Powers Third For Team Type 1 At Nature Valley

Stillwater, MN – Alison Powers put Team Type 1 on the podium Sunday for the fourth time at a women’s National Racing Calendar (NRC) event when she finished third at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Powers also retained her lead in the Women’s Prestige Cycling Series (WPCS) while assuming the lead in the WPCS sprint classification from her Team Type 1 teammate, Kori Seehafer.

Perhaps the only disappointment for the reigning U.S. national time trial champion was that she could not hang onto the second place spot that she had held since the opening time trial of the five-day, six-stage race in Minnesota.

“It was a hard race today, I’m tired,” Powers said after completing 13 trips up Chilkoot Hill, a narrow climb on the 1.4-mile (2.3 km) course that features an average grade of 18 percent. “But our team is so amazing that come next month at the Cascade Classic, we’ll be ready to win the overall again like we did at Joe Martin.”

Powers finished 11th in Sunday’s Stillwater Criterium, 20 seconds behind stage winner and overall champion Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Test Team). That result allowed Shelley Olds (PROMAN Hit Squad) to move ahead of Powers in the final standings.

“I pretty much knew I was riding for third when Shelley was riding so strongly and keeping up with Kristin,” Power said. “With about three laps to go, they were in sight and I was making up ground and catching and I thought maybe I could get still second. But she beat me by two seconds and rode so strongly that she deserved second.”

Powers’ already successful season includes an overall victory at the Joe Martin Stage Race, runner-up at the SRAM Tour of the Gila and third place overall at the Redlands Bicycle Classic – all NRC events. She came into the Nature Valley Grand Prix as the NRC points leader while Team Type 1 – a first-year women’s professional program – was No. 1 in the team standings.

In the men’s race, Michael Creed led Team Type 1 with a ninth-place finish. Like Powers, Creed was unable to improve on his overall placing during the 20-lap men’s race that was won by Phillip Mamos (Amore & Vita presented by Life Time Fitness-Velo Vie) ahead of Anthony Colby (Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light).

Rory Sutherland (OUCH presented by Maxxis) overcame a seven-second deficit in the final stage to successfully defend his title from a year ago ahead of Tom Zirbel (Bissell Pro Cycling), who had held the lead since the opening time trial.

Team Type 1 Director Sportif Vassili Davidenko said Creed was simply out-manned as the race blew apart in the final laps. Creed was fourth overall, 22 seconds behind Zirbel, coming into the final stage.

“Our intention was to move Mike onto the podium, but at the end it was really tough,” Davidenko said. “He was left with one teammate (Ken Hanson) and then the last couple of laps he was racing alone against OUCH and Colavita. So that was really difficult. But he did a great job and the guys did a good job over the course of the entire week.”

Team Type 1 came into the race with only seven riders after Fabio Calabria broke a bone in his hand June 6 while training for the TD Bank Philadelphia International Championships. The team lost another rider Friday night when Timothy Hargrave did not make the time cut in the Uptown Minneapolis Criterium.