Stetina wins Cascade Lakes stage at Cascade Classic

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Peter Stetina made it two wins in three stages for the US National Team Friday at the Cascade Cycling Classic, taking the victory in the Cascade Lakes Road Race after the peloton reeled in the day's breakaway on the final climb. Stetina’s win comes on the heels of Alex Howes' stage 1 win atop McKenzie Pass.

Stetina escaped the bunch in the closing kilometres with Team Ecuador's Santiago Montenegro and Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda Hernandez before opening a slight gap on the teammates at the finish. Montenegro finished second, with Cepeda sweeping up the final podium spot.

Overall leader Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare) finished with the bunch on the heels of the escapees and retained his yellow jersey.

Stetina said a pre-race recon was the edge he needed to get the win at the end of a hard day.

"I'd seen the stage the day before the race to see this climb, and I knew the last 3km," Stetina said. "It's the only part where it kicks and stays consistent. So many climbs around Bend are shallow and pitchy, so that was kind of earmarked as the place to be."

Before Stetina could launch his attack, however, the field had to reel in the remnants of the days' 10-rider breakaway. The conditions helped out.

"We were pretty stressed about that break coming back, but a headwind on the final climb kind of sealed the deal and their fate," Stetina said. "We let the other domestic teams closer in the GC fight it out amongst each other for the overall, and we had the boys each take their turn lining it out and keeping it fast, because I need a climber's climb, I can't just attack on punch. So we had to make sure everyone was just a bit in the red."

Stetina used the set up to jump away from the group, with only Cepeda and Montenegro able to follow. Then he put his knowledge of the course to work again.

"They came around just for a second, but I had to do 90 per cent of the work," Stetina said. "I knew the corners at the finish, so I made sure I shot them down through there and went early and held on."

The 172.8km Cascade Lakes stage started with a climb out of town that broke the field into multiple groups, but it took nearly an hour for the breakaway of the day to form. When the break did come together, however, it was packed with power.

In the group were Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel), second overall behind Mannion by just one second, UnitedHealthcare's Alex Cataford at 18 seconds back and Silber Pro Cycling's Nigel Ellsay at 51 seconds back. The dangerous GC trio were joined by Holowesko's TJ Eisenhart and Oscar Clark, Emerson Oronte (Rally Cycling), Pablo Alarcorn Cares (Canel's Specialized), Taylor Sheldon (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and Hangar 15's Francisco Mancebo and Steve Fisher.

As the break built its advantage, the splintered groups behind came back together, with UnitedHealthcare taking up position on the front to protect Mannion's jersey.

"It was definitely a very hard day," Mannion said at the finish. "It was hard start with 20km uphill out of town, so it was great to have Alex in the break. He's top five in GC. It was a little bit dangerous with Carpenter there because he is second, so we wanted to keep it in check."

Keep it in check they did, with a little help from the US National Team and Rally Cycling. The gap never went higher than 2:45 on the day, and by the time the leaders reached the bottom of the final 12km climb, the gap was manageable at just over a minute.

Eisenhart pulled the plug, and he was followed in quick succession by Fisher and Clark. Riders started attacking the break, but it was all for naught as the field was quickly on them, reshuffling the deck and setting up Stetina's winning attack.

Brief Results