Nature Valley Grand Prix is a men's and women's road bicycle racing stage race held each June in Minnesota, United States, as part of the Nature Valley Bicycle Festival. An event was added in Menomonie, Wisconsin in 2010. The race ranks 2.1 on the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar of pro/élite stage races from 2.1 (highest) to 2.8 (lowest).
The 2010 Grand Prix had six stages: three criteriums, two road races and a time trial. The Nature Valley Grand Prix was the third event of the 2010 Women's Prestige Cycling Series, which included the Redlands Bicycle Classic, the Tour of the Gila and the Cascade Classic Stage Race.
The Nature Valley Bicycle Festival is run by volunteers, proceeds going to Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.
Famous quotes containing the words nature, valley and/or grand:
“Religion differs from magic in that it is not concerned with control or manipulation of the powers confronted. Rather it means submission to, trust in, and adoration of, what is apprehended as the divine nature of ultimate reality.”
—Joachim Wach (1898–1955)
“Ah! I have penetrated to those meadows on the morning of many a first spring day, jumping from hummock to hummock, from willow root to willow root, when the wild river valley and the woods were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead, if they had been slumbering in their graves, as some suppose. There needs no stronger proof of immortality. All things must live in such a light. O Death, where was thy sting? O Grave, where was thy victory, then?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)