and she hit it pretty hard coming into the finish. Then I took a run at everyone, I went from fifth wheel, right where the course flattens out before the hill, I kicked really hard and passed everyone in the field.”

Coryn Rivera (UnitedHealthcare) and Leah Kirchmann (Optum) rounded out the podium in second and third place respectively.

Riders who were not part of the 27-woman lead group were stopped before entering the finishing circuits and given calculated times based on the time they crossed the deviation point. 

Kelly Catlin and Ariane Horbach of the Collegiate All Stars composite team made it into the finishing circuits, with Horbach finishing ninth and Catlin finish 17th. 

“I was confident with that duo – Kelly with her raw talent and Ariane with her experience,” said Jenn Reither, Collegiate All Stars’ director sportif and coach. “I gave them the job today of staying together, encouraging them to stay on and push harder.”

Three of their teammates – Sara Bird, Cinthia Lehner, and and Allison Arensman – finished in the second group.

“This was my first NRC race,” said Bird. “It’s definitely the longest race I’ve ever done. I was really nervous coming into this, but once I got going, the nerves went away and we realized, we can hang here, we belong here. To finish in the second group with other pro riders was really exciting.”

Janel Holcomb (Optum) was aggressive throughout the race, instigating several breakaway attempts out on the road and also taking a full lap solo in the finishing circuits. She was awarded the Penn Cycle Most Aggressive Rider jersey for today’s stage.

Wiles leads the Jelly Belly Queen of the Mountain competition. 

Kirchmann started the day two seconds behind Wiles in the Tria Orthopedic Best Young Rider competition. She finished six seconds ahead of Wiles and her third-place finish came with six seconds of time bonus, placing her in the lead by 10 seconds after today’s stage.

Rivera holds the Xcel Energy Sprint Competition jersey for at least one more day, as does Catlin with the North Star Best Amateur Competition jersey. 

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