June 17, 2010 (St. Paul, MN) – Wednesday was a long day in the saddle for competitors at the 2010 Nature Valley Grand Prix. The morning wake up call saw Stage 1, a 9.6km/6-mile Time Trial along the Mississippi. Canada’s Anne Samplonius, 42, of Team Vera Bradley Foundation had a stellar race placing 7th. In the men’s event, fellow Canuck Zach Bell of Kelly Benefit Strategies finished on the podium in 3rd, only two spots behind his teammate and overall race leader Scott Zwizanski. We had a chance to speak with both of them before the nightcap, Stage 2, a technical criterium in downtown St. Paul.

Anne Samplonius – Team Vera Bradley Foundation – 7th place on Stage 1

Anne, congratulations on your 7th place in this morning’s stage. What do you attribute to your continued success at this wonderful adult age?
Anne Samplonius: Hahaha – stubbornness – hahaha, probably more than anything! I’m still having fun and enjoying it. If the motivation’s there and the fun’s there, it makes it easy to put in the work necessary. I don’t think age is really a concern, as long as you have those ingredients.

What is it that makes a good time triallist, which is one of your fortes?
AS: You know, I really don’t know – even after this many years I still don’t know what makes a good time triallist. It’s a little bit of simply putting your head down and just suffering and that never changes….

You seem to have something figured out because you often make the top 10. That’s impressive against riders with legs that are 10-15 years younger!
AS: Yeah, definitely I think that’s just the suffering part of it. You know, in time trialling you just have to put yourself in that zone and hold it there the entire time you’re on the course. I think that some people just have an innate ability to do that, while others need more motivation which can come from other riders around them to make themselves go into that zone of hurt. Maybe that’s it!

Speaking about other riders, are you also able to counsel and mentor other younger riders on your team?
AS: Yes, I always like to make comments to other riders in the race. Not from my team particularly because we have a lot of experienced riders. But often I’ll ride at the back and I’ll see things and I try to encourage other younger riders or new riders, and give them little tips here and there. It’s always nice to pass on those years of experience.

A little over a week ago I was in Philadelphia and Jeannie Longo was there racing at age 51. Do you see yourself going that long?
AS: Haha, probably not. I mean she’s got almost ten years on me – that’s another ten years. I don’t think so, but I’m never going to say never. For me it’s not an age thing, it’s not like how long am I going to continue. It’s motivation – it’s great, it keeps you in shape and keeps you healthy. As long as I’m having fun I’m going to continue, and to a certain point as long as I still feel I’m riding at a level where I can perform. Let’s face it, if you’re not performing at the level where you think you can it’s probably time to hang up the wheels.

Your teammate Alison Powers is 4th overall at seven seconds back. You know the St. Paul Criterium and the time bonuses available, so what’s Team Vera Bradley’s strategy this evening?
AS: Ah, a secret, haha. No, basically, we don’t have a team of sprinters here and this race really lends itself towards sprinting. We know that Shelley Evans (USA) Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 is a favourite for the time bonuses as she can sprint and we can’t contend. So we’ll look to our strengths which are going off the front and getting into breaks. And we’re going to use HTC-Columbia, as they’ll using the same tactics to try to win this race overall. Hopefully between us and HTC we can do some damage.

Thank you and good luck.
AS: Thanks!

Samplonius had the Stage 2 crit pegged perfectly. Evans gobbled up all of the intermediate time bonus sprints and placed 3rd on the stage behind HTC-Columbia’s Chloe Hosking, to take a total of 21 bonus seconds and move from 8th to 2nd on GC behind overall leader Alison Starnes (Tibco). Powers dropped from 4th to 6th, but she still sits seven seconds behind Starnes. Thursday’s road stage from Cannon Falls should be more to Team Vera Bradley’s liking, a rolling 106km/66.5 mile stage with the possibility for breakaways.


Zach Bell – Kelly Benefit Strategies – 3rd place in Stage 1

Congratulations, were your expectations to place both you and Scott on the podium this morning?
Zach Bell: Thanks, we have a really good time trial team and it’s something we’ve always focused on. We showed we could do this kind of thing last year at Fitchburg, where we had three or four guys in the top five. So I think the expectation is there, if you have the legs. Scott has had some pretty good form lately and I was hoping I could pull it off and be up there for the team and it just worked out. It’s a good course for me as well.

You had three riders in the top 10 with David Veilleux in 9th, a strong performance in your home base of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
ZB: Yeah, it’s good. The team wanted us to put some energy and focus on this race and so far we’re doing that. That was just the first 9.6km/6 miles and there’s a lot more racing to come though, so we’re focusing on the upcoming stages.

At tonight’s Stage 2 Crit there are plenty of time bonuses up for grabs, how does that play into your team’s strategy?
ZB: There are all kinds of things that play a part in our strategy. We’re going to take each lap at a time and assess each situation that comes and try to keep our guys in the best situation. There’s a long week of racing and I think you have to conserve energy as well because there’s going to be a lot of intensity asked of us and the teams. We’re conscious of those time bonuses, for sure, but we’re going to have to see how it plays out.

Good luck.
Zach Bell: Thanks.

We reconnected with Bell after the evening’s intense 40-lap criterium where Hilton Clarke and Karl Menzies of United Healthcare finished one-two, with Kenda’s Luca Damiani placing 3rd.

How was it out there today? You guys were at the front for a lot of the race.
ZB: Yeah, we just tried to keep it fast and protect Scott.

Did your team all keep safe and out of the various spills?
ZB: Yeah, I think so. I know that Scott was right in there at the end and I was right there with him. There was that one crash in the last corner but we both got through that.

And he’s still in the yellow jersey…
ZB: Yes, he should be, he was right in front of me and there were no gaps ahead, except for maybe those front two or three riders and they had like a minute, so I think there it’s no problem.

After today’s double stage day are you ready for some rest before the Cannon Falls RR on Thursday?
ZB: Yeah, yeah, I think we’re looking forward to tomorrow.

All the best here and thanks for taking some time with us.
ZB: Thanks.