Tvetcov, Stephens win Cascade Classic stage 2 time trials

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Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) found himself in a familiar position after winning the stage 2 time trial at the Cascade Cycling Classic for the second consecutive year, earning the yellow jersey and putting himself in the driver's seat to repeat his 2013 overall win.

Tibco-To the Top's Lauren Stephens continued her dominant performance this week with her third win in as many days, increasing her general classification lead over Amber Neben (FCS/Zngine) to 1:06.

With smoke from the Warm Springs fires causing a haze of smoke to build up throughout the day, Tevtcov covered the 25.6km course in 30:39, 21 seconds faster than his time from the year before.

The two-time Moldovan national time trial champion finished 34 seconds ahead of runner up James Oram (Bissell Development Team) and 42 seconds faster than former US pro time trial champion Tom Zirbel (Optum Pro Cycling). Hincapie Development Team's Joey Rosskopf finished fourth, 50 seconds down.

Coming into the time trial just eight seconds down, Tevtcov's effort easily boosted him into the overall lead a stage earlier than last year.

"Last year on the first stage, McKenzie Pass I think it was, I lost over a minute," he said. "So this year I tried to have the same time as the other GC contenders. I lost 10 seconds to Eric Marcotte because of the time bonus, so I put everything into today to try and get the yellow jersey."

Optum's Scott Zwizanski set the early fastest time with a mark of 32:12 and then had to wait for 111 riders to cross the line before Justin Rossi (Marc Pro-Strava) set the new best mark of 31:48. Nearly 50 riders later, Andres Diaz took over the lead, but his time on top lasted just a couple of minutes before Oram flew across the line with the new best time of 31:13.

Seven riders later, Tvetcov finished in the lead with just a handful of riders remaining on course. Zirbel came close to grabbing the win, but in the end he fell short with a time of 31:21. Starting last, Team Smart Stop's Eric Marcotte, the stage 1 winner who wore yellow during the time trial, set a disappointing time of 33:29, 2:50 behind the winner.

Smart Stop's top rider on general classification is now Julian Kyer, 1:40 off the lead pace. Team director Mike Creed said the current situation might change his team's focus for the rest of the week.

"We'll probably focus more on stage wins than the overall," Creed said. "But if the shit gets weird out there, hopefully we'll be there to help it get weird. Hincapie's going to throw a lot at (Jelly Belly). Optum's going to throw a lot at them. We don't necessarily have a GC guy in the hunt, but we'll definitely help those guys out if they decide to start throwing bombs."

Tvetcov now heads into Friday's Cascade Lakes stage with a 34 second buffer over Zirbel and 37 seconds over Oram. Rosskopf is 45 seconds down in fourth, with Bissell's Ruben Zepuntke claiming fifth, 51 seconds in arrears.

Stephens pulls off hat trick

Stephens grabbed her third win of the week by just nine seconds over Twenty16's Alison Tetrick, who held the fastest time of 35 minutes for just 14 riders before Stephens claimed the top spot with a mark of 34:51. Rally Sport Cycling's Julie Emmerman was third on the day, 37 seconds down.

Stephens, the women's National Racing Calendar leader, indicated her results so far this week even caught her a little by surprise.

"I wasn't thinking I was going to win three stages in a row, but definitely the goal was to win the overall this week," she said. "I didn't see it happening this way, though."

Changes at the top of the leader board were more frequent for the women than for the men, but Olivia Dillon (Colavita-Fine Cooking) came in with a time of 35:59 that lasted for 32 riders until Rhae Shaw (Vandekitten) set the new best time of 35:31. That mark lasted just a few minutes until Tetrick came in and toppled her.

Stephens now leads Neben by more than a minute, with Emmerman in third, 1:18 down. Tetrick is fourth, 1:32 in arrears, while her teammate Allie Dragoo is 1:55 down for fifth.

Stephens won last year's Cascade Lakes Road Race during stage 3, although riders will do the course in reverse direction this year. Even so, the Tibco team leader was confident the blue-and-white squad wasn't finished piling up the stage results quite yet.

"We've got some good stages coming up for the team," Stephens said. "My teammate Amanda Miller won the final stage last year, so I know it's a great stage for her, and we've got a new finish in that stage. We've got some good crit riders here, and I think tomorrow will be a good stage for the team with a longer climb. We have a squad that's here ready to climb also."

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