Mankato, MN - Today, Karl Menzies of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis got the birthday present. Menzies took advantage of some race tactics by a small front group just ahead of him coming off the final climb, as well as a bit of desperation on the part of 3rd place overall Bernard Van Ulden (Navigators), to earn the win in the fourth stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, the 86-mile Mankato Road Race.

On the first of four circuits, the surviving group of 18 riders, which included six from Health Net Presented by Maxxis, stayed together. But things started to break apart on the second when Frank Pipp (TargetTraining) took off with Menzies in tow. By the third time up, Greg Henderson of Health Net Presented by Maxxis bridged with Shawn Milne (Navigators). Coming off the climb, it was race leader Nathan O'Neill's turn to attack and bridge, with Josh Thornton (Toyota-United) in tow.

The six riders came through the start/finish area for the final lap and the games began. But the cat-and-mouse allowed Van Ulden, Hilton Clarke (Navigators), Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) and Jonathan Page (Colavita-Sutter Home) to catch back on.

Coming to the fourth and final time up the 14% climb on the finishing circuit, O'Neill attacked again, and only Pipp, Milne, Henderson and Stevic could follow. Behind, Menzies was drifting off the back with Van Ulden for company. "I was just trying to ride a solid tempo up," Menzies said. "I knew Van Ulden would try to chase back on to keep his GC placing. I sat on him on the downhill. At the bottom, there's a tight right-hand turn. I attacked him just before that and got through first and attacked again just after the corner."

Meanwhile, the front group of five were once again engaged in a cat-and-mouse game to see who would start the sprint. This allowed Menzies to get back on.

"I went straight past Hendy and he jumped on my wheel," Menzies said. "Then I went right to Nathan's wheel. He drilled it with one kilometer to go and went to the second to last corner. I sprinted to the last corner and when we came out, Hendy looked under his arm and saw we had three bike lengths on everyone else and no one was coming, so he gave me the birthday present. We came across together. I was so smashed I didn't even celebrate. I think Nathan was the only one who posted it."

This despite the fact that O'Neill actually lost the race lead and dropped to third overall. But he wasn't disappointed, as teammate Henderson took over the yellow jersey on time bonuses, while the bonus Menzies earned for the win put him second overall. But only six seconds separate all three, while teammate Gord Fraser came in with the lead group to preserve his 5th overall spot. Van Ulden hung on and only dropped to 4th overall, 0:19 behind Henderson, and 0:07 ahead of Fraser.

New strategy blows in

The weather for the stage appeared as if it would be more calm than the previous road stage, the second, when Health Net Presented by Maxxis blew apart the race just 10 miles into it on the first major section of crosswinds.

But it quickly became apparent to Health Net Presented by Maxxis directeur sportif Jeff Corbett that the wind would again be a factor. "We were going to play the race straight up today: cover the moves, let a non-threatening break go away, and if we brought it back then set it up for the stage win," he explained. "But when we hit that first section of open farmland, the winds were pretty severe.

"There was a lot of shuffling and swarming," he said. "It was just a bit too crazy. So about 15 miles in, we went to the front and rode a hard tempo and it kind of blew apart the peloton. There were only about 25 or so guys left up front. But then we turned into a block headwind and decided it wasn't worth the effort so we eased off."

This allowed the peloton to reform - for the moment. He knew that another crosswind section was coming. So did all the other teams. "We went to the front and hit it, but it's never just one team in cases like that," Corbett said. "Everyone knows it's coming. Navigators were there, Jelly Belly, Toyota.

"But in situations like that, you have to ride at the front and ride together to handle the crosswinds," Corbett said. "So you might as well do some damage while you're at it."

They did.

Within minutes, the peloton was reduced to a select group of 18 riders, including six from Health Net Presented by Maxxis and four from Navigators.

Despite the heavy presence of the two teams, the entire break worked well together and began to establish a gap. For the next 50 miles, their lead hovered between 1:10 and 1:40, and it stayed that way until the finishing circuits. Approaching the first lap, Navigators again got a bad break as Grichkine flatted and wasn't able to regain the front.

But everything worked right for Health Net Presented by Maxxis. "We just wanted to make sure all our key players were there for the circuits," Corbett said.

Work to be done

Despite holding the top three spots in the general classification, as well as the fifth spot, Menzies said that there's still a lot of work to be done in the final, brutal 60-minute criterium, which Corbett describes as more of a mini circuit race than a traditional crit.

"It's still tight," Menzies said. "We've got to be on our game. We've been the strongest team so far."

Corbett added that, "We assume the Navs will come out swinging with everything they've got, but we'll be ready."

Notes

Friday's rain-shortened criterium in downtown Minneapolis was essentially wiped out by race officials afterward, so that none of the results - including time bonuses and points - counted toward the overall competitions.

With his aggressive riding, Frank Pipp earned enough points to take the lead in the green jersey competition from Henderson. "We could've ridden to get more bonus points in the intermediate sprints," Menzies noted, "but we wanted the bigger prize of the stage win, and we wanted to make sure we all had enough left in the tank at the end to get it."

Official Results