by Lyne Lamoureux
Tobin Ortenblad (California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized) outsprinted the reigning US National Road Champion Eric Marcotte (Team SmartStop) to win the Uptown Minneapolis Criterium tonight. Belgian Timothy Stevens (Team 3M) rounded off the podium on stage 4 of the North Star Grand Prix. The three riders were part of a five-man breakaway that escaped early in the race to the pleasure of the enthusiastic crowd.

“I was feeling good, I knew it was going to be really hard to beat Marcotte. He just won Nationals. I just knew that I wasn’t going to come around until I saw the line.” Ortenblad said. Coming into the final lap, the 19-year old rider was third wheel in the breakaway, watching Marcotte who accelerated on the backstretch. “It was hard to stay on his wheel but I was in a good position to do it and then, we came to the sprint, I just went.”

The cooperation between the five riders ended on the bell lap. Marcotte commented, “They didn’t want to come around. Once we came to one to go, I was on the front until the last three inches.”

Canadian Ryan Anderson (Team Optum) remains in the yellow jersey, protected by his teammates who controlled the front of the field for the whole race.

With two hard stages left, tonight’s stage was the one that many riders had circled for the highest possibility of a breakaway making it to the line. And they attacked from the gun. Six laps into the 35-lap race, Ortenblad, Marcotte, Stevens, Andrew Dahlheim (Athlete Octane Cycling) and David Santos (KHS-Maxxis-Jakroo) had established a gap after a surge following the first time bonus sprint.

“I followed a move early and they sat up and went back. I stayed out there and they joined me.” said Ortenblad who was awarded the red Penn Cycle Most Aggressive Rider jersey for his efforts.

Marcotte explained, “I just stayed up front for those early time bonuses, I knew that it was going start to get hard. I can’t remember which Jamis guy but I let them take them because that’s really what their race is, I didn’t want to affect that much. After that, I just started to push it a little bit and you can see Optum at the front and they were happy with every other rider taking bonuses away so I jumped across to the move, kept it steady and made sure we stayed away.”

Team Optum liked the combination up the road and settled in to control the pace for the rest of the race. The gap went up to 28 seconds at 23 laps to go. A crash caused splits in the field and forced many riders to try to chase back on, including Ortenblad’s teammate Ben Wolfe in the white best young rider jersey. Meanwhile at the front, the five riders worked well together, each taking pulls, pushing the gap to almost the one minute mark.

At that point, the five riders focused on the final sprint.

The time gap to the field moved Santos into the green North Star Top Amateur jersey, a goal of his from the start of the race. A jersey that he intends to defend in the next two stages. “I was eight seconds down [after the time trial] so I had the rest of the week to chip away at it. Yesterday, I moved into second, Coulton held on to his eight-second lead on me, and today I had a call-up so I just used that as an opportunity to be in the early move. It worked, it rolled for the whole race. It stayed away.”

No changes for the other classification jerseys. Ian Crane (Jamis-Hagens Berman) remains in the blue Xcel Energy Sprinter jersey, Wolfe stays in white TRIA Orthopedic Center Best Young Rider jersey and Heath Blackgrove (Boneshaker D1) keeps his Sports Beans King of the Hills.

Racing continues on Saturday afternoon with the 95-mile Menomonie Road Race which features rollingarmland in the heart of Wisconsin’s dairy country and finishes with multiple laps of an in-town circuit.

Women’s Race:
Rivera Wins Uptown Minneapolis Crit; Small Increases Her Lead on the Overall

Coryn Rivera (UnitedHealthcare) won both sprint competitions and continued her sprint dominance by winning the race ahead of Leah Kirchmann and Lauren Hall (both Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefits Strategies), who placed second and third respectively.

The 28 lap race was neutralized at 13 laps to go due to a massive crash in turn four of the six corner, 1.4km long course as nearly half the peloton went down. After 20 minutes, the race re-started at a shortened 10 laps to go.

“The restart definitely threw a little bit of a curve ball into everything,” said Rivera. “It shook up our rhythm. Going into the final we lost our footing a little bit, were a little shuffled around, but Alison [Powers] and my teammates got me up there. With one to go Alison drilled down the front, I stuck on her wheel and she pretty much delivered me to the line.”

“The crash affected the [race’s overall results] a bit,” said Kirchmann. “The field was strung out, then the crash happened, so things got reshuffled. We were able to come back from that crash and execute the race how we planned.”

Team Optum lined up at the front of the race with seven laps to go, immediately after the second and final intermediate sprint competition.

“We had control of the race until a lap and a half to go when Alison jumped us with Coryn,” said Kirchmann. “I was able to slot in with Lauren on my wheel and we followed them as Alison gunned it on the last lap. It was chaotic in the last corner but Lauren and I were happy to hang on for second and third.”

Carmen Small (Specialized-lululemon) started the stage seven seconds ahead of Powers in the general classification, so the stage’s time bonuses were a critical piece of the race.

Small won both intermediate time bonus competitions for a total of 10 seconds of time bonus. Powers was hot on her wheel at the first competition at 23 laps to go, giving her three seconds of bonus on the day.

The stage also featured 12, eight, and six seconds of time bonus for first, second, and third place.

“The last three laps were very stressful,” said Small, who’s Specialized-lululemon team has only five riders compared to other team’s eight-person squads. “Optum was a good challenge. It’s hard for me by myself when there are two lead out trains. It was hard to take position for the sprint and I was too far back to put in a good sprint.

”But it’s ok, our goal was to keep the jersey, and I actually gained time [ahead of Powers].“

Small now sits 14 seconds ahead of second-placed Powers on the general classification, and Kirchmann sits third at 22 seconds back.

Allison Arensman (Kakookie’s Collegiate All-Stars) was awarded the day’s Penn Cycle Most Aggressive Rider jersey, testing out her legs against the pro racers with an early solo flyer.

”My legs felt good tonight,“ said Arensman. ”I think I’m finally opening up after the last two days. I definitely wanted to test it out up there, definitely wanted to get the sponsors called out. I’m just so excited to be here at this huge event. The crowd tonight – oh my gosh, it was so loud, it was just great to be out there and racing with these big teams.“

Rivera widened her Xcel Energy Sprint Competition lead from one point to 17 points over second placed Olivia Dillon (Colavita-Fine Cooking).

Kirchmann widened her Tria Orthopedic Best Young Rider lead from 10 seconds to 26 seconds over second placed Tayler Wiles (Specialized-lululemon).

There was no change in the North Star Best Amateur competition or the Jelly Belly Queen of the Mountain competition, which will be worn by Kelly Catlin (Kakookie’s Collegiate All Stars) and Wiles, respectively.

Weather permitting the North Star Bike Festival’s race and events  continues in Menomonie, Wisc. with a 82.3-mile road race on Saturday.

Continue to follow HaveFunBiking.com’s coverage of the North Star Bicycle Festival!