One Wins With Help, the Other Without : Bicycle racing: Monninger and Brenneman take different routes to victory in the RedlandsClassic.

Linda Brenneman of Laguna Beach took 17 months off from bicycle racing to start rearing her first child, Paul.

She enjoyed staying home so much, she wasn’t sure she wanted to return to serious competition. And when she did, she found out no one wanted her.

As a result, she entered the season’s first major American race, the five-day Redlands Classic, as an independent rider.

Her status didn’t matter. Brenneman, 28, handled challenges from some of North America’s best teams in Sunday’s one-hour criterium and won the women’s division.

Scott Monninger of Boulder, Colo., won the men’s division, but he needed the kind of help that characterizes road racing. After falling behind by 55 seconds in Sunday’s 80-mile stage, Monninger and his Chevrolet/L.A. Sheriffs teammates quickly closed the gap on Saturn’s Bart Bowen, then cruised with the pack to finish first overall.

Ron Kiefel of Boulder won Sunday’s stage with a quick sprint on the final hairpin turn, but he was so far behind at the start of the day he was not a factor in the overall standings.

Brenneman finished fifth Sunday in the same time as the first 13 riders. Karen Livingston of Gainesville, Fla., used a final burst to win the stage, on a 0.65-mile loop course in downtown Redlands.

“It’s really impressive,” said Susan Palmer of Hamilton, Canada, of Brenneman’s ride.

Palmer’s Canadian teammates pushed the pace over the course of the hour to try to break Brenneman and give Palmer the victory. Instead, Palmer settled for second.

Jeanne Golay, the two-time defending champion from Glenwood Springs, Colo., also praised Brenneman after she failed to break away. Golay crashed during the first stage Thursday and lost any chance of winning here.

Golay’s dramatic fall early in the event helped Brenneman’s chances, but so did the weather. Saturday’s 31-mile circuit race was canceled because of flooding and debris on the course, so the teams had one less chance of catching her.

So the women pushed hard from the beginning of Sunday’s stage.

“It’s scary,” she said. “Very nerve-racking. But I didn’t have a choice. I can’t feel sorry for myself.”

Brenneman, who twice has ridden in the women’s Tour de France and the world championships, really did not have much to prove by returning to cycling.

“She had real mixed feelings,” said her husband, Rodney. “She was happy to be on the bike again, but when she was at home, she was real happy.”

Despite the victory, Brenneman will not return to a team full-time.

“I don’t want to travel,” she said. “I want to focus on my family.”

Monninger was simply happy to survive Sunday’s stage after getting a scare when three of his seven teammates dropped out of the road race.

That left him and defending champion Malcolm Elliott vulnerable. When Bowen made his break with two 6.7-mile laps left in the hills, the race’s complexion changed.

But Chevrolet/L.A. Sheriffs and the U.S. national team, which was protecting Fred Rodriguez who was second overall, took up the chase. Monninger led the chasers up a final hill, and Elliott then took off on the downhill that eventually led to overcoming Bowen.

When the peleton reached town and the final five laps, Monninger’s lead was safe. Rodriguez, who grew up in Whittier, was second and Elliott third.