Jacques-Maynes claims opening stage

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Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) made his winning move with one kilometre to the line and held off a late-race breakaway to take a solo victory as the Cascade Classic kicked off this afternoon. Jeff Louder (BMC) sprinted for second place, nipping Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing) at the line.

"Winning solo is the only way to do it when there are so many sprinters in the group," said Jacques-Maynes. "I want to dedicate this win to the memory of Chris Hipp. He was a close friend of mine who died of an embolism one week ago suddenly while he was out riding his bike. It is very tragic. I have been think of him a lot this week and he meant a lot to me."

Jacques-Maynes took the early lead in the overall by virtue of his 10-second margin over the chase group combined with the time bonuses allocated at the finish line. He heads into stage two with a 14-second advantage over Louder and 16 seconds of cushion to Mancebo.

"I hope we are able to have a good time trial here," Jacques-Maynes said. "But we aren't fully depending on the time trial anymore because that has bitten us in the ass the last couple of weekends. We want to come out here to race aggressive and have a good one."

Matt Wilson initiated his bid for victory against a front group of 21 riders with five kilometres to the line. He was followed by Jacques-Maynes, Louder and Mancebo and Chris Baldwin (OUCH p/b Maxxis). Jacques-Maynes countered with one kilometre to go and time trialed his way into a solo victory, narrowly holding off the sprint for second place.

The chase group reshuffled as additional riders rejoined the front. When the sprint started bike-length gaps formed throughout the remaining riders as they muscled their way to the finish line. Behind the stage winner, Mancebo started his sprint with 200 metres to go. He was quickly followed by Louder who pipped the Spaniard at the line for second place.

"Once Ben got a five second gap it was over because anyone who committed to chasing it was going to get beat," said Louder. "I thought if we all went together to the line it would be close. Ben's beaten me in a small group sprint before so I may have gotten second anyway, but I liked the idea of going to the line with a chance to win - that didn't happen."

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

With temperatures nudging 100 degrees Fahrenheit and Bend's high-desert winds, it felt like a hot hair dryer was blowing against the peloton - it had the riders begging for water, or paying as the case may be. Race officials handed out post-race warnings for improper feeding and more importantly fines for blatantly littered water bottles, an expensive reminder of a big no-no ahead of the next five stages.

A break of 10 riders escaped off the front of the peloton 41 kilometres into the pro men's 113km opening stage as a result of an aggressive start. The big teams were well represented in the move, with riders from Team Type 1, Rock Racing, BMC, Colavita-Sutter Home, OUCH p/b Maxxis, Felt-Hollowesko Partners-Garmin and Bissell. Chris Baldwin (OUCH p/b Maxxis) picked up full points on the stage's only KOM sprint to lead the mountain competition.

BMC, unhappy with its odds, organised a team chase that was intended to bring back the break but resulted in shattering the some 185 rider peloton. The Pro-Continental squad dragged a chase group of fifteen riders across to the initial breakaway group and formed a large bunch of 23 riders, packed with a talented mix of overall contenders and sprinters.

"We were desperate to get across to the original move because we wanted to have more riders there," Louder said. "It was obvious what we were doing because we were going really hard. Our intent was to bring the break back but it resulted in the field splitting."

Rock Racing dominated the split with five riders that included Mancebo, Oscar Sevilla, Victor Hugo Pena and David Vitoria who took the race by the horns and caused the gap to reach nearly 3 minutes, save for Ivan Dominguez who sat quietly at the back, out of sight - out of mind, waiting for his honorary final kilometre mark.

"We have a strong team here and we had a lot of our overall riders in the front group," said Mancebo who recently competed in the Vuelta a Madrid before making the 20-hour trek overseas and across America to start the Cascade Classic. "We want to focus on the overall and also the stage win today with Ivan."

