Tvetcov, McGrath wrap up overall victory at Cascade Cycle Classic

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Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie Sportswear) and Amanda Miller (Tibco-To the Top) took the stage wins on the final day of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic Sunday during the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race, while Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly-Kenda) and Kristin McGrath (Exergy-Twenty16) fought off the day's challenges to their respective yellow jerseys and secured the overall wins.

Rosskopf and teammate Oscar Clark finished first and second on the stage ahead of 5-hour Energy/Kenda's Francisco Mancebo. The trio was part of a four-rider group that finished five seconds ahead of the field. Rosskopf moved into second overall ahead of Chad Haga (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies).

Miller rode away from a four-rider breakaway the final time up the climb of Archie Briggs and soloed in for the win ahead of Jade Wilcoxson (Optum) and Lauren Rauck Komanski (NOW & Novartis for MS).

Tvetcov said his week at the Oregon race, where he won two stages along with yellow, is the biggest win of his career so far. "Two-hundred people, everybody from the US, so that's pretty cool," the 24-year-old Moldovan rider said.

McGrath, meanwhile, crossed the line with one arm pointed skyward to dedicate her first National Race Calendar overall win to Joe Philpott, a long-time family friend who died earlier this year in an avalanche while skiing in Colorado.

"He was like a little brother to me," McGrath said. "He was my little brother's best friend, and he and his family were some of my biggest fans, always supporting me and out there cheering me on, so I know he was out there flying along with me today."

Temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit played a big role in Sunday's race. The men covered five laps of the circuit for 133.5 km, while the women circled the route three times for 82 km. Both races started and finished at a local high school slightly off the circuit. The course featured two main climbs: one long grinder before the feed zone and the daunting slopes of Archie Briggs, which climbs 74 meters in a little more than a kilometer.

Clark sacrifices stage win for Rosskopf

A large group of about 20 riders escaped the men's field on the second of five laps and quickly started building an advantage. With most of the top teams represented, the group rolled well together, and Tvetcov's Jelly Belly team was left to do the lion's share of the chasing. Despite the horsepower up the road, the chasers kept the group's advantage under two minutes and slowly started pulling it back on the penultimate lap.

Just after the leaders started the fifth-and-final loop, Elbowz rider Eric Marcotte jumped away with Bontrager's Jasper Stuyven, and the duo set off on its own. The powerful pair got a gap but could not gain more than 10-15 seconds on their former breakaway companions, who were fighting to keep their own advantage on the closing field.

The race came back together when the field and the first chase group combined and caught Marcotte and Stuyven at the base of Archie Briggs after Tvetcov tried to bridge and brought most of the peloton along with him.

"Freddie [Rodriguez] said, 'You need to cross because it's too dangerous,'" Tvetcov said of his more experienced Jelly Belly teammate. "So when it was really close to the uphill, I attacked and tried to bridge. Optum was chasing me, and that actually closed the gap. It was a perfect scenario."

Attacks flew fast and furious before Mancebo got away about 3km from the finish. Clark jumped on the move first, followed by Rosskopf.

"I looked around and nobody else was going, so I went," Rosskopf said. "Mancebo pretty much rode it to the line, just going for time, and Oscar was able to fly around and lead me out for the sprint and the time bonus. I was higher up on GC so I needed the time bonus, but I don't think anyone would have been able to beat Oscar today. He was flying."

D3Devo-Airgas rider Griffin Easter crossed the line next ahead of Hincapie's Ty Magner, and both riders finished with the same time as the leaders. Stuyven led home the field, which included Tvetcov, five seconds later.

Tvetcov clung to the overall lead by six seconds over Rosskopf, who jumped past Haga. The Optum rider finished third, eight seconds down.

Yannick Eckmann claimed the sprint jersey. The Cal Giant-Specialized rider had also held the KOM jersey since stage 1 but surrendered it to Flavio De Luna (Smart Stop-Mountain khakis) on the final day. BMC Development's T.J. Eisenhart won the jersey for best young rider, while Bontrager took the team prize.

Miller jumps way from break on final climb

The women's three-lap race started out aggressively as Tibco, NOW and Optum sent riders up the road, hoping to wear down McGrath's seven-rider Exergy squad and isolate the race leader. But circumstances and hard riding limited the escape efforts to just a few kilometers or less before the field pulled each of them back.

Tibco's Claudia Häusler, who started the day 2:20 behind McGrath, attacked any time the route tilted upwards, but the race leader and her team were able to mark each of the Tibco rider's moves.

It wasn't until just after the start of the final lap when Miller, Wilcoxson, Komanski and Julie Emmerman (Rally Sport Cycling team) escaped the whittled-down field and made their advantage stick.

"Lauren [Komanksi] attacked, and then Jade was going and I went," Miller said. "We sort of worked together, but it wasn't a really cohesive group. But we got a big gap because the race had been pretty aggressive leading up to that."

The quartet built a gap of 1:30 by the time they hit the bottom of Archie Briggs for the final time, and it looked inevitable that the stage winner would come from this group. Miller also sensed a victory and jumped away from her breakaway companions.

"I attacked at the base of the climb," Miller said. "Then they brought me back and I attacked again on the last little pitch before the QOM."

The Colorado rider poured on the coals from that point and held off Wilcoxson by just four seconds at the finish. Komanski came in two seconds later, followed by Emmerman. Tibco's Joanne Kiesanowski led the first chase group in 1:17 later. McGrath finished in a group that came in 1:20 down to seal the overall win.

Although Häusler wasn't able to ride into yellow, she did claim the polka dot jersey for Queen of the Moutains. Optum's Leah Kirchman took home the green sprint jersey, while Tibco's Jasmine Glaesser was the best young rider. Tibco also won the top team prize.

Pro men - Full results

Pro women - Full results