North American Wrap: Specialized-lululemon dominates Vargarda World Cup

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Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) on the way to top three on the podium(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/CN)

All eyes are on the Vuelta a España, which typically marks the start of the final stretch of the road racing season that also includes some end-of-summer and fall one-day events, shorter stage races and the world championships. The spotlight was also on the North American racing scene at events like the Tour of Utah, won by Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp), and the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado, won by Tejay van Garderen (BMC). The attention will shift to the upcoming Tour of Alberta, the double WorldTour events in Québec City and Montreal, and the Bucks County Classic in Pennsylvania. It is also the wind down to the USA Cycling’s National Criterium Calendar (NCC) and the National Racing Calendar (NRC). Check out a few of the other highlights from the peloton last week and a peek at what’s ahead.

"The most impressive part of today's race was how well the girls rode as a team," said team director Beth Duryea. "They rode smart and strong for the entire race. Even with just two laps to go we still had a lot of cards to play. It was a great win for Chantal and an even better reward for the whole team to take a World Cup win. After the TTT win on Friday, it's a credit to all of our staff to be able to get the girls to recover and come up again with such a strong performance again today. I'm really happy with the team's win.”

Ryder Hesjedal went into the Vuelta a España as one of Garmin-Sharp’s two leaders alongside Dan Martin. The Canadian was confident that he could return to GC form, however, he lost time valuable time during stage 5 and stage 6. He made a comeback during stage 7 after being in the day's breakaway but a late-race crash thwarted his chances of winning the stage. He managed to finish second on the day and earn the most combative rider award.

Canada's Svein Tuft secured second overall at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, a five-stage race that ended on Friday. The national road and time trial champion took second place in the stage 4 time trial, 44 seconds behind stage winner Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling). The Frenchman went on to win the overall title after the stage 5 finale, securing the victory by 47 seconds ahead of Tuft and 1:01 ahead of Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits).

As one of the most popular events in the US, many of the participating were American-registered. They also dominated the final jersey podium with van Garderen also claiming the event’s best Colorado rider jersey, Jamis-Hagens Berman’s Ben Jacques-Maynes winning the mountain jersey, UnitedHealthcare’s Kiel Reijnen securing the sprint jersey and Bissell Development’s Clement Chevrier winning the best young rider jersey, while Trek Factory Racing’s new retiree, Jens Voigt, was voted the race's most aggressive rider.

UnitedHealthcare's Adrian Hegyvary won the opening criterium at the two-day Chris Thater Memorial in Binghamton last Saturday. He won the race ahead of German national team member Christian Grasmann and Champion System-Stan's No Tube's Andres Alzate. Pepper Palace rider Sarah Fader won the elite women's race ahead of Colavita-Fine Cooking's Erica Allar and Mellow Mushroom p/b Pink Siren Sports Laura Van Gilder.

A week after competing at the USA Pro Challenge, five WorldTour teams will travel north to Canada to take the start line at the upcoming Tour of Alberta held from September 2-7. Garmin-Sharp will be returning to try and win the overall title for a second year running, however, the team will be without its defending champion Rohan Dennis, who made a mid-season switch to BMC and is currently racing at the Vuelta a España. The other top-level squads include Orica-GreenEdge, Giant-Shimano, Cannondale and Belkin. UnitedHealthcare will be the only Professional Continental team at the event while Continental teams include Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies, Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis, 5-Hour Energy p/b Kenda, Silber Pro Cycling, Hincapie Sportswear Development, SmartStop, Bissell Development, Garmeau-Quebecor and the Canadian national team.

The elite women’s World Cup finishes on Saturday, August 30 at the GP de Plouay. The touch World Cup round covers at total of 122km, on four 27km laps and one 14km final lap. To make the race more difficult, each lap includes a climb over the Côte de Ty Marec with 10 per cent grades. Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv Woman Cycling) has won the last two editions but there will be some North American riders on the line vying for the win this year.

American team Specialized-lululemon is coming off of a successful World Cup stint in Vargarda where they won the team time trial and the road race with Chantal Blaak. Their American rider Evelyn Stevens will be on the start line in Plouay also aiming to take that victory. Other North Americans include Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) and Canadian champion Leah Kirchmann (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies).