Bevin cool under fire, holds onto overall

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On a long stage packed full of aggressive racing, Bissell's Patrick Bevin held onto the Merco Cycling Classic's yellow jersey to take home yet another overall victory for his team here.

Exergy's Logan Loader finally pulled off the sprint victory on the final stage after falling just short on the previous two attempts. Loader topped Optum Pro Cycling's Ken Hanson and the surprisingly quick Tyler Brandt (Mike's Bikes).

"It feels really good, not only for me but for the team. They worked so hard for me in the past two days," Loader told Cyclingnews.

"The whole race people were attacking non-stop. I've done this race four times and this was the most aggressive I've ever seen it. With 1km to go every team was putting someone up the road. We had Serghei Tvetcov up the road with 3km to go with Zirbel, and it looked really good. It really made Bissell chase.

"Coming in, everyone's lead-out trains were depleted and I was able to surf. Freddie dropped me off at the front with 500m to go and we got swarmed, but I was able to find the Optum train coming up and I hopped on that and rode it in."

With all but two teams lacking stage wins, and Optum and Exergy in particular out for the podium's top step, even Bissell's best attempts to reel in the usual day long breakaway weren't enough to control the attacks. In the final kilometers Bevin was forced to cover a number of attacks on his own before finally surrendering to simply finishing on the same time as his nearest competitors and taking home the yellow jersey.

Bevin was more than happy with the work from his team, however, and equally relieved to be able to close the deal after four days of intense racing. "They started with more than a lap to go with guys throwing bombs," he said, and his sense that the other teams were trying to burn out his was corroborated by the Optum and Exergy riders.

Yet the 21-year-old Kiwi was well composed as were his teammates, and while he was forced to cover a few attacks in the finale, he credits his team with keeping his legs rested for the critical moments.

"We knew that after you've ridden for that much time, you have to be on your game. Especially me, I had that plum ride, and when it comes down to the last half lap, it's time to earn my keep and do my part. I had to answer a fair bit in that last half lap to keep sticking it together. There was no need to do much else.

"The guys had been out there for a long time, and you could see it coming. It was time to start answering, especially the late attacks from the guys 20-30 seconds down who can slip away. I had to don the gloves there and get in amongst it, but it was no trouble because I had an easy day being looked after so well."

After successfully answering all the hard attacks, Bevin knew there would be no chance to go for third stage win. "You kind of forgo the stage win just to protect the overall, so at the end of the day it was definitely worth it."

In the final classification, Loader overtook Optum's Tom Zirbel to take second overall through the time bonus on the stage. Zirbel himself had a mishap-laden race, frought with near-crashes and mechanicals, but in the end nearly pulled off a coup when he slipped away with Tvetcov with 3km to go.

"We weren't going to be content with second place. We wanted to see what we could do, but Bissell rode great," Zirbel said. "They definitely earned the win today."

From the start of the 120 mile stage through blooming almond orchards humming with bees in the warm sunny morning, the Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies team was keen to put pressure on Bissell.

They put two men into the day's breakaway after an attack-laden first lap. Scott Zwizanski and Mike Friedman, both strong men against the clock, made up half of the four-man move. They were joined by Austin Carroll (Simple Green) and Exergy's Conor Mullervy, and gained several minutes before being slowly reeled in on the final lap.

Zwizanski explained that they were trying to use up Bissell's train but that his escape group was a bit too small to threaten them. "We wanted to really make Bissell work for the GC, and to isolate Bevin. It worked to some extent - he had to cover a lot of moves at the end. But we needed a few more guys in our break. After being out there for 100 miles, we ran out of gas pretty quickly."

The team was able to take the lead to try and deliver Ken Hanson for the sprint, but despite dropping him off at the right spot, he was overtaken by Loader at the line.

"The plan was to be as aggressive as possible to try and take the overall, and we put all of our eggs into that basket," Hanson said. "I even put in a few moves, so I wasn't exactly the freshest at the end, but kudos to Logan, he had a great turn of speed - he jumped with 200m to go and did a good sprint."

Armstrong holds onto yellow

The women's race wrapped up with no change to the overall lead, with Exergy-Twenty12's Kristin Armstrong also resisting repeated attempts to overtake her in the points-based omnium.

Ina Teutenberg took her second consecutive stage win, once again topping the best young rider, Joelle Numainville (Optum), in the sprint, while Armstrong stuck fast to the only rider who could overtake her - Numainville, and claimed third on the stage to secure her overall win.

After winning the opening stage's time trial by almost a minute, Armstrong admitted the points-based format, where points were evenly weighted down to 15th, made it more difficult for her to win. Separated by just one point from Numainville, she could only give up one place to the Canadian who would still lose in a tie-breaker as long as she did not win the final stage.

"The original plan was to just stay on Joelle's wheel, but she's a real sprinter, and she's okay with the bumping and the swarming - that's not exactly my strength," Armstrong said.

"So I decided just to ride the front in the final kilometer, and let her come from behind." It ended up being a drag race, with Teutenberg hitting the front early and going on to win, and Armstrong able to slot in on Numainville's win to take third.

"There was a bit of pressure on me because the team did so much work," she said.

The women's finale consisted of three laps of the same 24-mile mostly flat circuit which, lacking any strong winds, was less selective than normal. That isn't to say there was a lack of aggression, because the first lap was full of the same sort of rapid-fire attacks which were seen in the criterium.

Specialized-lululemon attacked repeatedly, interested primarily in a stage win, while Optum played its card in the form of Janel Holcolmb, who slipped into a last-lap move with Lauren Tamayo (Exergy) and Ally Stacher (Specialized-lululemon).

With Holcolmb only six points down on Armstrong it was a iffy proposition for Exergy, but Stacher and Holcolmb were content to drive the move to go for the stage win.

However, their chances were ruined when a group of four more riders made it across, meaning Armstrong would have to win the bunch sprint to hold onto her lead if Holcolmb won the stage.

Exergy chased the move down, and only a single attempt by VC La Grange's Julie Cutts looked able to break the stalemate. The mother of eight from Las Vegas, race age 44, who has had top placings at the Valley of the Sun stage race, attacked with 8 miles to go and put 45 seconds into the peloton before Specialized-lululemon brought it back with 5km to go.

"I know I had nothing to lose, and they had no idea who I am, so it was worth it," Cutts said of her hail-mary effort. "I was dreaming a big dream thinking I would win, but oh well - it was fun."

In the end, Teutenberg showed she is still the fastest woman on two wheels by nabbing another stage win, but was disappointed that one of her teammates who will have to work for the big names during the rest of the season didn't have a chance to shine in this early season warm-up. "It's so hard, we tried to make a difference, but Exergy does such a good job in keeping the pace up.

"We have big goals this year, and it's best to just ride aggressively. We were happy to have Ally in the break, because these are the races where everyone should have a chance to get a win. There are so many races in the rest of the year where it's so limited as to who can win. These races, you're happy to have some of your teammates who work for you all year long take their chances.

"For sure when it came back together at the end they worked to lead me out, because we don't want to give up the win, but we were happy with any of us in the break."

Unlike Armstrong, who preferred the previous time-based stage race, Teutenberg said she enjoyed the points-based omnium, which kept the top riders close until the end.

"The omnium makes it a better race, otherwise you would have had a minute in the time trial, but with the points it was pretty close. It makes for better racing, and it's a good way to have more girls come out. There were good fields today and yesterday, and there were constant attacks, it was fun."