Race Results

Nature Valley Grand Prix 

5 stages in 5 days, June 9^th - June 13^th

Stage 1

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(WomensCycling has been unable to get other stage results directly from the race Press Office)

                                                       Stage Result - times & positions

With more than two minutes in time bonuses during the 5-stage Nature Valley Grand Prix, there was not much a 6-mile time trial could do to separate leaders from the pack, but winning the prologue can be a boost.

And that is the way Quark Cycling Team’s Lyne Bessette took to winning the Mesabi Trail Time Trial Wednesday.

“I’m happy to take the new lead. I prefer to defend the jersey,” said the former Saturn rider who helped her teammate last year win the overall Nature Valley title.

Bessette, the last rider to go, put in the best time on the narrow, paved bike path at 11 minutes, 23 seconds. She beat Rona’s Katrina Grove by two seconds and T-Mobile’s Lynn Gaggioli by five seconds.

Rounding out the top five were Sandy Espeseth of Victory Brewing and French professional Jeannie Longo, who is riding the stage series with the Nature Valley/Penn Cycle team.

Grove, who went eighth in the 104-women field, said it would have been better sitting in first instead of second, but with the amount of time bonuses, it wasn’t a big deal.

“There’s so much going on,” she said. “It’s anybody’s ball game.”

Rona team director Jim Williams agreed.

“A rider one minute down is not really out of the race,” he said, noting that 43 riders in the field finished within a minute of each other. That included all Rona riders, who put in the best team result with four in the top 15. Helen Kelly was the lowest placed Rona rider at 26^th.

For Quark, having Bessette in the leader’s jersey was not necessarily planned, but it kept in place the team’s goal of protecting the current leader of the Women’s Prestige Cycling Series. The Nature Valley Grand Prix is the second race of the 4-race series.

“That does make a difference,” said Quark team director Giana Roberge. “We want to protect that lead.”

The second stage of the women’s Nature Valley Grand Prix will be Thursday with the 71-mile Iron Range Road Race beginning and ending in Virginia.

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