De Maar defends as McCarty claims

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The Queen Stage of the 2010 Indie Hops Mt. Hood Cycling Classic is in the books, and UnitedHealthcare's Marc de Maar successfully defended his yellow jersey against repeated attacks from Paul Mach and his Bissell squad.

The Bissell Pro Cycling Team's last-best chance to launch Mach back into the race leader's jersey didn't pan out because de Maar was just too strong. De Maar and Team Type 1's Michael Creed eventually dropped Mach on the 10 percent-pitched closing kilometres before the finish at Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort to take fourth and fifth, respectively.

Stage winner Patrick McCarty (Matrix/Richardson/Bike Mart) joined a break group of three riders with about 40 miles to go and then out sprinted his companions for the win. Total Restoration's Marcel Aarden was second, with Echelon Gran Fondo/ZteaM's Nate English taking third.

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English, who started the day in fifth place overall and down by 1:10, was briefly the race leader on the road when the breakaway group's lead swelled to 1:20 with about 20 miles to go. But repeated attacking, combined with UnitedHealthcare's teamwork in the chase, whittled the margin down. At the end of the day de Maar remained atop the GC standings, as Creed moved into second and English third. Mach dropped to fourth overall, with Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman) now in fifth.

McCarty, a ProTour veteran who's ridden extensively with US Postal, Discovery Channel, Phonak, Garmin-Slipstream and most recently OUCH/Maxxis in 2009, started the day nearly three minutes down and had little concern about the battles for the overall.

"I had a terrible time trial, so I was just looking for the stage win," said McCarty. "I didn't care if they almost caught us, so I was doing whatever I could to make sure I had the freshest legs in the last kilometre. I mean, as much time as I can get is nice, but moving up two places overall versus winning the stage; it's a pretty simple decision."

De Maar's performance in stage four will make his job in Sunday's stage five criterium that much easier. He now has a 45-second lead over Creed, which means time bonuses handed out for winners of the criterium won't affect the top of the GC. But the Dutch rider said he thirsted for more than simply adding time onto the other overall contenders.

"To be honest, I wanted to have that stage," he said. "But it didn't happen, and so I'm a bit disappointed because I was far and away the strongest guy in the field. I had to do the whole last climb on my own. No one took over, which is pretty normal since I'm defending the jersey. But I was pretty happy that no one was able to attack me and only Creed was able to stay on my wheel."

Creed initiated the move that finally unhinged Mach from de Maar's wheel, but by that time he had already realised his goal for a stage win probably had passed.

"The original plan was that if we all came to the bottom together and Marc [de Maar] and Paul [Mach] started hitting each other, with maybe a K to go or so I could hit out and be the lesser of evils and they'd let me go," Creed explained. "But obviously when I saw a breakaway was up and Mach wasn't feeling so good, I knew it was time to break, that I probably shouldn't wait any longer."

Creed didn't get the stage win because the gap to the leading trio was just too big to close in the final kilometre, but he moved into second overall and got to see his old colleague McCarty take the top step of the podium.

"I knew it was a bit much because it was a buck 10 at the bottom of the final climb," Creed said. "So I knew it was going to be asking a lot. But with Pat in the break, I knew he should probably win. So for me at that point I was okay with it. I was just hoping that I could do something with GC."

Creed was able to "do something" to Mach's runner-up spot, but de Maar still sits atop the overall with just Sunday's 90-minute Downtown Hood River Criterium left on the docket. His 44-second lead over Creed looks pretty safe, de Maar said, barring disaster.

"I think we're in a better position than yesterday," he said. "I hope it's gonna stay dry, but I'm afraid not. I heard it's a dangerous course, that there is a U-turn and some kind of downhill. I've heard suggestions that if it's raining we do the course backwards. That would be a good idea."

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