By Mary Topping
August 4, 2014 – Cedar City, a Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah host locale, put on its first USA Cycling sanctioned elite women’s race, the Zappos.com Cedar City Grand Prix, and the world watched a fine selection of top women cyclists fight for the win over sixty minutes of heated racing in southern Utah.
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Zappos.com Cedar City Grand Prix 9
Triple national champion Alison Powers (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team), long-time icons of the sport Tina Pic (DNA Cycling p/b K4) and Laura Van Gilder (Guru), and other national standouts lined up on Main Street alongside Utah’s best elite riders. Utah favorites included Tiffany Pezzulo, Laura Howat, Mindy McCutcheon, Kaytie Scott, Anne Perry, Tina Pic, Breanne Nalder, Jennifer Vollmer, Amber Brown, and Rachel Cieslewicz.
A new women’s event means so much to all of the athletes, but this one held special value for the local ladies who usually have to travel a good distance to compete with the country’s best. Ogden’s Jennifer Vollmer (Livewell p/b Bountiful Bicycles), for example, normally wouldn’t race with a broken wrist. But she did today, even though she probably knew she would have to pull out before the finish.
“I did it because it’s the Tour of Utah, and it’s the inaugural (Cedar City Grand Prix) and I don’t know if I’ll ever get this chance again,” Vollmer said. “It’s pretty spectacular to be a part of it. So I had to get in and do it.
“It’s awfully exciting for women to have the chance to race at this level. A lot of us work full-time jobs, have kids, have to manage everything and to be able to come down and throw down and race hard with amazing people like Alison Powers and Coryn Rivera, it’s incredibly exciting.” Vollmer, mother of three, currently works as a newspaper editor for an Air Force base in Arizona. She had to pull out after 25 minutes.
Vollmer’s teammate Kaytie Scott, is a respiratory therapist. She’s also from Ogden and made a move to get away early on in the race. So did Vanderkitten’s Amy Charity. Colavita-Fine Cooking, Jet Cycling, Guru, Pepper Palace, and other teams tried to send riders up the road, but the pack kept a tight rein on every breakaway attempt. Each rider who tried to slip away was quickly reabsorbed.
With about five turns around the circuit remaining Pepper Palace set a tough pace at the front, lining out the field to work for their sprinter, Sarah Fader. Teammate Meredith Miller later described a hectic last few laps. “In the last two to three to go things started to get shuffled around and people started swarming. So then I found myself on the front coming in one to go and I was just drilling it as hard as I could up this finishing stretch just to keep it fast and lined out…It was tough because of the wind. It was a little harder to follow wheels than you would expect.”
UnitedHealthcare had arrived with their young sprint superstar Coryn Rivera who just earned the best young rider distinction at La Course by Le Tour de France with her sixth place result. The team had planned to make the day hers and found their way around to the front. But Rivera had disappeared and would finish minutes behind the winner, her teammate Powers.
“Going into one to go, someone ran into my rear wheel and took out three spokes,” Rivera said. “I was hoping to just ride it through the finish, but it just wouldn’t spin through my frame so that was the end of my race…Bad luck happens and it’s unfortunate, but luckily we have a strong team and we were able to pull off the win.”
Powers was positioned as the last rider for Rivera’s lead out. “Scotti [Wilborne] at just under one to go went full gas. Usually with Coryn you don’t ever have to look back and wonder if she’s on the wheel because you just trust that she’s there,” Powers said post-race. “We didn’t look back and then I took my turn for the lead out. I looked between my legs – you can see if there’s a wheel, and there wasn’t a wheel on my wheel.”
At that point Powers knew it was her game to win or lose.
“I wanted to win this race so badly, for the team. I don’t care who wins as long as it’s us. It was like, we can’t get beat. So this is it you have to go, you have to go. At one point I looked up and the finish line seemed forever away so I just stopped looking at it and just kept going until I crossed it with my wheel.”
Pic and Team TIBCO / To the Top’s Samantha Schneider had launched their sprints into the uphill finish and headwind as well, and at the line the three women finished within inches of each other, with Schneider second and Pic third.
The Cedar City Grand Prix also awarded sprint competition and most aggressive team prizes. Colavita-Fine Cooking’s Olivia Dillon won the sprint award. UnitedHealthcare came away with the team classification.
