June 21, 2010 (Stillwater, MN) – Every year the Nature Valley Grand Prix has the same Grand Finale, the Stillwater Criterium – it’s always decisive and it’s always difficult. How difficult? The riders must climb the infamous Chilkoot Hill, an ascent averaging an 18% grade and reaching a brutal 22%, multiple times (14 for women, 21 for men.) After Erinne Willock’s (Webcor) impressive breakaway stage win at Saturday’s Menomonie Road Race, she sat in 4th place overall by just about the finest margin imaginable – 6/100 of a second. Her mission on Sunday was to beat 3rd place Ruth Corset of Team Tibco by one second and then a final podium spot would be hers….

Erinne Willock – Team Webcor Builders – 4th after 5 stages, @ 0:34, 6/100 of a second behind Ruth Corset

Have you ever thought of how long 6/100ths of a second is?
Erinne Willock: (Big laugh) It’s not too long… but then again, it’s going to be really hard to get it (laughs again!).

So with what you know about this climb, what’s the plan as to how to finish one second ahead of Ruth?
EW: You know, Ruth is a really good climber, she’s a punchy climber, so it’ll be a good course for her, and for Shelley (Evans). But I felt good yesterday, so hopefully the legs are still here today and we’ll see how it goes.

Did you ever think if only you could have gone 6/100ths of a second faster in the Time Trial?
EW: Well, maybe in the Time Trial, but yesterday, no… I mean, yeah, I didn’t have a fabulous Time Trial but I gave it all I could yesterday.

On Saturday you moved up from 23rd to 4th overall saying that the day would be decisive – did you have any idea just how decisive it would be?
EW: (Big laugh) No. When I got onto the circuits yesterday I didn’t know what the time gaps were – our last time gap was when we got on (the circuits) at 40 seconds, right? We actually gained time and then we lost time. We had no idea, Linda and I. But we were going as hard as we could. And today, almost in 3rd, it’s a very hard course and the game’s gonna be on – it’s gonna be a hard race.

On a course like this, how much is you alone, and how much is the team?
EW: Well, the team’s going to have to do a lot to help me out. You can’t do this on your own, it’s that hard of a course. We have Katheryn (Curi Mattis 11th overall @ 1:00), Amber (Neben 13th overall @ 1:04) and Joëlle (Numainville – w/three top-10 placings) who will all be up there. Yeah, I’m going to need their help for sure.

But the bottom line going up Chilkoot Hill 14 times is that you’re going to need the legs.
EW: Yeah, I need to have the legs!! I need to have the legs or our plans will change!

Good luck.
EW: Thanks.

As expected, the Stillwater Criterium produced fireworks and a GC shakeup. Race leader Linda Villumsen couldn’t hold the pace up Chilkoot and was off the back early. Her HTC teammate, Evelyn Stevens, attacked, going for the stage and overall victory. She succeeded in the former, winning the prestigious stage, however, she couldn’t quite put enough time on gutsy Shelley Evans of Peanut Butter & Co. 2012. Evans finished 2nd on the stage at 14s behind Stevens, to regain the Yellow Jersey she’d lost the previous day. As for the battle for the final overall podium spot, Willock and Corset fought it out over Chilkoot Hill all race. When all was said and done the officials did the math and Willock was honoured with 3rd place overall, joining Evans and Stevens on the final GC podium. I spoke to her after the presentations:

[Willock was awarded third place on the GC on Sunday, but it appears that there may have been an error in the official results as organizers have since revised the GC to show Willock in fourth place. We have contacted the organizers and are awaiting a response. We will keep readers updated – see NVGP Organizer’s response below.

NVGP Response – The issue is that we posted preliminary results at Stillwater for GC that did not have the group times adjusted or tie breakers applied yet. It incorrectly listed Erinne Willock in 3rd place & Ruth Corset in 4th place. We completed the results and posted the new standings, but unfortunately the stage (whoever was doing the podium) got the incorrect standings that were originally posted. Erinne and Ruth were tied coming into Stillwater & finished with the same time at Stillwater. The tie breaker in such cases is the hundredths in the time trial which made Ruth the 3rd place finisher. Unfortunately the pics from the podium will be incorrect. The results posted on the website are correct.

Deb Liang
NVGP Registration & Results Coordinator]

Erinne Willock – Team Webcor Builders – 5th place in Stage 6, apparently 3rd on GC

Watching the stage up there on Chilkoot, it looked like you and Ruth were sort of yo-yo-ing back and forth quite a bit.
Erinne Willock: Yeah, Ruth was riding well today. At one point I was up in that group of five and I dropped back. So Ruth was up there and Amber did a really good job of towing us back up to Ruth. And Joëlle and Katheryn were there, too, so I had teammates surrounding me and helping me when I was in trouble and that was good and we just kept Ruth in check.

There was one time up the hill and it looked like you were dropped and in trouble. I saw your host family waving their Canadian and BC flags and they were really worried for you!
EW: Oh, yeah, the host family was awesome. Yeah, I was having troubles on the steep part, right? And then I would feel fine on the rest of the course, it was just the steep part, the max power, after the effort in my legs from yesterday.

