Race leader Tvetcov wins Stage 4 criterium

Jelly Belly's Serghei Tvetcov added an emphatic exclamation mark to his overall lead at the Cascade Cycling Classic on Saturday night, out-sprinting the field and taking the victory during the stage 4 criterium in downtown Bend, Oregon.

In the women's race, Joanne Kiesanowski kept the Tibco-to the Top dominance rolling by winning the criterium ahead of Optum Pro Cycling's Joëlle Numainville and FCS-Zngine's Mia Loquai. Triple stage winner Lauren Stephens of Tibco held onto her yellow jersey heading into the final stage on Sunday.

Tvetcov, who was kitted up in the bright yellow skinsuit of the race leader, shocked even himself as he crossed the line ahead of Optum's Ryan Anderson and Hincapie Sportswear's Ty Magner, who won this stage last year.

“I was surprised, too,” the 25-year-old Jelly Belly rider said in the finishing straight after the race. “I was surprised. OK. Alright. Just go. There was nothing to lose now. I just go, and that's it.”

Tvetcov, who said he didn't believe he could actually win the stage until he crossed the white line at the finish, surprised a lot of people with the win, including his own director.

“We just wanted to keep him out of trouble and keep him safe, and Serghei won.” said Jelly Belly manager and director Danny Van Haute. “That's what the yellow jersey does for you, I guess. We're in [Tour de France overall leader Vincenzo] Nibali's footsteps, I guess.”

The twilight criterium took place on a similar course as previous years, but racers covered the elongated rectangle in reverse direction. The men's race started with attacks from Bissell, Hincapie, Jamis-Hagens Berman and a handful of others until a small front group finally formed about 10 laps into the 70-minute race.

The six-rider breakaway included points leader Logan Owen (Bissell), mountains leader Travis McCabe (Team SmartStop), Griffin Easter (Airgas), Jesse Anthony (Optum), David Santos (KHS-Maxxis), Luis Amaran (Jamis) and Oscar Clark (Hincapie).

The escapees' advantage grew to 20 seconds before McCabe crashed in the off-camber, slightly downhill second turn of the course and sent himself and three other riders to the pits for a free lap. All but Santos were pushed back into the breakaway, but the group's impetus had been lost. After that, Jelly Belly's chase started slowly whittling away at the advantage until Anthony jumped away solo with about 12 laps remaining.

The rest of the break quickly fell back into the field, which eventually pulled Anthony back with seven lap to go. Optum took over the front of the peloton on the next lap and continued to ratchet up the pace heading into the finale.

On the final lap, Jelly Belly's Freddie Rodriguez brought Tvetcov to the front of the pack on the front straight, but his leadout was a little too quick, and Tvetcov lost his wheel as they went through the first and second turns. But the overall leader waited patiently and played off the Optum leadout before making his final jump in the second-to-last corner.

“Freddie jumped and said, 'Hey, let's go up the side and stay out of trouble,'” Tvetcov said. “I jumped and got on a wheel that was just behind him. I jumped to another Optum guy and waited. Freddie looked back and saw I wasn't on his wheel, so he just pulled off. The Optum guy just drilled it, and I jumped on the turn and started the sprint.”

Tvetcov was able to hold off Anderson and Magner, with Bissell's Ruben Zepuntke closing in as well.

With a 10 second time bonus for the winner, Tvetcov now leads Zepuntke in the overall by 11 seconds and Incycle-Predator's Andres Diaz by 41 seconds. Optum's Tom Zirbel is fourth, 44 seconds down, while Hincapie's Joey Rosskopf is 52 seconds behind in fifth.

Tibco's sweep continues

After winning the prologue and the first three stages while putting Stephens in yellow with a commanding lead, Tibco went into the Saturday night criterium as an overwhelming favorite for another stage victory. The blue-and-white squad delivered with Kiesanowski.

“In the end, we were able to ramp it up that little bit extra in the last three laps so nobody could come around,” Kiesanowski said. “The girls did just a textbook leadout, you know, peeling off one after the other until there was one left taking me around the last corner, and that's all I needed.”

But before the team could launch sprinter Kiesanowksi to the win with the textbook leadout, the team had to control the 50 minute race that saw multiple attacks and escape attempts. The FCS-Zngine team of overall runner-up Amber Neben appeared determined to make Stephen's squad expend as much energy as possible before Sunday's final stage.

But Tibco appeared even more determined not to let anyone get up the road. Solo escape attempts appeared to be the order of the day, as riders would gain a small gap for several laps before fading back into the field.

“My team was just so amazing,” Kiesanowski said. “The whole race we just kept it calm and kept in front the whole way, you know, just in a big paceline. We didn't let anything worry us, and when they got away on the front stretch we just kept controlling it and bringing them back slowly.”

KHS-Maxxis rider Joy McCulloch tried a solo flyer with two laps remaining, but the field was back together with Tibco on the front as the riders got the bell signifying one lap to go. From there, Tibco lined it up for Kiesanowski and delivered the Kiwi sprinter to the line with room to spare.

Stephens finished the stage fifth behind Twenty16's Kaitlin Antonneau and will take a gap of 1:14 over Neben into Sunday's final stage. Rally Sport Cycling's Julie Emmerman, who has been riding all week with a broken wrist, is currently third overall, 1:34 down. Twenty16's Alison Tetrick and Allie Dragoo are fourth and fifth, 1:55 and 2:03 down, respectively.

Sunday afternoon's stage will take place on the Awbrey Butte course that has decided multiple national championships, although there is a new uphill finish this year. The men will cover five laps of the course for 132.8km, while the women will race three laps for a total of 81.6km.

“We're looking forward to the last stage,” Kiesanowski said. “It's always a hot, hilly and hard stage, you know, up Archie Briggs and the whole Awbrey Butte circuit, so we're ready for a tough race. We'll rest up tonight and be ready to go again tomorrow.”

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