De Maar makes his move

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United Healthcare's Morgan Schmitt finished with the lead group at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic's stage two Mt. Adams Road Race but lost his leader's jersey after officials penalised him 20 seconds for pacing behind a neutral support car after a flat.

Schmitt's teammate Marc De Maar, who finished third on the stage behind Nic Hamilton (Trek/Red Truck) and Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman) now leads the overall going into Friday's stage three time trial but shares the same time with Bissell's Paul Mach. Johnson is third overall. Schmitt dropped to ninth overall, 12 seconds back.

The Mt. Adams course rolled deep into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which provided plenty of scenery on the snow-flanked roads but also a few rough patches of gravel that caused problems for plenty of riders and their tyres.

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United Healthcare's troubles started when team director Gord Fraser tried to plough through a small patch of snow in the team car but hit something solid and blew out a front tyre. While Fraser was on the side of the road putting on a spare, his rider in yellow was also on the side of the road waiting for a wheel change from neutral support, which was slow to get to him because of all the others also waiting for service.

When Schmitt did get his new wheel (with a mismatched-but-somewhat-functioning cog) he took some pace off the neutral vehicle in order to make his way back the bunch. But he apparently got too much help for the officials' liking and the penalty ensued.

Unfortunately for Schmitt and new race leader De Maar, organisers had already held the podium ceremony and given the leader's jersey to Schmitt. Fraser was less than pleased when told about the decision in the lobby of the team's hotel.

"You're in a race like this with the conditions of the race course and my car gets a flat tyre," he said. "Then Morgan flats and has to get a neutral change. There's a certain amount of leniency that should go to a call like that. I mean it's pretty extenuating circumstances."

Fraser said the team would "strongly protest" the decision, and he also said he thought Schmitt wasn't alone in his decision to accept the motorpacing.

"There are a lot of guys in the race who are taking pace when they get flats," he said. That's part of the game. It's not the rider's fault. This is unusually harsh."

But the controversial decision couldn't overshadow a tremendous day of racing on the western flanks of 12,250 foot Mt. Adams, where an all-day breakaway stayed out into the finishing straight before Hamilton managed to hold off the charging field by a bike length. It was a close win after a long day in the saddle.

Hamilton joined Nate English (Echelon Gran Fondo/ZteaM), Jaimie Sparling (Total Restoration) and Aaron Schooler (H&R Block) in a breakaway about halfway through the first of two 54-mile laps. The quartet quickly built an advantage of more than three minutes early in the second lap before the wheels started coming off and UHC picked up the chase.

Schooler was first to be jettisoned from the break, followed by Sparling, leaving Hamilton and English to try and keep the power on all the way to the line. It worked for Hamilton, but English ran out of gas 50 metres short.

"I pulled as hard as I could in a tuck for the last kilometre," English said of the finish. "And then when (Hamilton) came through I didn't have anything left because I was pulling as hard as I could already. And then they caught me."

Hamilton played the day like a maestro, carefully choosing the right move to bridge up to, and then gauging his effort without a second to spare.

"There were a couple guys that got away over the second KOM," Hamilton said. "I came across because I saw United Healthcare wanted to let that one go. That's the time to go. So I just got in there and had a nice steady day out front."

The race continues Friday with the 18.5-mile Scenic Gorge time trial.

Race notes:

UnitedHealthcare rider Roman Kilun abandoned the stage almost as soon as it began after suffering a hard crash in Tuesday night's Mt. Tabor criterium.

In the women's race, which started with today's stage, Hagens Berman's Jennifer Wheeler won a bunch sprint after spending most of the day chasing back after getting dropped early. Patricia Bailey (Total Restoration) was second, and last year's Yeast stage winner Sue Butler (River City Bicycles) was third.

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