BMC met its goal of fielding more riders in the front group with Louder, Steve Bovay, Tony Cruz and Ian McKissick. Other riders who made the split included Jacques-Maynes and Jeremy Vennell (Bissell), Wilson, Darren Lill and Chris Jones (Team Type 1), Davide Frattini, Anibal Borrajo and Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home), Baldwin, Cameron Evans and Rory Sutherland (OUCH p/b Maxxis), Michael Northey (Landrover-Orbea), Peter Salon (Felt-Hollowesko Partners-Garmin) along with the leading Best Young Rider, Guy East (Livestrong).

"There was a lot of attacking and everyone had ridden really hard from that group," Louder said. "We all spent quiet a bit of time without water, a lot of cramping and basically the best thing was to be aggressive. The group would split and them come back together and split again across the road.

Nearing the final kilometres of the race, Team Type 1 launched several attacks in a bid to separate itself from the dangerous sprinters. Lill was the first to attack causing a series of counter moves from rival teams. Wilson was the next to jump in a move that resulted in a reshuffled front group of five men that made it to the finish line first.

"We started instigating the attacks because I was confident that our guys were strong enough and smart enough to create a split that was advantageous for us," said Gord Fraser, Team Type 1 directeur sportif.

The climbing starts at the cascade classic stage two road race. The 125km journey will take the peloton toward the sisters and up three creek road, a more the 16km climb to the finish line.

Stevens surprises herself with sprint victory

Evelyn Stevens is the newest face in women’s cycling and she just scored another victory at the Cascade Classic opener. Kitted up in her new Webcor-Builder’s duds, the New York City girl stormed passed the peloton in what she thought was a lead-out for her speedy team-mate Gina Grain, only one could come around her at the line. Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Chrissy Ruiter (Value Act Capital) placed second and third respectively.

“I jumped to do a lead-out for Gina but I think I went a little too hard - no one ever taught me how to do a lead-out,” said Stevens. “I had a gap, saw 200 metres to go and I kicked it - I got it. It feels really cool to win against a good sprinters. I’ve never done it before, not at this level.”

Stevens victory secured her a four second lead at the Cascade Cycling Classic over Pic and six seconds ahead of Ruiter. “I wanted to come here to race well for Webcor,” said Stevens, who is guest riding for the squad. “The girls are so strong and the team rocks.”

The peloton lined up at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds to start the 113 kilometres road race. Last year it kicked off the six-stage race with the first up hill finish atop Pilot Butte but this year it marked the only flat and fast finish, other than the stage five criterium.

After an uneventful start, team TIBCO took it upon themselves to start the first string of attacks. Though nothing stuck for more than a few kilometres, it served to light a match under the peloton and get the racing started.

“TIBCO laid down a bunch of attacks three quarters of the way through the stage,” Stevens said. “They were very strong and that was a hard part of the race.”

Stevens team-mate Amy Dombroski won the mid-race Queen of the Mountains sprint to take the early lead in the Best Climber competition. Kristy Broun (Lip Smackers) picked up full points in the intermediate sprints to lead the Best Sprinter competition.

Rachel Warner (Group Health) took a flyer with 15 kilometres to go that resulted in a 20 second gap on the peloton. She was brought back as the pace quickened in the anticipation of a field sprint. Teams Value Act Capital, Webcor-Builders, Colavita-Sutter Home geared up to bring their sprinters into good position to sprint.

Stevens moved to the front and jumped with one kilometre to go in an effort to lead-out sprinter Gina Grain. She created gap and was quickly followed by Ruiter, who was also attempting to lead-out her sprinter Martina Patella. “I saw the move and I jumped on it,” said Ruiter. “It was instinct to follow that move and when I looked back I noticed we had a gap so we kept going.”

Pic wound up her sprint from further back and passed Ruiter at the line. “I saw Evelyn jump and I thought she just attacked,” Pic said. “I saw the two go but at the time I couldn’t see who it was. It came up so fast and suddenly it was only 200 metres to go. I thought there was no way I was going to catch them. I just needed a bit more time.”

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