Montreal, March 24, 2004 – Second win in two days for Geneviève Jeanson of Team RONA. After the prologue yesterday, today she won the first stage, a 85.5-kilometre road race on a new course in the San Bernardino area, in Southern California. Jeanson led her Canadian rival Lyne Bessette of Team Quark by 29 seconds, and American Christine Thornburn, of Team Webcor, by 42 seconds.
Thanks to this win, Jeanson consolidated her grip on the overall lead and the yellow jersey, that she has been wearing in this race since the prologue … last year. In general classification Bessette is one minute 11 seconds behind.
Jeanson also leads in the Queen of the Mountain competition and the points classification. Team RONA leads the team general classification, 29 seconds and 51 seconds ahead of teams Quark and T-Mobile respectively.
Today’s stage was marked by a crash 35 kilometres into the race, which split the peloton. But it regrouped and remained compact up to the only real difficulty today, a 4 kilometre climb, getting tougher in the last two. Jeanson progressively hardened the pace to wear out the field and she was all by herself when she reached the top, before plunging to the finish in a 2.5 kilometre technical descent.
“The first part of the course was really windy, said Jeanson, but it wasn’t too bothersome. Team RONA’s work was impeccable, well structured, and the girls (Anna Milkowski, Andrea Hannos, Helen Kelly, Katheryn Curi, Katrina Grove) with clockwork precision.”
Tomorrow’s stage is the infamous Oak Glen Road Race. This demanding stage traditionally tears the field apart as ithe riders are worn out by 129 kilometres of racing over three major climbs, especially the fearsome 6-kilometre climb that leads to the finish line. The Redlands Classic is made up of five stages and a prologue, and runs until Sunday.
source : Daniel Larouche, RONA Cycling Team
Put on line on March 24, 2004 by SVP
