Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12 Enter Third Stage of Nature Valley Grand Prix in Yellow

Armstrong and Starnes sit in first and third going into tomorrow’s road race stage

Bloomington, MN - The second stage of the six stage Nature Valley Grand Prix was tonight in downtown St. Paul. A 28 lap criterium on a 1.4 km circuit, the race had 22 seconds in time bonuses up for grabs. With the overall classification so tight after the opening Individual Time Trial, the racing got hot from the start, with HTC-Highroad and Colavita/Forno d'Asolo presented by Cooking Light forcing the pace early on. In the first time bonus sprint it was Chloe Hoskins (HTC-Highroad) narrowly taking the five seconds over Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12’s Lauren Tamayo. Third was Hoskin's teammate, Amanda Miller.

Shortly after, a break splintered off of the front. The top General Classification (GC) placed rider in the break was HTC-Highroad’s Miller, who sat 1:07 back from race leader Kristin Armstrong (Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12). The break also contained Armstrong’s teammate, Lauren Tamayo. Last year’s race winner, Shelley Olds (Diadora Pasta Zara) was also present and was driving hard to try to move herself back into race contention after the morning’s time trial.

The break stayed away until about 12 laps to go, when a motivated Armstrong took control and brought the break back into the fold. From there, the sprinter’s teams aligned at the front, with TIBCO/To the Top and Colavita wrestling the final laps to move their designated speedsters into position. Out of the final corner it was Giorgia Bronzini (Colavita/Forno d'Asolo presented by Cooking Light) blazing her way to the win over Diadora Pasta Zara’s Olds, with Chloe Hoskins coming in third. The General Classification remained unchanged with Armstrong in Yellow and teammates Alison Starnes in third and Kristin McGrath in fifth.

Tomorrow is a late afternoon 66 mile road race. With more rain predicted, and a challenging course ahead, Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12 will have their work cut out for them defending their Yellow Jersey.

Photos: Courtesy Peanut Butter & Co.TWENTY12

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