The structure of bicycle racing always carries with it a built-in contradiction: It takes a team to win the general classification in the name of one rider, and it takes a group of strong individuals to win stages in the name of the team.

Sunday's results in the Nature Valley Grand Prix put a fine point on this truism. Under a blazing hot sun and light breezes, Ivan Stevic and the Toyota-United team micromanaged the peloton to win the overall contest on Chilkoot Hill in Stillwater, Minnesota. But they could barely contain Health Net, a team that is bursting at the seams with talent and raw power. Frank Pipp escaped on the final ascent of the 300-meter, 24-percent grade hill, along with teammates Rory Sutherland and Kirk O'Bee in a pack of six to claim all the prime numbers: first, third, and fifth places. Unfortunately for Health Net, the sixth rider in the group was Stevic, who'd been guided to the wire by Toyota-United's full cast.

Stage 6 Video Highlights

It was Stevic's first win in a U.S. stage race, and he gave all the credit to his team.

"The guys were so strong,” he said. “We wanted to use everybody up in the first 30 minutes, but they all lasted until 45, it was amazing."

Stevic said it wasn't important for him to win atop Chilkoot as he did last year. He stayed in contact with the leaders throughout the race, looking comfortable and strong, and he finished the Grand Prix with the yellow jersey on his back and 27 seconds in hand. "Caleb Manion was absolutely the star of the stage, in my opinion," said Toyota-Untied team director Harm Jansen.

Manion was the last of Stevic's pacers guiding the Serbian up the steepest climb in American crit racing. He pulled away at the base of the final approach. Stevic was never in any danger during the stage; the stars-and-stripes kits of Toyota-United had him enveloped and stamped and ready for delivery‹come rain, snow, sleet, or Health Net. It was an especially dramatic conclusion to a stage race that was like a knife fight held in tight quarters, with razor-thin margins at every stage finish, and huge crowds along the way.

Chilkoot Hill is too steep for barriers and almost too steep for asphalt, so tens of thousands of cycling fans crowded the road as if it were the Koppenberg, and racers were forced to ride Minnesota’s version of that famous Tour of Flanders landmark 20 times on Sunday. Health Net's disappointment started hours before Sunday's stage. Second place GC contender Nathan O'Neill - who won Friday's time trial and set up Rory Sutherland's win in the road race Saturday - came down with apparent food poisoning and was not able to start the race.

Pipp's charge on the 24-percent slopes of Chilkoot Hill may have inspired his team to dominate the stage, with

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

"Stevic was really strong today, and hats off to the team," said Health Net team director Jeff Corbett. "But we took a bit of a blow this morning. With one more weapon in our arsenal we might have been able to crack him today, but we'll never know."

While Health Net won five of six stages this year, they could not repeat last year's GC triumph by Karl Menzies. Menzies bowed out of the race this year due to the illness of his father back home in Tasmania. Armstrong and Abbott stay away for a showdown
Whereas the top ten men were within 60 seconds of one another before stage 6, there was little speculation about the overall contest on the women’s side since Friday, when Kristin Armstrong (TEAm Lipton) took nearly a minute out her rivals in a time trial that covered just five miles of flat, windless road.

Given the opportunity in Saturday's major climb, she took another minute. Armstrong might have walked her bike up Chilkoot Hill and still won the GC, but she remained relentless. Just five laps into the race, she attacked and quickly gained ten meters on a group headed by Shelley Olds (PROMAN), Lauran Van Gilder (Cheerwine), and Katie Mactier (ValueAct Capital). But jumping to her wheel was Mara Abbott, the rising Webcor star who won last month's Tour of the Gila. The two spent the rest of the stage in an easy alliance - Abbott doing most of the leading, looking light and comfortable as she stood on the climb, while Armstrong sat in. The two ultimately landed on the final climb with a full minute of dead air behind them. There was some speculation as to whether Armstrong would cede the stage to her talented young passenger. But she felt she owed her team one more decisive triumph.

"It's not like I need to selfishly gobble up all the stages," she said. "After everything this team has done, after all the hard work, I felt I really owed this win to them, and to Lipton."

Gracefully driving her machine as if it were blown by the wind, she gapped Abbott by five seconds at the line. "I wouldn't want a gift from Kristin!" said Abbott with a smile afterward."When I beat her, I want to really beat her."

The young rider said it was awe-inspiring for the whole women's peloton to be riding with Armstrong in the U.S. this year. But not so awe-inspiring that she couldn't put it all on the hill to try to beat the world time trial champion.

Abbott's strong performance in the stage put her onto the final GC podium - still in the shadow of Armstrong but within an arm's length.

Abbott and Armstrong formed an effective alliance

Photo: Casey B. Gibson