Nature Valley Begins with Celebration

The team arrived in Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix on Tuesday and already had something to celebrate...a team dinner followed by a little birthday celebration for Rebecca Larson, the team's youngest rider, who just turned 26.

The race began with a downtown Criterium in St. Paul that was fast and furious from the gun. With intermediate sprints for both the "Wheaties" sprint jersey and the "Sports Bean Queen of the Hill" climber jersey to be determined the race was fast and furious. The first sprint was won by our birthday girl Rebecca Larson only ten minutes into a 60 min. race. The second sprint point was announced a lap early so when a second bell rang and the sprint point was announced again I'm sure there were some frustrated sprinters. Having to go all out two laps in a row is a tough thing to do. Rebecca got in there for the second sprint at 2o min. into the race to pick up third place points.

Check out a nice photo of Carmen McNellis on Cyclingnews.com.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jun07/naturevalley07/index.php?id=/photos/2007/jun07/naturevalley07/naturevalley071/CYC-NVP096

At 30 min. into the race there would be the single QOH sprint of the night. As the sprint wound up it was clear that the climbers would battle for this sprint and it was Aaron's Felicia Gomez who would squeeze out 4th place points as well as make the selection of the nights race. Eight riders would form the winning break of the evening, gaining close to 30 sec. on the chasing field. With a crash on the last lap in the break, the women would solo across the finish line leaving some to wonder what had happened. In the end all the eight riders would finish with the same time do to the "3km" rule which allows for any mishaps that may happen at the tail end of a race.

Thursday the race will move to Cannon Falls where the women will race a 65.3 miles.