Feature photograph: Kurt Jambretz
Sutherland Secures Overall Win at Nature Valley Grand Prix
(June 16, 2008)
Stillwater, MN – Rory Sutherland of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis capped a near-perfect Nature Valley Grand Prix Sunday with a 2nd place in the final stage, and sealing the overall victory, his third overall stage race win in six weeks.
Sutherland took over the race lead after winning Saturday’s brutal, wind-blown Mankato Road Race after leaving behind then-race leader Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), and winning the two-up sprint for the stage.
For Sunday’s final stage, it came down to protecting a 15-second lead over the third place rider, while teammate John Murphy sat second overall, 12 seconds back.
But with the Stillwater Criterium, featuring the painfully steep Chilkoot Hill, nothing was guaranteed. “This is such a hard course, but we knew who we had to keep an eye on today,” Sutherland said.
Once again, the end result came from the efforts of every member of Health Net Presented by Maxxis.
“Plain and simple the team rode a great race all week,” Health Net Presented by Maxxis directeur sportif Mike Tamayo said. “This was a team victory in every sense.”
Murphy echoed that sentiment. “Rory and I didn’t have to touch the wind until the final lap,” he said. “The guys did a great job of protecting us today and keep us in position to keep the overall lead.”
Sutherland took over the race lead after winning Saturday’s brutal, wind-blown Mankato Road Race after leaving behind then-race leader Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), and winning the two-up sprint for the stage.
“It actually worked out well that we didn’t have to protect the lead during the Mankato stage,” Sutherland said. “Not having that responsibility took a lot of pressure of the guys and meant less work for everyone. But it also gave us the chance to put the pressure on Bissell. They did a good job defending but in the end we had too many cards to play. If it didn’t work out when I bridged up to the break near the end, we still had Murph to attack.”
With Sutherland taking care of business at the front end to the race, Murphy, part of a dwindling bunch not far behind, also succeeded in getting away from the race leader and taking 5th on the stage to solidify his second place overall position.
Maturing Murphy
As the returning NRC individual champion, Sutherland is expected to appear at the top of the race results. But in his second year with the team, Murphy is starting to grow into a strong all-around racer.
After riding the Amgen Tour of California in a support role, he took the form he built from a hard week of Pro Tour-level racing to the Tour of Taiwan and very quickly surprised just about everyone in the race by taking the sprinter’s jersey on the first day and the leader’s jersey on the second day of the eight-stage race, and holding both until the end in Taipei.
He returned to California and proceeded to finish second behind teammate Kyle Gritters at the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix. He kept his form throughout the spring, earning strong results at the Joe Martin Stage Race while helping Sutherland to the overall win there, and even succeeding in winning the Tour of Atlanta literally single-handed against full rosters from other teams.
At Nature Valley, he showed his all-around development, earning podiums in a criterium and time trial, while finishing 5th in the difficult, hilly Mankato stage. “It’s been really great watching Murph develop this past year and a half,” Sutherland said. “He’s definitely not a kid anymore. He’s really learning how to race, not just ride hard, and he’s a great teammate as well. His development into a top-flight racer is more evidence of the strength of our organization, and it’s ability to find great young riders and develop them into leaders.”
Podium Step workout
As if the racing was enough work this week, Sutherland, Murphy and Kirk O’Bee in particular got extra work climbing podium steps. O’Bee climbed to the top step of the podium twice, following his wins of Stages 2 and 4 in Cannon Falls and downtown Minneapolis respectively. In addition, the National Criterium Champion also took the Wheaties sprinter’s jersey after Stage 2 and went up on the podium every day thereafter to collect a nice clean, orange jersey.
Murphy joined O’Bee on the podium after Stage 2 by virtue of finishing 3rd in the bunch sprint, then he joined Sutherland the next day after another third in the Stage 3 time trial, an effort that moved him up to the second overall position he held for the remainder of the race.
Sutherland finished second in the TT, then made two trips to the top step after Stage 5 to collect stage win honors as well as the race leader’s jersey. After Sunday’s final stage, Sutherland again made two trips up by virtue of his second place finish on the stage and the take the final leader’s jersey. Then the entire team got into the act, taking to the top step of the podium after the team earned overall honors in the team classification.
The final tally: O’Bee, seven trips; Murphy, three trips (including the final overall classification presentation); Sutherland, five trips; the team, one trip.
2008 Final Overall Results Nature Valley Grand Prix:
1 Rory Sutherland (Team Health Net Presented by Maxxis) 8.15.22
2 John Murphy (Team Health Net Presented by Maxxis) 0.12
3 Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) 0.15
For a list of complete results click here
For additional information regarding the Team, please visit www.teamhealthnet.com, or contact:
JEFF SOBUL, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Tel: 510.832.1616
Fax: 510.832.1618
Mobile: 510.334.3949
Email: jsobul@teamhealthnet.com
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