Cedar City’s race is one of two new women’s races this week. The Tour of Utah is launching a women’s edition on August 6 at the Miller Motorsports Park.
“Races are stepping up. People are stepping up,” Powers said about the new events. “We wouldn’t have this race if it weren’t for Nicki [Wangsgard], and we wouldn’t have Wednesday’s race if it weren’t for Larry H. Miller and their organization putting on for the women. It’s awesome.”
Wangsgard called Powers months ago to ask what it would take to have the UnitedHealthcare team in the Cedar City race. Powers assured her they’d be there.
The Cedar City race organization ensured local riders would have a chance to ride too. It formed a composite team, Canyon Bicycles. While some on the composite team sat out the final laps, likely they’d agree with Odgen’s Scott who said, “It was an amazing experience. It feels like a good step in the right direction for women’s cycling.”
Utah riders fared well with Tina Pic in third, Tiffany Pezzulo in 7th, Mindy McCutcheon in 18th, Laura Howat in 25th, Kaytie Scott in 28th, and Anne Perry in 31st.
Results (Scroll down for complete results):
2014 Zappos.com Cedar City Grand Prix RESULTS PDF
1 Stage | ||||||
Zappos.com Cedar City Grand Prix | ||||||
Organiser: | ||||||
Stage: August 4, 2014 | ||||||
Arrival classification: Zappos.com Cedar City Grand Prix | ||||||
Category: Pro Women | ||||||
Average speed of winner: 34.948 km/h | ||||||
Distance: 37,2km | ||||||
Time of winner: 1.03’52” | ||||||
Commencement: 12:00 PM | ||||||
Position | License | Rider | Team | Time | Gap | |
1 | 1 | 98704 | POWERS Alison | UnitedHealthcare | 1:03:52 | 0:00:00 |
2 | 11 | 170980 | SCHNEIDER Samantha | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | 1:03:52 | 0:00:00 |
3 | 47 | 41951 | PIC Tina | DNA Cycling p/b K4 | 1:03:52 | 0:00:00 |
4 | 24 | 199998 | FADER Sarah | Pepper Palace Pro Cycling | 1:03:54 | 0:00:02 |
5 | 54 | 232172 | DILLON Olivia | Colavita-Fine Cooking | 1:03:54 | … |
6 | 31 | 36345 | VAN GILDER Laura | Guru | 1:03:56 | 0:00:04 |
7 | 8 | 89443 | PEZZULO Tiffany | Vanderkitten | 1:03:56 | … |
8 | 15 | 300089 | SCHNEIDER Skylar | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | 1:04:00 | 0:00:08 |
9 | 68 | 355078 | HEINTZ Mandy | Guru | 1:04:03 | 0:00:11 |
10 | 65 | 260140 | JOHNSON Kimberley | Naked Women’s Racing | 1:04:03 | … |
11 | 51 | 205968 | FARINA Robin | DNA Cycling p/b K4 | 1:04:03 | … |
12 | 9 | 363583 | CHARITY Amy | Vanderkitten | 1:04:03 | … |
13 | 30 | 397657 | JORGENSEN Laura | Pepper Palace Pro Cycling | 1:04:03 | … |
14 | 7 | 316598 | KUHAJEK Jeannie | Vanderkitten | 1:04:03 | … |
15 | 41 | 250449 | TANNER Amelia | JET Cycling | 1:04:03 | … |
16 | 60 | 276590 | LOUGH Sarah | Cloud Racing p/b Ride2Recovery | 1:04:03 | … |
17 | 3 | 301155 | WILBORNE E Scotti | UnitedHealthcare | 1:04:03 | … |
18 | 69 | 254509 | MCCUTCHEON Melinda | Canyon Bicycles – Shimano | 1:04:03 | … |
19 | 35 | 221135 | INGLIS Gwen | LiVe Well p/b Bountiful Bicycle | 1:04:03 | … |
20 | 13 | 366011 | DOEBEL-HICKOK Krista | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | 1:04:03 | … |
