Hall and Bush take dominant wins on eventful day in Bend

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Lauren Hall (Colavita-Forno D’Asolo) took a convincing sprint victory from a mid-race breakaway to secure the fourth stage criterium at the Cascade Cycling Classic. Hall out-paced Meredith Miller (Tibco-To the Top) in second and Anne Samplonius (Now-Novartis for MS) in third.

"If it wasn’t for Kristin [Sanders] I may not have made it," Hall said. "It was great team work. We are very happy with our performances this week and I am looking forward to tomorrow, more team work and another shot at a stage win."

Clara Hughes (Cycling BC) maintained her overall race lead heading into the final stage, a circuit race that includes a tough climb up Archie Briggs each lap. She is leading the race ahead of Erinne Willock (Tibco-To the Top) and Kristin McGrath (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12)

The Pro-Cat 1,2 women were treated to a 50-minute, flat, four-corner criterium at the stage four of the Cascade Cycling Classic. After two mountain stages and a challenging time trial, the criterium promised a day for the sprinters in the field.

Only 28-seconds separated the top five in the overall classification with Clara Hughes (Cycling BC) leading the way, followed by Erinne Willock (Tibco-To the Top), Kristin McGrath and Kristin Armstrong (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12) and Tara Whitten (Tibco-To the Top).

The race started fast with teams Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12 taking to the front of the peloton and setting a fast-pace. Now-Novartis for MS, BikeNZ and Tibco-To the Top joined in the pace-setting with in the opening laps.

Small breakaways formed during the first half of the race, however, sprints for primes were an incentive for riders and teams to drive the pace, making it difficult for a breakaway to stick.

A breakaway of eight riders emerged mid-way through the race that included Hall, Miller and Samplonius along with Kristin LaSasso (Primal-MapMyRide), Erika Graves (Now-Novartis for MS), Kristin Sanders (Colavita-Forno D’Asolo), Pascale Schneider (Vanderkitten-Focus) and Tayler Wiles (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12).

"I did not role with the break," Miller said. "We wanted to keep it together because we were confident in a stage win. We didn’t want a break and I was hoping the field was going to come back together."

With most of the teams represented in the breakaway, it was able to extend its lead to more than 30 seconds. Tibco-To the Top did the majority of the work in the peloton to bring the breakaway back into a manageable margin, approximately 16 seconds with three laps to go.

Samplonius attacked her breakaway companions with one lap to go. She almost made it to the line, but was passed with roughly 20 metres to go by Hall and Miller.

"I don’t have a sprint so my only move was to try and attack the break and go," Samplonius said. "I worked the break hard at first but there were a lot of people sitting in. I waited and when I thought the pack was coming, I had to go. I tried to hold it off. It was hard coming up this final stretch because it was a long way."

Mancebo maintains overall race lead with one stage to go

Rob Bush (Chipotle Development) lapped the peloton with five other riders and wove his way through a chaotic field sprint in order to win the stage four criterium at the Cascade Cycling Classic. The US Under 23 National Criterium Champion out-paced his breakaway companions Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth) in second and Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home) in third.

"To win with this jersey on was a blessing," Bush said. "We’ve been working hard all year and today it was a team win."

Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com) will wear the yellow jersey into the fifth and final stage at the Awbrey Butte circuit race on Sunday. Bush moved into the lead of the event’s Sprint competition. His teammates Lachlan Morton is leading the Best Young Rider and Alex Howes is leading the the King of the Mountain categories.

The Pro-Cat 1 men were treated to a 75-minute, flat, four-corner criterium at the stage four of the Cascade Cycling Classic. After two mountain stages and a challenging time trial, the criterium promised a day for the sprinters in the field. Although there were 200 men that registered for the race during the prologue, only the top roughly 160 riders in the overall classification could start criterium.

An early breakaway of three emerged that included Rob Bush (Chipotle Development), Mike Northey (PureBlack Racing) and Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home). Three additional riders formed a chase group that included Jacob Rathe (Chipotle Development), Andy Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) and Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth).

The two groups united to form a breakaway of six riders with Amaran the highest placed in the overall classification just over two and half minutes back. Bush picked up enough points during the breakaway to move into the lead of the event’s Sprint competition.

"I moved up a lot in the overall, probably fourth place," Amaran said. "I think a podium at this race is possible but tomorrow’s stage is difficult.

Our main objective today was to win the stage with one of our sprinters but I ended up in the breakaway."

"Everyone worked really well together, which is rare," Bush said. "When I saw the field on the same straightaway I knew we would lap them."

V Australia lined up its riders to try and reduce the time margin. The team registered a series of strong sprinters in pursuit of the criterium stage win including, Jonathan Cantwell and Bernard Sulzberger. RealCyclist.com kicked in two riders to help in the chase. However, when the breakaway came close to lapping the field RealCyclist.com did the majority of the work at the front of the field.

The six riders were roughly 100 metres off the back of the field when Anthony made his move to try and bridge the gap. He did not make it alone and rejoined his breakaway companions to contribute to the group effort that successfully lapped the field with ten laps to go.

"I wanted to get to the back of the field because sometimes when you do that your team can drill it and make it more difficult for the others too get across," Anthony said. "We had a strong team and wanted to utilize them, even though that didn’t work."

Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth took control of the front of the field for the remaining six laps of the race with its rider Anthony sitting protected and prepared to sprint for the stage win against his five rivals. Bissell put forth a strong effort to try rival the Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth train. However, it was Bush who took the stage win ahead of Anthony in second and Amaran in third.

"My team was ready to go once I got up to the top ten," Anthony said. "The did an awesome lead-out. I took it from the last corner and Rob was about five guys behind me. It was a tough position and it was a bit too far to go but I couldn’t sit up. It was tough to lose that way because the team rode awesome."

Carlos Alzate (Exergy) was the first rider to cross the line in the field sprint and subsequently placed seventh on the day.