Kuss takes surprise win at Oak Glen in Redlands Classic

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Sepp Kuss (Gateway Harley Davidson) took a surprise victory atop the notorious Oak Glen ascent during the stage 2 finale Thursday at the Redlands Bicycle Classic.

Kuss reached the summit ahead of runner-up Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and Janier Acevedo (Jamis) in third. Jamis kept the race leader's jersey the team took with Ruben Companioni's stage 1 win, as Acevedo's result moved him into the overall lead.

Kuss, who started the day 2:25 off the overall lead after suffering in the heat during stage 1, surprised all the favourites with a late attack that pushed him past Morton and Acevedo at the line.

"I just followed all of the attacks, and then Acevedo put in one big attack near the finish and I countered that," said the 22-year-old mountain biker who is in his first full season of road racing.

The win is obviously the biggest of the young rider's road racing career, and it came ahead of two former WorldTour riders who have won stages and worn the leaders' jerseys in the tours of California and Utah.

Jamis, meanwhile, was disappointed at missing out on the stage win but accomplished the team's main goal of putting Acevedo in a good general classification spot heading into Friday's 11.4km Greenspot time trial.

"The guys rode great today," said Jamis director Seba Alexander. "They took the responsibility when they needed to. And while Janier couldn't win the stage, we did what we wanted. We'll see tomorrow how the TT goes, but the plan was done perfectly."

The stage 2 Yucaipa Road Race consisted of six laps around a 22.7km circuit that led to a final 8.6km climb to the Village of Oak Glen. The men's peloton was anxious to make it a hard day for everyone; the racing was aggressive from the start, but it took all of two laps and multiple reshufflings for the day's breakaway of five riders to establish itself.

Axeon-Hagens Berman's Justin Oien made the final cut, along with Holowesko-Citadel's Robin Carpenter, H&R Block's Samuel Travis, Elbowz Racing's Colin Stickland and Silber Pro Cycling's Nigel Ellsay. A chase group of 21 riders tried to make the bridge, but the large number of riders doomed the group's chances, and the chasers were back in the field by the end of the third lap.

The breakaway's gap extended to 3:05 at its peak, but Jamis, which wanted to set Acevedo up for the finale, put its full team on the front of the field and recruited Jelly Belly to throw in a few riders as well on lap four.

The gap began to fall precipitously from there, and it was down to 2:40 at the start of the fifth lap. The break started jettisoning riders on the final Yucaipa loop, with Travis losing contact first, followed by Strickland.

Oien, Carpenter and Ellsay turned onto Oak Glen road to start the final climb with a 1:10 gap, but Oien was the next to lose contact as the road began to turn upward in earnest.

The climb took its toll on the field as well, as riders started popping off the back in regular intervals, leaving a long string of broken wills on the road to Oak Glen. Companioni was among the dropped, and the battle for the overall lead was on.

The gap for Carpenter and Ellsay was down to 30 seconds with 4km remaining before Carpenter attacked and dropped the Silber rider a kilometre later. Ellsay was quickly back in the fold of the much-reduced group as Carpenter continued to play his cards in the closing kilometres.

Lupus Racing's Chad Beyer attacked out of the reduced peloton and bridged to Carpenter, dropping the Holowesko rider soon after to take over as the lone leader on the road.

"I knew we needed about two minutes at the bottom of the climb to make it work," said Carpenter, who has been recovering from injuries suffered in a February crash.

"I think we came in with 1:20 or 1:30, so I wasn't super optimistic," he said. "So I was just doing my part for the team to keep riding as hard as you can. We made it farther than I thought. I'm happy with that, especially considering I've only been off the couch for about a month."

The day's glory wouldn't go to Beyer, however, as the rest of the chasers caught him within the final 500 metres. From there the attacks flew in succession until Kuss got the final upperhand at the finish.

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