VeloNews, March 19, 2001

By Danny Summers

REDLANDS - Late Saturday night, Redlands Bicycle Classic marketing director Craig Kundig was asked the question: "Is Genevieve Jeanson the Michael Jordan of women's cycling ?"

Kundig's response: "We'll wait and see what she does the next 10 years and find out."

Ten years may have been reduced to one day if Sunday's final stage of the 17th annual Classic is any indication of things to come.

Jeanson, riding for Rona, blew away the field, winning the 62-mile race by by a whopping time of 7 minutes, 3 seconds, over Susy Pryde of Autotrader.com.

Jeanson's overall time of victory in the six-stage event was 9 minutes, 23 seconds over Kimberly Bruckner of Saturn.

"I've never seen any woman dismantle the field like she did," Kundig said Sunday afternoon. "This is the most dominating performance I've ever seen. Nobody comes in like she did and crushes a field. It just doesn't happen. I been watching racing for 15 years and I've never seen it happen."

Just how dominating was Jeanson? The 5-foot-4 19-year-old from Montreal won four of the six stages and was second in another.

The distance of a race did not seem to matter. She won Tuesday's 3.1-mile Mt. Rubidoux Time Trial, then finished second in Wednesday's 77-mile Highland Road Race. She bounced back Thursday to capture the 12-mile Highland Time Trial, then won again on Friday in the grueling, 79-mile Oak Glen Road Race.

In Saturday's criterium in downtown Redlands, Jeanson finished 18th, 77 seconds behind Katrina Berger. That was Jeanson's "bad" race.

"Genevieve is by far the most dominating woman rider in the United States," Kundig said.

"She had the (overall championship) won today before it even started. I really expected her to sit back and cover anybody that raced to the front. I had no idea she was going to crush the field."

The Classic field included Jeannie Longo, considered by many the greatest female cyclist of all-time. Longo, 42, who has four Olympic medals to her name and 12 world championships, failed to finish Sunday's stage, pulling out midway through after complaning of illness.

Said Longo about Jeanson: "She's very good. She put herself in good shape to win this race."

Jeanson will travel to Monterey this week to compete in the Sea Otter event. Jeanson will then return to her home in Arizona to continue training.

page put on line on March 19, 2001 by SVP