Gaimon, Guarnier wrap up Redlands overall

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Paddy Bevin took his third straight win Sunday during a rain-soaked 157-kilometre final stage of the Sunset Road Race at the Redlands Bicycle Classic and sprinted within two seconds of winning the overall classification. But Kenda/5-Hour Energy's Phil Gaimon clawed back enough time on the final closing downtown circuit to save his overall lead and take his first NRC stage race win.

In the dry and fast women's race on the same circuit earlier in the day, Alison Powers (Now and Novartis for MS) won the stage and an early time bonus but wasn't able to shake overall winner Megan Guarnier (Tibco to the Top) from the top step of the podium.

After four days of racing, Gaimon's yellow jersey defense came down to a final scrappy effort to pull back Bevin on the last of five slippery finishing circuits in downtown Redlands. The Kenda/5-Hour Energy rider was locked in a general classification battle with Competitive Cyclist's Francisco Mancebo – who attacked on the last big loop and carried a small gap back into town – and didn't realize that Bevin, who had started the day 32 seconds down in 18th place, could win the overall if he could earn the 10 second time bonus for the stage win and put 22 more seconds into the yellow jersey wearer. So when Bevin slipped away with other stage-win hopefuls, Giamon was content to watch the group go and stay focused on marking Mancebo.

"I knew he was close," Gaimon said of Bevin. "I didn't know he got 20 seconds on us in the last couple laps. I was just in the mode of watching Mancebo all day after that attack. And then coming through with one to go Frankie [Andreu] yelled, 'You gotta go.' And I did. That was probably a crucial four or five seconds we pulled back out of Paddy."

After a clear and beautiful morning, the skies clouded up and rain started soaking the course about five laps into the men's event, which featured 12 laps of a 10-kilometre main circuit and five trips around a finishing loop in town. As the rain started coming down a group of seven sneaked off the front, including Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Matt Cooke (Exergy), Mike Creed (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), Nate English (Kenda), Cameron Peterson (RBS Morgans – Altitude Technology Systems), Nathan Brown (Bontrager-Livestrong) and Competitive Cyclist's Taylor Sheldon, who crashed out of the group sprinting for KOM points.

The breakaway built an ultimate lead of 45 seconds before Kenda's efforts on the front of the bunch reeled them back with two laps remaining on the large loop. As the weather continued to get wetter and colder, attrition narrowed the main field down to less than 20 riders, with most of the others getting pulled and being given prorated times by officials who were worried about rider safety on the technical course that cut, weaved and dodged through an affluent residential neighborhood on the south end of town.

The small main field was together for the final lap until defending Redlands champion Mancebo attacked and gained the gap he brought into town. Mancebo had an eight-second lead starting the second of the small circuits, while Gaimon chased with abandon to bring the former Spanish national champion back into the fold. Once Mancebo was under control, California Giant/Specialized rider Evan Huffman set out in search of stage glory on the penultimate circuit, and Bevin quickly joined him off the front with teammate Frank Pipp and one other rider.

That's when Gaimon and his team director realized the threat posed by Bevin, and the Kenda rider changed his focus from the dangerous rider beside him to the increasingly dangerous move up the road, just saving his yellow jersey at the finish and earning the praise of his director.

"Phil did an incredible ride, and he earned every inch of those final five circuits to be able to pull back Mancebo and everybody else to be able to win it," Andreu said. "The team rode a fantastic race today in horrible conditions. They laid it out on the line, and they had nothing left at the end. It takes a lot of sacrifice like that to be able to win a big race. For Kenda/5-Hour Energy, this is our first big NRC win, we're pumped."

They were almost as pumped as Bevin was to find out he not only won his third-straight stage, but grabbed second overall as well.

"That's nice," Bevin said after warming up post race in the team van. "But I wasn't riding for that. I just put my head down and thought if I hit something hard enough they'll break. I felt really good toward the end of the race. But I thought I'd just save it and let the GC play out as the Kenda boys chased coming down the hill and gave it a lot going into the circuits."

Bevin acknowledged that the GC battle behind him helped enable his winning move, but said he had earned the right to be in the position to make the most of the opportunity.

"They were having kind of a bit of a stand off there," he said. "So I was definitely a benefactor of that, but if you don't put your hand up you're not going to win."

