Dal-Cin unseats Acevedo to take overall win at Redlands Bicycle Classic

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The final stage at the Redlands Bicycle Classic has a reputation for getting the last word in the race's general classification, and it proved to be the case again this year as Silber Pro Cycling's Matteo Dal-Cin jumped into a breakaway that made it to the finish line and launched him past Jamis rider Janier Acevedo for the overall win.

"I'm over the moon," Dal-Cin said. "It's hard to believe that it panned out the way it did. It's just an amazing feeling, and it was exceptional after last night. It was definitely redemption for the team today."

The night before, Silber had set up a perfect lead out to contest the downtown criterium win, but when Kris Dalh clipped a pedal and caused a pile up in the final turn, those plans came crashing down. The overall win on Sunday definitely helped ease the pain from the day before.

Holowesko-Citadel's Travis McCabe also rebounded from the criterium finish – where he was sitting third wheel coming out of the final corner but was knocked out of contention by the crash – to take the stage 5 win and move into third place overall. Axeon Hagens Berman's Neilson Powless made the winning break and moved up to second in GC.

"I was in pain all day, but the whole team rode aggressive and caused that split early on," McCabe said. "I just stayed toward the front. Once we knew Matteo had the win, I was just looking for the stage win, and I finally got it. I was second last year on this stage and now first this year. I'm extremely happy. This is just fantastic."

The stage 5 Sunset Road Race started in downtown Redlands and took riders uphill to the 10.4km Sunset circuit in the hills southwest of town. The up-and-down circuit wove its way through a residential neighborhood, with significant climbing coming in the first four kilometres.

After 11 trips around the swooping circuit, the survivors headed back to town for five finishing circuits on the same roads used for the criterium course the day before.

A large group broke away in the early laps, with more than 20 riders slipping away from the field and putting pressure on Acevedo's team.

The dangerous group eventually included Dal-Cin, who started the day in second, only two seconds behind Acevedo. Also in the group were Powless, who was fourth at 29 seconds, McCabe, who was sixth at 38 seconds, and Geoffrey Curran (Axeon Hagens Berman), who was seventh at 50 seconds.

"There was a super strong break that went early with two of my teammates in it, Ben [Perry] and Nigel [Ellsay], so I think that put a lot of pressure on Jamis and they had to chase really hard for probably three laps," Dal-Cin said.

"I think they were kind of on the back foot then. Then when it started to reshuffle I got dragged up there by Kris Dahl. The group hit out and it looked like it might have a chance to stick it to the line. Nigel and I rolled with some of the Holowesko guys, and the guys in the back were trying to squash everything going across, so I think it went perfectly to plan."

As Jamis initially kept the move within 30 seconds, the group's makeup was constantly in flux as riders fell back and others bridged up. With eight laps to go, the group stood at 19 riders. Dal-Cin remained, along with McCabe, Powless and Curran.

Jamis director Seba Alexandre said his team was simply outnumbered on an extremely difficult course that makes it hard to defend the race lead.

"When everyone is racing against the leader, it's tough," he said. "There's no team that can control when five or six teams are racing against the leader. It's very difficult. That was it. It was very aggressive racing. We tried to do what we could for as long as we could, but it was not possible to defend when there was attack after attack."

The breakaway's gap grew to 1:26 with seven laps remaining as more riders joined the escape. The group kept the power on while Jamis worked behind to keep them in check. With two laps to go the gap from the break to the field stood at 1:45, and Dal-Cin continued as the race leader on the road.

With less than one circuit of the Sunset loop remaining, the gap to the yellow jersey group was at two minutes and the lead group had shrunk to 10, with Dal-Cin doing most of the damage on the front.

"We had to do that to try and mitigate the attacks that were going to come over the top of us, so I decided at one point to set a hard tempo and hope that it kind of deterred some of the attacking," Dal-Cin said. "We were in the lead over the next closest guy by 20 seconds or so, so it was kind of our responsibility."

The strategy worked, and it was clear that Acevedo's overall lead had slipped away. With Dal-Cin fully in control, McCabe and the other's started thinking about the stage win.

The leaders entered the closing circuits with the general classification decided, and McCabe got help from teammate Robin Carpenter, who made it up to the move and then attacked with one finishing circuit to go. As the others chased down Carpenter, McCabe set himself up for the final sprint and the Sunset Road Race win he had been searching for since last year.  

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