Powers wins second straight stage at Redlands

The leaders of the Redlands Bicycle Classic had very different days on stage 2 in Beaumont: while Alison Powers and her Now and Novartis for MS team kept the race well under control and delivered the yellow jersey to a second consecutive stage win, Optum's Chad Haga hung on by tooth and nail to keep his race lead on an attack-filled day won by Luis Amaran (Jamis-Hagens Berman).

Powers led home a sizable group, taking the bunch sprint over Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco), although the Kiwi contested Powers' sprinting in the final push to the line. After a lengthy deliberation, the judges awarded Powers the win. In addition to her 10 second time bonus, she and Kiesanowski had a one second gap over third placed Brianna Walle (Optum), who moved into third overall through her time bonuses at the finish and the two intermediate sprint points.

"The team rode their hearts out today. It was awesome. I didn't have to do anything, so to be able to do something the last 300m, I'm proud," Powers said.

Her day wasn't without drama, however. On the second lap she was off her bike just before the mountain sprint, and had to launch a furious chase to get back to the front group.

"I had shifting problems, and couldn't get the chain back on, luckily I had teammates to help me and I finally got back on. I think the girls up front waited for me a little, so that was really thoughtful."

It was somewhat surprising to see the yellow jersey sprinting for the stage win, especially considering no rider was threatening her race lead with a 10 second time bonus, but Powers explained: "I do better and the team does better when we race. We're going to race to win, and I can't believe we won the stage. It feels amazing."

Kiesanowski was not too pleased with the sprint, and her team launched a formal protest that was not accepted by the judges. Powers gradually moved over to the right side of the road, but the officials ruled it was not impeding the progress of the Tibco rider.

"I'm not happy, she was shutting the door on the right," Kiesanowski said. "It was an uphill sprint with a headwind, and I could tell she was dying. I felt I had the stage win for sure, but she kept pushing over."

Behind, Brianna Walle continued to impress with a total of 10 seconds in time bonuses on the stage. The effort moved her ahead of Vanderkitten's Rhae Shaw in the overall classification.

"That was the team's focus for the stage," Walle explained. "The first two lead-outs were textbook perfect, but things got a little disorganized in the last lap. I was boxed in coming into the last turn, and Jade [Wilcoxson] attacked on the right to open things up for me. I'm really happy with the effort."

Powers maintained her lead in the points competition, while Exergy's Andrea Dvorak claimed two of the three mountain sprints to earn the red climber's jersey. Powers now holds a 44 second lead over Specialized-lululemon rider Tayler Wiles, with Walle in third at 52 seconds.

Gaps shrink in men's race on aggressive day

The Optum Pro Cycling team had a difficult job on stage 2 to keep both Chad Haga and Tom Zirbel in contention for the overall classification. While Haga managed to just hold onto the yellow jersey by four seconds over Francisco Mancebo, the always dangerous Jamis-Hagens Berman rider Luis Amaran scooped up the maximum time bonus at the finish line to move within 20 seconds of his lead.

The race shattered on the final climb when 2011 Redlands winner Mancebo (5 Hour Energy/Kenda) went clear over the top. and three riders: Amaran, Janier Acevedo and Ben Jacques-Maynes, bridged to the Spaniard along with Matt Cooke (Champion System) and Cesar Grajales (Predator)

"The last lap was all about who had legs left," Haga said. "Mancebo went on the last climb and got a group clear. I was just dangling off the back and I think they knew it. Ben Jacques-Maynes had two teammates and they knew I was in trouble - it was good teamwork on their part."

Behind them, Haga was at the mercy of the chasing peloton to close the gap, and came across in 10 seconds behind Amaran. With a four second time bonus on the stage, Mancebo moved to second overall, four seconds down on the Optum leader, while Tom Zirbel dropped to third, six seconds down.

Zirbel expressed his disappointment that he wasn't able to do more for his teammate in the finale. "The team rode their hearts out today, I'm proud of how they rode. I just wish I could have followed some more moves. I should have been trying to represent in the second break, as it was the guys had to turn themselves inside out to bring it back."

In that move of 12 there were several dangerous riders on the overall classification, in particular Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie Devo), Serge Tvetcov (Jelly Belly/Kenda) and Andres Corrales (Elbowz), all of whom were within 20 seconds of Haga. The breakaway gained a maximum of 2:00 on the bunch, but was quickly brought back with one lap to go where there was an intermediate sprint bonus on the line.

"It ended up amounting to a big waste of energy," Rosskopf said, dejectedly. "There were too many guys who had teammates in a good position in the overall who weren't in the move. Mancebo bridged up to us and I thought it would motivate his teammates to drive it, but I think it kind of freaked the field out."

Rosskopf attacked again, but once more his group was brought back before the last time up the climb, where Mancebo launched his move, and Jacques-Maynes put himself in a prime position to make up the 15 second deficit to Haga. However, his ambitions came crashing down when Grajales touched wheels with Acevedo and crashed in front of Jacques-Maynes.

"The wounds don't hurt at all compared with the loss of what could have been..." he said as the medics patched up his road rash.

His Jamis team directeur Sebastian Alexandre was disappointed as well, but relieved that his team leader made it with the second group, losing only 8 seconds. "The race went the way we wanted. We tried to put pressure on at the right time, especially on the last couple laps," Alexandre said. "A stage win is awesome. This is one of the best races of the year in the US. We came here to put on a good show, and I think we did that today. It shows the team is very strong. There are two more stages, and Ben didn't lose too much time."

With a short criterium on tap for the next stage, 5 Hour Energy's Mancebo is looking to Sunday's Sunset Road Race to make his race winning move. "For the team it is a good position. We are only a few seconds behind the lead. We will try to win the race on Sunday - the goal of the team is to win the general classification."

Chris Kriek (Jelly Belly) scooped up enough points from the breakaway to take the green sprinter's jersey, while Chris Baldwin (Bissell) earned the red climber's jersey by taking two of the three hill sprints on offer.

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