Neben holds on to take Redlands Bicycle Classic title

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Amber Neben (Trek Red Truck Racing) held on to the race lead she'd taken on the opening stage of the Redlands Bicycle Classic to win the overall classification on Sunday – and her fourth Redlands title.

Sho-Air Twenty20's Erica Clevenger was thrilled to take the stage win from RallyUHC's Sara Poidevin, while Lauren Stephens efforts in the winning three-rider breakaway jumped the Tibco-SVB rider up to second overall, 39 seconds behind Neben, while Stephens' Tibco teammate, Emily Newsom, took third, another 21 seconds back.

"I really came in with no expectations because I haven't done a lot of top-end intensities so I didn't know how good I was," said Neben, after taking the fourth Redlands title of her career.

"I knew I had a lot of depth to my fitness, but I didn’t know if I would be good enough to do the road race. I figured I would have a good time trial, but then the road racing is always difficult.

"I knew I had a young team and this is such a hard race to win without support," she continued. "My expectations were just to go for it in the time trial and see how long I could defend the jersey if I had it. Every day that you're one day closer, you start thinking about winning it."

Stage winner Clevenger was racing at Redlands for only the second time.

"This is the biggest result of my career," she said. "I have never had a stage podium before, so this is the coolest thing ever. We had amazing team work throughout the race; even without the win, this was really special for all of us.

"We were looking forward to this day, as this stage is a favourite of ours. We had a really good race at Oak Glen [on stage 3, where Emma Grant finished second], and I think we've taken over the teams GC, so I'm super stoked about that, too," Clevenger said, whose Sho-Air team indeed took the title for best team.

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