March 21, 2005 — The three-day tally for the San Dimas Stage Race in southern California was impressive to say the least. The Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis won all three stages, with Ivan Dominguez winning the final stage today just ahead of teammate Gord Fraser, who won yesterday’s stage. In addition, the team took six of the nine possible stage podium placings, and the top two spots overall, as well as 4th and 5th place overall.

“That’s really good,” Health Net Presented by Maxxis Directeur Sportif Jeff Corbett said, stating the obvious.

The final overall standings didn’t come easy. The team spent the final two stages defending the top three spots on GC, which Scott Moninger, Chris Wherry and John Lieswyn occupied after the opening Individual Time Trial, and held coming into the final stage, the 90-minute San Dimas Hospital Classic criterium. With numerous time bonuses available throughout the crit, the team had to be aggressive in defending its leaders.

As in stage two, Corbett said the hope was for a break comprised of riders who weren’t threats to the GC to go away and eat up the time bonuses. That’s what happened for the first bonus. “We gave it away,” Corbett said, “but Endeavour didn’t like that too much.”

That’s because, with time bonuses, Advantage Benefits/Endeavour’s Karl Menzies still had a shot at moving up in the overall, especially after Lieswyn crashed early and spent most of the day minimizing the damage. (He eventually finished :30 down on the winners and dropped to 21st overall.) Menzies’ team chased hard to bring things back, and set him up to take second in the next time bonus sprint — behind Fraser.

Menzies’ bonus moved him into a tie for second overall on time with Wherry, but the tie-breaker would’ve given Menzies second place outright. So Corbett sent Wherry on the attack with five laps to go. He got into a break of five riders that neutralized the remaining time bonus, but Wherry wasn’t able to pick up any bonus time to move back ahead of Menzies.

With Jelly Belly/Pool Gel and Advantage/Endeavour driving the peloton, the break was caught with a lap to go. But Health Net Presented by Maxxis was able to sit in during the chase, and when it came down to the finale, Dominguez and Fraser were able to finish things off. Fraser’s second-place time bonus for the stage was enough to move him ahead of Menzies into second overall, behind teammate Moninger.

“It was a good three days for us,” said overall winner Moninger, sounding as understated as Corbett. “Expectations were high for us coming into this race, and really, for the whole early season swing through California. I came into this race as something of an unknown, since I hadn’t done McLane or the Central Valley Classic. It feels good to get the results after putting in the training time.”

Moninger added that, at first, he was a bit surprised at the results for the team in San Dimas, but after thinking about it a bit longer, he said maybe it wasn’t so surprising. “In this race, climbers and sprinters have an advantage,” he said. “We have a lot of depth in both areas. Now all the competition knows what we have going into Redlands.”

The team set the tone for the rest of the three-stage race in Friday’s opening 3.8 mile Glendora Chevrolet Individual Time Trial. Health Net Presented by Maxxis riders stormed up Glendora Mountain Road, with Moninger, Wherry, Lieswyn and Mike Jones taking the top four spots in the stage. Even sprinting specialist Fraser, whose climbing ability is usually under-rated, got into the act with a 16th place finish.

“The uphill time trial suited me well,” Moninger said. “Training at altitude in Colorado definitely made a difference for this race.”

Health Net/Maxxis controls stage 2; Fraser takes the win

With four riders firmly entrenched at the top of the leader board, Health Net Presented by Maxxis wasn’t going to get any help controlling breaks in the 98-mile Stage 2 Inncycle/Cannondale Road Race. So when a three-man break went up the road, it was the Green Machine that went to the front to keep things in check. With none of the riders in the break a major threat to the top of the GC, team director Corbett was content to leave them out there. “We let it run for a while to eat up the time bonuses,” he said.

He didn’t order the full-out chase to begin until three of the seven-mile laps remained. By then, the break had been able to extend its lead to upwards of four minutes, but, as Corbett noted, “They just didn’t have enough in the break to stay away.”

The team timed the chase perfectly, bringing the break back into the fold with about a mile remaining. But riding on the front the entire stage burned more than a few matches, even while they reduced the front of the peloton to a select group of about 30 riders.

Luckily, one of those riders was Fraser, easily the most experienced sprinter in the North American peloton. Even though he didn’t have the benefit of his lead-out train, the Canadian used his instincts and experience to read the long, slightly uphill run-in, taking advantage of a hole when it presented itself. From there, he was able to use his strong finishing kick to beat out Ben Brooks (Jelly Belly/Pool Gel) and Menzies. Almost as important, the time bonus for the win would help put him in second place overall at the end of the three-day race.


Overall Results
1. Scott Moninger, Health Net Presented by Maxxis
2. Gord Fraser, Health Net Presented by Maxxis
3. Karl Menzies, Advantage Benefits/Endeavour
4. Chris Wherry, Health Net Presented by Maxxis
5. Mike Jones, Health Net Presented by Maxxis

Stage 1 Results
1 Scott Moninger, Health Net Presented by Maxxis 13.33
2 Chris Wherry, Health Net Presented by Maxxis 0.25
3 John Lieswyn, Health Net Presented by Maxxis 0.30
4 Mike Jones, Health Net Presented by Maxxis 0.35
5 Lucas Euser, Webcor Builders Cycling Team 0.43
6 Karl Menzies, Advantage Benefits Endeavour 0.47
7 Danny Pate, JellyBelly/Poolgel
8 Jake Rytlewski, Advantage Benefits Endeavour 0.55
9 John Kelly, Webcor Builders Cycling Team 0.59
10 Ben Brooks, JellyBelly/Poolgel
11 Justin England, Health Net Presented by Maxxis

Stage 2 Results
1. Gord Fraser, Health Net Presented by Maxxis
2. Ben Brooks, Jelly Belly/Pool Gel
3. Karl Menzies, Advantage Benefits/Endeavour

Stage 3 Results
1. Ivan Dominguez, Health Net Presented by Maxxis
2. Gord Fraser, Health Net Presented by Maxxis
3. Brice Jones, Jelly Belly/Pool Gel