21 | 14 | 278365 | HEADLEY Sara | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | 1:04:06 | 0:00:14 |
22 | 25 | 217750 | GOKEY-SMITH Christina | Pepper Palace Pro Cycling | 1:04:06 | … |
23 | 66 | 367685 | MERTZ Nicole | Canyon Bicycles – Shimano | 1:04:09 | 0:00:17 |
24 | 38 | 121552 | EMMERMAN Julie | LiVe Well p/b Bountiful Bicycle | 1:04:09 | … |
25 | 21 | 147582 | HOWAT Laura | SKINourishment | 1:04:09 | … |
26 | 28 | 337516 | PHILLIPS Amy | Pepper Palace Pro Cycling | 1:04:11 | 0:00:19 |
27 | 22 | 293037 | FOX Lindsay | SKINourishment | 1:04:11 | … |
28 | 36 | 311329 | SCOTT Kaytie | LiVe Well p/b Bountiful Bicycle | 1:04:11 | … |
29 | 20 | 247526 | FRYE Alison | SKINourishment | 1:04:11 | … |
30 | 12 | 433119 | SCHWAGER Patricia | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | 1:04:11 | … |
31 | 49 | 339882 | PERRY Anne | DNA Cycling p/b K4 | 1:04:11 | … |
32 | 55 | 252835 | SCHULTZ Whitney | Colavita-Fine Cooking | 1:04:29 | 0:00:37 |
33 | 53 | 353750 | CHRISTIANSEN Anna | Colavita-Fine Cooking | 1:04:29 | … |
34 | 56 | 267768 | BAYER Lindsay | Colavita-Fine Cooking | 1:04:29 | … |
35 | 4 | 328844 | HALL Katharine | UnitedHealthcare | 1:04:31 | 0:00:39 |
36 | 27 | 143575 | MILLER Meredith | Pepper Palace Pro Cycling | 1:04:33 | 0:00:41 |
37 | 26 | 238481 | KULIECZA Julie | Pepper Palace Pro Cycling | 1:04:33 | … |
38 | 2 | 207432 | RIVERA Coryn | UnitedHealthcare | 1:04:33 | … |
39 | 58 | 392698 | OSSOLA Irena | Cloud Racing p/b Ride2Recovery | 1:04:33 | … |
Riders dropping out | ||||||
6 | 347150 | CHILCOTT Kate | Vanderkitten | |||
17 | 291028 | ROBERTSON Page | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | |||
19 | 219262 | CARR Kathryne | SKINourishment | |||
33 | 338506 | BROWN Amber | LiVe Well p/b Bountiful Bicycle | |||
34 | 168989 | CIESLEWICZ Rachel | LiVe Well p/b Bountiful Bicycle | |||
37 | 424863 | VOLLMER Jennifer | LiVe Well p/b Bountiful Bicycle | |||
40 | 262452 | CRAWFORD Ivie | JET Cycling | |||
43 | 381993 | RIVERA Solymar | JET Cycling | |||
44 | 221486 | CALDERON Priscilla | JET Cycling | |||
48 | 263791 | NALDER Breanne | DNA Cycling p/b K4 | |||
50 | 202477 | WITHROW Kelsey | DNA Cycling p/b K4 | |||
62 | 69008 | ALBERT Heather | Canyon Bicycles – Shimano | |||
64 | 367844 | JOHNSON Vanessa | Canyon Bicycles – Shimano | |||
67 | 237346 | NIELSON Heather | Herriott Sports Performance | |||
The following competitors were signed out from the race: | ||||||
License | Rider | Team | Reason | |||
16 | 288678 | STEPHENS Lauren | Team TIBCO/ To the Top | Not signed in | ||
42 | 251058 | VREDENBURG Amber | JET Cycling | Not signed in | ||
63 | 401076 | SAYLE Clarice | Threshold Sports | Not signed in | ||
70 | 267467 | KEELY Christy | Canyon Bicycles – Shimano | Not signed in | ||
Number of not started: 4 | ||||||
Number of starters: 53 | ||||||
Number remaining: 39 | ||||||
Riders after time limit: — | ||||||
Riders dropping out: 6, 17, 19, 33, 34, 37, 40, 43, 44, 48, 50, 62, 64, 67 (=14) | ||||||
Last calculated: 4-08, 13.16 (Mountain Daylight Time) | ||||||
Classification software: StageRace 2005 software — www.stagerace.com |