Sutherland begins defense of NVGP title with 2nd in Stage 1 ITT

St. Paul, MN - Rory Sutherland made a strong opening statement that he was back to earn his second consecutive Nature Valley Grand Prix title by finishing second in Wednesday morning’s opening time trial, 0:13 behind Bissell’s TT specialist, Tom Zirbel.

Sutherland’s strong ride was one part of a strong overall performance by the team, with last year’s 2nd overall John Murphy taking 5th place (0:22), Karl Menzies in 7th (0:23) and Tim Johnson in 11th (0:31). All eight riders on the team finished within one minute of Zirbel.

However, the OUCH Presented by Maxxis squad will have to contend with more than just Zirbel the rest of the week, as Bissell occupied six of the top 12 spots in the challenging 4.5-mile time trial.

But in the evening St. Paul Lowertown Criterium last night, OUCH Presented by Maxxis wasted little time in starting to chip away at Zirbel’s 0:13 lead. Sutherland was part of a group of eight riders that contested the stage win six seconds ahead of the main bunch, so he was able to close his gap to Zirbel to just 0:07,

“The pace was really high on the last lap,” said directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “There were gaps starting to form in the bunch. Rory was setting up to do the lead-out. But when we realized what was happening, we had Rory go for the win instead.”

Sutherland finished 5th on the stage, but picked up the valuable time on Zirbel. Only Peter Latham of the Bissell squad was in the front group, though he didn’t come to the line with them. He went down on the run-in to the finish, but was awarded the same time as the front group, as he crashed within the final kilometer. He remained 3rd overall, 0:05 behind Sutherland and 0:12 behind the race leader.

Meanwhile, Menzies took advantage of the time bonuses out on the course by picking up three seconds on one of the intermediate sprints, and jumped up to 4th overall.

“This is definitely setting up to be a battle between us and Bissell for the overall,” Tamayo said. “It’s gonna be a slugfest.”

Nature Valley continues this evening with the 60-mile Cannon Falls Road Race, a rolling, windy affair that also serves up an extended stretch of dirt road.

Official Results

Photography: Jonathan Devich

NATURE VALLEY STAGE RACE: VIDEO RECAP (STAGE 1)