St. Paul Lowertown Criterium: Men's

 Colavita Strikes in Last Lap for Stage Win; Bissell Protects Leaders Jersey in Nature Valley Grand Prix
By James Lockwood

Riding what could be called a textbook race, Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home delivered its sprint ace Sebastian Haedo to victory in the second stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.  But it was Team Mountain Khakis Thomas Soladay who really put on the show for the fans in the Downtown St. Paul Criterium on Wednesday, June 10.

Soladay, an amateur looking to make the jump in his cycling career, set out to redeem himself from a flat he incurred in the morning time trial in the first stage of the six-stage race. Representing one of the smaller teams in the grand prix, Soladay attacked six laps into the 45-lap race and ended up staying out in front the rest of the race, only losing to Haedo in the closing meters of the race.

“This is my bread-and-butter,” Soladay said after finishing second to Haedo after the nearly hour-long effort. “In the last meters, I was just pedaling out of pure anger. I wanted this in a bad way.”

For Colavita and Haedo, sprinting is their bread-and-butter, and while Colavita had Tyler Wren in the break that Soladay initiated, when the team realized the break would be caught, they made the decision to line up its lead out for Haedo.

“We wanted to have a guy on the team win,” said team director Sebastien Alexandre. “As soon as we got within 10 seconds of the break, we decided to go.

“We always race for the best. This is a team,” said Alexandre, explaining the decision to go with Haedo rather than count on Wren for the win.

With Jelly Belly Cycling’s Will Routley in the break with Wren and Soladay, it was doubtful that the break would stick. Routley came into the stage only 33 seconds back of the overall lead, and with 45 seconds in bonuses available on the stage, there was a possibility he could take the leader’s jersey.

But the three riders, along with Texas Roadhouse’s Adam Bergman, made a win from the break look probable. Halfway through the race, the quartet had built a 24-second gap, and it was not until about 10 laps to go did the gap start to fall, with OUCH-Maxxis’ Floyd Landis setting tempo at the front of the peloton.

Bissell Pro Cycling’s Tom Zirbel, who wore the yellow leader’s jersey after winning the morning time trial, said the team was never in doubt of losing the jersey to Wren in the break, and allowing OUCH-Maxxis to bring the break back worked out for his team.

OUCH-Maxxis’ Rory Sutherland, who went into the stage sitting 13 seconds back of Zirbel and finished fifth in the race, said riding up front was more out of necessity than desire to win the race. “It keeps us safe. The last laps were dangerous. There were guys crashing and gaps forming. I kind of gassed myself trying to bridge back from one of those gaps,” he said.

Bissell’s director Eric Wohlberg said despite the appearance that OUCH and Colavita did much of the work, his team did not get a free ride in the 60-minute criterium, and the riders don’t intend on letting other teams dictate Bissell’s fate.

“We’ve got a lot of guys up on GC,” he said. “We intend to fight until the bitter end.”

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