Neben kicks off Redlands Bicycle Classic in yellow

Former Grand Tour contender Francisco Mancebo (Real Cyclist.com) narrowly won the Redlands Bicycle Classic’s Sun Time Trial held on Thursday. The Spaniard rode the five-kilometre climb in a time of 9:39 outpacing his nearest competitor, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), by one second while two-time US Pro Time Trial Champion, Chris Baldwin (Juwi Solar-First Solar), finished third, three seconds off the pace.

"It was very hard climb and I was expecting to ride under 10 minutes," Mancebo said. "I think I rode a good time trial and rode the climb well. I am happy to win. I felt better than I did last weekend at San Dimas where I traveled back from Spain."

The top three in the men’s field is separated by a mere three seconds with Mancebo leading the overall classification heading into the first stage held in Beaumont on Friday, April 1.

The Pro men’s field lined up to start the Sun Time Trial under warmer than usual temperatures. Arguably to toughest part of the event was the 90 Fahrenheit heat that beat down on each cyclist along the five-kilometre, uphill parcours.

The men will continue racing at the stage one, nearly 200 kms City of Beaumont Circuit Road Race. Race organizers lengthened the race over previous years to five laps. Expected high-winds combined with warm temperatures will make for a very challenging stage.

"The problem is that there are a lot of time bonuses tomorrow," Mancebo said. "We would like to win this race and our team will work hard but winning this race can be complicated because of all the bonuses. There are also a lot of circuit races at this event that are very hard and all of them have time bonuses on them. The guys who are the most threatening are the overall contenders not too far back that can sprint well."

Bissell landed three riders in the top seven on the day with Jacques-Maynes placing second followed by his brother Andy Jacques-Maynes in fourth and Jeremy Vennell in seventh.

"I think we are in a great spot with Ben, Andy and Jeremy in the top seven because it will let RealCyclist take control the race while we are in a position to sit back and see what happens on Beaumont," said Bissell Directeur Sportif Omer Kem. "That is such a long stage and we want to make sure and take advantage of the fact that we have our best squad here.

"The course is a bit different from last year where we started in Redlands and raced out to the Beaumont circuit and did four laps," he said. "Now we do five laps in Beaumont, it has some narrow roads and if it is windy there will e some fast tail and cross wind sections. It will be a race of attrition."

Neben repeats with prologue win number five

Former UCI World Time Trial Champion, Amber Neben (HTC-Highroad) blazed into her fifth victory at the Redlands Bicycle Classic’s Sun Time Trial today.

The race is the start of the 2011 National Racing Calendar (NRC) and Women’s Prestige Cycling Series (WPCS).

The California native completed five-kilometre uphill parcours in a time of 11:12 besting her teammate Evelyn Stevens by eight seconds in second place and Erinne Willock (TIBCO-To the Top) by an additional five seconds in third place.

Neben took the early race lead heading into the stage one 115 km City of Beaumont Circuit Road Race held on Friday, April 1.

"Anytime you have more than one person who can win the race it gives you more options," Neben said. "We are not just locked into one person. I’ve been on young development squads here before and so it is a lot different to being on a team that’s a real professional team and everyone here for us is riding really well.

"It will be a fun race because tactically we have three people who can win it, but we are not set on any one of us, we just want to win. At the end of the week we just want the yellow jersey.

"I think the strength on the team is spread around really well this year," she added. "Erinne is riding really well and she is always riding well at this race, plus she has great support. Mara [Abbott] is always a wild card because she will have more freedom because she doesn’t have a team. Colavita’s [Cath] Cheatley and [Andrea] Dvorak are strong and it will seriously be an interesting race because there is so much talent.

The women’s field contested a grueling five-kilometre uphill prologue to kick off the four-stage race under temperatures as high as 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The course shot out on a flat East Highland Avenue before taking a right-hand bend on to steep section of pavement. The riders dropped down through a chicane onto the lengthy uphill drag on Reservoir Road that ran parallel along Highway 10. The riders turned left and crossed the highway where they faced the steepest portion of the time trial, a one kilometre twisty ascent to the top of Sunset Drive.

"I’m more comfortable on my time trial bike so I like to ride my time trial bike on this course," Neben said. "It’s an 11-minute effort so its a Max VO2 and it hurts the whole time and you really have to hang on at the end. I did an OK job of that today and Evelyn had a good ride, too."

A mere 34 seconds separates the top five time trial finishers with Andrea Dvorak (Colavita Forno D’Asolo) taking fourth place and former two-time UCI World Time Trial Champion and Olympic gold medallist Kristin Armstrong (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12) in fifth place.

"I was confident that Erinne would get on the podium here and she just rode up that hill, we are really proud of her," said Lisa Hunt, TIBCO-To the Top directeur sportif. "It will a challenging race because HTC has a strong sprinter in Chloe [Hosking] who will want to swallow up time bonuses. I think Peanut Butter will be aggressive and try to move Kristin up by getting time bonuses, we’ve seen that she can sprint with a strong team behind her. We always want to move up but we will take things one day at a time."

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