Mancebo also moved up in GC, although not into the top spot he would have liked. The Competitive Cyclist rider finished third overall, moving up from sixth at the beginning of the day. Despite his crash and subsequent abandonment, Sheldon held onto the red climber's jersey, while Team Exergy's Carlos Alzate kept the green points jersey. Stage 2 runner-up Freddie Rodriguez (Team Exergy) crashed over his bars very early in the race, leaving the course in an ambulance after possibly breaking some ribs.

Women's race banks on time bonuses

The women's race for the overall was nearly as close as the men's, with Powers falling just three seconds short of taking away Megan Guarnier's lead after winning the day's three-second KOM time bonus and earning a 10-second bump for the stage win. But Guarnier started the day knowing that even if Powers won all the time bonuses and she got none, she could take the overall just by finishing with the same time as the Now and Novartis for MS rider.

"Coming in to the finish I was just slightly concerned that she was going to win and I would get time gapped," Guarnier said. "But I just had to keep sprinting."

Guarnier's sprinting paid big dividends. She finished fifth on the stage, right behind Powers, stage 2 winner Joelle Numainville (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), stage 1 winner Loren Rowney (Specialized-lululemon) and Optum's Jade Wilcoxson to claim her first Redlands overall crown.

The women's final stage, although similar in the tight nature of the final outcome, was a much different affair than the men's field-decimating slog-fest. The morning weather was the typical southern California fare of warm and sunny before the clouds moved in later. But the QOM time bonus on the first lap meant the race started fast, and the frenetic pace split the field in two by the time the race circled around to start the second lap of the nine-lap race.

During the next lap, Specialized-Lulelemon, riding in support of defending champion Amber Neben, who started the race 16 seconds down in third, sent Katie Colclough up the road with Optum rider Leah Kirchman. By the end of the lap the pair had 34 seconds on the field, and Guarnier's Tibco to the Top squad was on the front hammering to bring them back. But the determined duo added another 10 seconds to their advantage on the next lap and started the fourth loop with a 44 second gap. They stayed away for one more circuit, but by the start of the lap six the lead group was back together.

Optum tried its luck again, this time sending Denise Ramsden up the road. Ramsden built a 40-second gap after one lap alone, but by the time the women started lap six, the lead group of about 25 riders was back together. Several other groups formed off the front, but by this time the lead group was firing on all cylinders and none of the escape attempts gained much traction thanks to Tibco's efforts to control the finale for the team leader.

"Everyone rode so strong today," Guarnier said of the team's yellow jersey defense. "They used every ounce of energy to take home this jersey."

But the work wasn't quite done as the leaders drove down off the hills of the big loop to the finish in town, where Powers used her knowledge of the final run to get to the finish first, and Guarnier maintained contact and kept the yellow jersey.

"She's a fantastic rider," Powers said of the overall winner. "And it took me and my entire team to try and beat her and her entire team. We had a nice plan to keep the pace high, attack a little bit and make the other team's work. And we did that. It seemed like Megan and Tibco were chasing. We knew that just past the 500 meters sign, when you come into the last few corners, I had to be first through there. I did that three years ago and was able to win, so I knew I better do it. I can do it."

Defending champion Amber Neben (Specialized-lululemon), who started the day in third just 16 seconds down, also finished on the same time as the leaders but fell to third after Optum's Joelle Numainville gained the time bonus for second at the finish and took over the final podium spot. Despite the disappointment of not being able to repeat Neben's 2011 win, team director Ronny Lauke said he was pleased with the squad's performance.

"We had a small group and they were outnumbered from the beginning," Lauke said. "We've won one stage and finished each day on the podium. The girls rode aggressive and tried to put a gap between them and the others. It didn't work out, really, but they are pretty tired now after the stage, and overall I'm pretty happy."

He also said Neben's recent schedule, including 13 straight days of racing and two crashes, eventually took a toll on his top rider.

"Unfortunately she missed the podium in the end, which is a pity," he said. "But that's part of the whole game. She fought a good fight for it really hard, and we tried everything, so I think we got the best out of the girls for this race. I think we left a good foot print here."

The points jersey competitions remained unchanged after the final stage, with Optum riders Numainville taking the green sprint-points jersey and Wilcoxson claiming the red climber's top.

Both Tibco to the Top and Specialized-lulemon, which feature several members of the US Olympic long team, will be heading overseas next to compete in the European World Cup races, including the upcoming Tour of Flanders.

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