Zirbel, Stephens on top in Cascade Classic prologue

Tom Zirbel (Optum Pro Cycling) and Lauren Stephens (Tibco-To the Top) donned the first yellow jerseys of the 2014 Cascade Cycling Classic Tuesday after storming to wins in the opening prologue time trial at Tetherow Golf Club.

Zirbel took his first-ever leaders' jersey at Cascade by clocking a time of 4:23 over the 4km loop south of Bend, Oregon. The former national time trial champion was two seconds faster than runner up Ruben Zepuntke (Bissell Development Team) and three seconds faster than Ignazio Moser (BMC Development Team) in third. NRC leader Travis McCabe (Team SmartStop) tied Hincapie Sportswear's Dion Smith in fourth with a time of 4:29.

Adam Farabaugh (Equipe Garneau-Quebecor) was the first rider off the line for the men and put in a time that would hold until Zirbel crossed the line more than 60 riders later. Zepuntke came close to the 6-foot-five-inch Optum rider but fell just short. In the end, Zirbel's strength and experience prevailed.

"I think the key for me is that I just kind of took it easy on the downhills because I let my weight take care of it on the downhills," Zirbel said. "And then I really pushed it on the uphills. So I probably had a pretty good second half."

Cascade is Zirbel's first race since the North Star Grand Prix, where he helped teammate Ryan Anderson win the overall, and he said he was happy with his form and would go all-in for the win.

"I haven't been climbing that well this year, but if I have a really good time trial and limit my losses both tomorrow and Friday, there's a chance," Zirbel said. "I love this race. This was the first NRC race of my career and I've always wanted to win here. But we have a strong team, and it may end up being one of my teammates that is the leader at the end of the week."

Despite his own ambitions, Zirbel pointed to Jelly Belly-Maxxis rider and defending champion Serghei Tvetcov as the rider to beat.

"He's been time trialing better than me for a about a year now, so until he proves otherwise I think that being defending champion, he is the guy to beat," Zirbel said. "There are some good climbers here who can time trial as well. I just can't climb as fast as those guys, so we're going to have to be creative if we're going to win this race, at least with me on the top step."

NRC leader Stephens strikes quick

Stephens, the current National Racing Calendar leader, started about halfway through the 87-rider women's field but wasted little time stamping her authority on the race. The former math teacher, who has devoted herself full time to racing this year, crossed the line in 4:53. Team Twenty16's Allie Dragoo was runner up, 10 seconds behind, while Vanderkitten's Rhae Shaw was third, 12 seconds in arrears.

Shaw was the ninth rider on the course and set a blistering early pace, crossing the line in 5:05. Dragoo crossed the line about 20 riders later to bump Shaw from the hotseat. But she wasn't there long, as Stephens came in just 15 riders later to set the fastest mark of the day. The Tibco leader had to wait 41 riders to find out that she would wear yellow into stage 1.

The win was a big confidence boost for the rider who is recovering from a broken wrist suffered in a crash on the track a week before the US pro championships.

"It's great to be back and great to start it off strong," Stephens said. "I tried to start North Star Grand Prix about a month ago. That was coming off three weeks after my broken wrist, and I had to pull out of that race because I wasn't quite ready. So it's great to be back and feel strong and ready to go."

Stephens will be ready to go for Wednesday's stage, which had to be changed from a long slog through the high desert North of Bend to the Alpine environs of Mt. Bachelor after wild fires encroached on the original course. The alternate stage is similar to the one that Stephens won last year.

"I was super excited about the new stage," she said. "I'm from Texas, so I was excited about how hot it was going to be out there. I live in the heat and I've grown up in the heat, but I guess tomorrow we're going to be doing the Cascade Lakes stage in the way we've done it in the past, and that's actually the stage that I won last year. So I can't say that I dislike the course."

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