So what does it mean to finish on the podium in a prestigious race like the Nature Valley Grand Prix?
EW: Yeah, it’s great! And it’s great to win a stage yesterday! I’m really happy with it and going into Nationals next week it gives me some confidence so it’s good.

Yeah, you’re on a roll right now.
EW: Yeah, hopefully, Joëlle (9th place in the stage for her fourth top 10 finish) and I are both really strong right now so we’ll have a good tag-team.

Congratulations and thanks for your time throughout the week.
EW: Thanks, Amy.

After flying back to the West Coast I arrived home and checked the internet. The official results on the NVGP site show Corset and Willock tied on time for Stage 6, but Corset finishing ahead of Willock by the same 6/100 of a second on GC. Yet we have the photos to prove that Willock was on the final GC podium, so I’m not 100% sure which is accurate as I file this report. (The NVGP got back to us to clarify what happened – see their comments above.)

***

In the men’s race, the task seemed simple, but not necessarily easy, for Kelly Benefit Strategies. Their man in the leader’s jersey, Scott Zwizanski, was three seconds ahead of United Healthcare’s Rory Sutherland, so KBS’s job was not to let the Aussie gain any ground on Zwizanski. If they succeeded in that, the final yellow jersey would be theirs.

This scenario was almost identical to last year in which Bissell’s Tom Zirbel had worn yellow since the opening day. Going into the Stillwater Criterium, Zirbel held a 7-second lead over Sutherland. On the penultimate ascent up Chilkoot, Sutherland gave it one last strong effort, attacking and dropping Zirbel, to take 10 seconds from him and capture the yellow jersey and overall victory by a mere three seconds.

So the men of Kelly Benefit Strategies had to work to make sure that Stillwater 2010 would not be a carbon copy of Stillwater 2009. Montreal’s David Veilleux, who had been riding well all week and won this stage two years ago, would be one of Zwizanski’s most important allies:

David Veilleux – Kelly Benefit Strategies – 4th on GC after 5 stages, @ 0:17

Scott has the leader’s jersey and Rory Sutherland is only three seconds back, within striking distance. Tell us about your team’s strategy today.
David Veilleux: We’re very well positioned with the team and we have the yellow jersey, that’s the main goal. And we have to keep that at the end of the day with Scott.

You’ve won this stage before, so if Scott were to have problem you’d be an option as well.
DV: Yes, if I have good legs – you don’t know what can happen in any race, this one is short but really hard. I think that Scott is riding well so I don’t see him being dropped so we should be able to keep it.

What did you learn from what happened last year when Bissell let Sutherland get away with an attack at the end and got the yellow jersey from Tom Zirbel?
DV: I wasn’t there but I think we have a good team and we’ll try to be there at the end to make sure that Scott climbs well.

Good luck.
DV: Thank you.

To put it simply, history repeated itself. KBS controlled the field and kept the pace high for most of the race, protecting Zwizanski well. United came to the front toward the end, and Sutherland attacked on the penultimate climb, dropping Zwizanski and winning the Nature Valley Grand Prix for the third consecutive year. The only difference this time was that Sutherland took the stage victory for good measure.

KBS’s Zach Bell, 3rd on GC entering the stage, dropped well back in the field after toiling long and hard for Zwizanski and the team, ceding his podium spot to his teammate, Veilleux:

David Veilleux – Kelly Benefit Strategies – 3rd place in Stage 6 and 3rd on GC

It looked like you had really good legs today, you were out front doing quite a bit of work for Scott and the team.
David Veilleux: Personally I didn’t do that much work, I mean, the other guys did everything they could. The other guys rode great, you saw they gave 100% out there so it was good to see all the team there and I think that it’s because of them we were so fresh at the end. I had good legs and I tried to keep Scott with me.

When Rory attacked it looked like you looked back to see if Scott was on your wheel, was that what happened?
DV: Yeah, in the last few laps we saw United come to the front, it’s their normal strategy, as they wanted to launch Rory. What happened was on the last corner before the last lap there was one United rider and one Jamis guy set up, opening a gap in front of me and I had to bridge up that gap. When I tried to bridge it up Scott wasn’t on my wheel and I hesitated. If you want to win a bike race with your legs, that’s fine, you have to attack. But to create a gap like that on the last lap I don’t think that’s a good way to do it. I mean we tried everything we could, we went as hard as we could, but then at the end, I mean…

That’s exactly what they did last year, but it was in the turn before the climb.
DV: Yeah, so I kind of knew they’d do it but expected that they wouldn’t do it because I don’t think it’s a fair move, but they did it again so we know by now.

2nd on GC for Scott and 3rd for you, is that still a good accomplishment for the team?
DV: Yeah, it’s good accomplishment but we raced for the win, you know, so it’s a little bit disappointing that we had to let it go on the last day. The team did a great job all week, all our guys were amazing, they gave everything they could to keep Scott and I as fresh as possible. It’s disappointing that on the last day we lost it.

Is it good timing for you personally, riding strong before the Nationals?
DV: Yeah, I’ll try to do as best as I can. Nationals is a hard race because there are a lot of teams and everyone looks at each other a little bit. But hopefully it’s going to be a good race so we’ll try and do as best as we can there as well.

Good luck at Nationals and good job here.
DV: Thank you.