Tvetcov wins second straight stage, moves into overall lead

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Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly-Kenda) won his second consecutive stage of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic Friday and took over the yellow jersey from previous race leader Jakub Novak (BMC Development Team).

TIBCO-To the Top's Lauren Stephens took the women's win from a two-rider breakaway ahead of NOW & Novartis for MS rider Kathryn Donovan. Exergy-TWENTY16's Kristin McGrath finished with the first chase group and held onto her race lead over TIBCO's Claudia Häusler by 2:20.

"I think I said yesterday that it was going to be a tough day, and it didn't disappoint," McGrath said. "But the team was amazing. It was no stress, just because my team was so strong and always present at the front, and it really made my job easy."

Tvetcov finished the stage ahead of Travis McCabe (Elbowz) and Chad Haga (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) after making it into a select group that distanced itself from the field on the final climb of the day to the Mt. Bachelor Ski Area. He now leads Haga in the overall by eight seconds and Novak by nine.

"It was kind of hard," Tvetcov said of the Cascade Lakes stage. "I was happy with one stage win, but I remember last year that this was a good stage for me, and everyday I feel better and better."

A long hot trip around the mountain

The stage started with a long descent off Mt. Bachelor before turning for the first of two loops around the Crane Prairie Reservoir and then the long climb to the finish back at the ski area. The day's temperatures, which once again topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit, also added to the challenge.

A large 18-rider breakaway distanced itself from the men's field on the first trip around the reservoir. With most of the major teams in the race represented, the move looked like it might start gaining some traction on the peloton. The gap went up to 55 seconds before Jelly Belly stepped up to help the six-rider BMC Development squad reel the move back in before the second feed zone about 74km into the 148km race.

"There were some dangerous guys there," Tvetcov said. "So it was like, OK, let's put a couple guys on the front with BMC."

The next group of five that jumped away included James Stemper (5-hour Energy-Kenda), Scott Zwizanski (Optum), Colin Joyce (Cal Giant-Specialized), Devan Dunn (Cashcall) and Max Korus (Stage 17). The quintet was quickly joined by Cal Giant's Yannick Eckmann, Elbowz rider Michael Sheehan, Stage 17's Rene Corella Braun and Bissell Pro Cycling's Jeremy Vennell.

The nine escapees worked well together initially, building an ultimate gap of 2:40 with less than 20km remaining. Vennell, who started the stage just 39 seconds off the overall lead, was the virtual leader on the road and had visions of yellow until the group's cohesiveness fell apart.

"We needed a lot of time at the bottom of the climb," Vennell said. "But the group I was with, I think they got a bit of a shock that we got so much time and they decided to stop working and muck around, so it sort of went out the window when everyone was trying to save their legs for the climb."

Sensing that BMC was running out of steam for the chase in the closing kilometers, 5-hour Energy took over the duties on the front and steadily whittled away at the lead group's gap, hoping to set up team leader Francisco Mancebo for the win and a run at the yellow jersey.

The reinvigorated chase made quick work of bringing the leaders back as the road started to tilt upwards in earnest. Stage 1 winner Phil Gaimon (Bissell) was the first rider to attack the now-intact field, jumping off the front and getting a small gap before counter attacks from Mancebo and Haga quickly brought him back into the fold.

But Giamon's attack was successful in blowing the field apart and creating a very select group of nine riders in the lead, including Gaimon, Tvetcov, McCabe, Haga, Mancebo, Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie Sportswear), Gavin Mannion (Bontrager), Cesar Grajales (Predator Carbon Repair) and Chris Baldwin (Bissell).

"We just kind of played our chess game in the rolling section before the finish," Haga said. "And then the last kilometer came up quickly, and it really went crazy there."

Mancebo attacked multiple times in the closing kilometers but could not drop the other riders, and the group approached the ski area intact. Haga jumped early and took the lead, but both Tvetcov and then McCabe were able to slip by him at the line.

"At the caravan deviation it was a little bit confusing," Haga said. "Baldwin was on the front and he was staying left because he was a little bit thrown off. So I jumped inside, but Serghei was on my wheel."

Tvetcov played the sprint perfectly, sitting in the draft and then moving inside along the barriers to get the advantage.

"[Haga] had a good speed, and I knew no one was going to pass him," Tvetcov said. "And he just, boom, went with 100 to go, and I sat on his wheel and then jumped."

Tvetcov, McCabe, Haga, Rosskopf and Mancebo all finished with the same time. Mannion and Grajales were a single second back, while Gaimon and Baldwin came in two and four seconds later, respectively.

Novak finished in the first chase group of 15 riders that came in 17 seconds down. But Tvetcov, who started the day 18 seconds out of the overall lead, also earned a 10-second time bonus for the win and took yellow.

The Moldovan rider credited his team's daylong effort, and especially in the finale, for the result.

"My guys put me in the front before the climb started so it was perfect by the team," he said.

Stephens adds second NRC stage win to palmares

The women's 112km route included just one loop around the reservoir before the ascent back to Mt. Bachelor, and the peloton wasted little time trying to break things apart. Optum rode aggressively all day, with both NOW and TIBCO joining in with the attacks on Exergy-TWENTY16 and McGrath's overall lead. But Exergy was extra vigilant over the difficult terrain and shut all the moves down before they got too dangerous.

NOW's Olivia Dillon set out on a short-lived solo attempt to get away, but she was also quickly brought back into the fold. None of the early moves gained much more than a minute on the Exergy-led peloton.

"There were a lot of people attacking all day," Stephens said. "So it was definitely a harder race than it's been in the past."

A large crash on a downhill section of the rolling terrain around the reservoir split the field about halfway through the race and sent two riders to the hospital before a three-rider break, which included NOW's Donovan, got away with less than 20km remaining. The two other riders couldn't hold Donovan's pace, and the NOW rider was eventually out front alone.

Stephens started her bridging effort with Optum's Janel Holcomb, but Stephens attacked the 2011 Cascade overall winner and dropped her before reaching Donovan about 5km from the finish.

"So it was just me and Katie when I got there," Stephens said. "We worked well together from where I caught her with about 5km to go until the finish, and then at about 500 meters to go I sprinted."

Stephens opened an eight-second gap on Donovan by the finish and crossed the line solo for her second National Racing Calendar (NRC) win since joining the TIBCO squad this year after the Philly Cycling Classic.

"This was the stage I went into last year saying I wanted to win, but I had a teammate up the road in a break," Stephens said. "So this year to get the chance to win was pretty awesome."

NOW's Alison Powers led the first chase group across the line 51 seconds later to claim third on the day. Powers is still fourth overall 4:10 behind McGrath. Exergy's Mara Abbott is third overall, 3:03 behind her teammate.

The stage race continues Saturday with the evening criterium in downtown Bend and concludes Sunday with the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race.

Pro Men - Full Results

Pro Women - Full Results