Bishop and McConneloug win queen stage of Trans-Sylvania Epic

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Jeremiah Bishop (Sho-Air/Cannondale) and Mary McConneloug (Kenda/NoTubes) won stage 6 of the Trans-Sylvania Epic on a sunny Friday afternoon. Both riders claimed victory in the race's queen stage.

With one stage remaining, Bishop and Cheryl Sornson (Rare Disease Cycling) lead the overall standings.

Men

Jeremiah Bishop's number one goal for the queen stage was to defend his yellow jersey, but he was also interested in taking the stage win.

"I was focused on trying to win the stage. I could have won the race by taking third today, but that's not my style," said Bishop to Cyclingnews. "I like to put a hard ride in and ride my best. I felt like I had recovered well and was climbing well."

The pace was high from the start, thanks at first to Jeremy Powers, and while the favorites would sometimes get split up on the rougher singletrack sections, they'd come back together on the subsequent smoother dirt road sections.

The biggest climb was about 10 miles into the race, up a gradual sort of singletrack, sort of doubletrack grassy section. Bishop decided the pace wasn't hard enough and the group was too big, so he attacked near the top.

"We hit the big climb where people sort of rotated, but some were taking soft pulls," said Bishop. "I knew we needed to pick it up to do some more damage. Cole Oberman put in some good digs, then I did one,"

However, the group of leaders would again converge on the next descent and the 19-mile aid station, just before a super technical rocky trail known as the John Wert trail.

"On the first technical section, I drove it hard," said Bishop. "I got a good separation - maybe 30 seconds to Payson McElveen and everyone else. I knew the group would have trouble getting through it together."

That split was decisive with Bishop, Nick Waite (ProTested Gear) and Payson McElveen (Richard's Rainwater) forming the lead trio.

The three stayed together for a bit, but Waite then realized his chance. He was separated from Spencer Paxson (Kona) by just one second for second and third places in the GC.

"I was feeling fresh and was concerned because Paxson was just one second behind me on GC," said Waite, who attacked up the Bear Meadows Road ahead of the famous Tussey Ridge section of the course.

Bishop saw his opportunity and went for it going into the Tussey Mountain trail.

"That was the perfect springboard for me to attack on Tussey. I just gave it everything I had," said Bishop. "Payson came back to me a little - he was yo-yoing and I kept the pressure at max until finally he was redlined long enough."

"Jeremiah drilled it on the ridge and I fought and fought and fought, but he got a gap," said McElveen to Cyclingnews. "First it was three seconds, then five seconds, then 10 seconds. I think he had 20 seconds by the last feed zone."

From then on out, it was an individual time trial for both Bishop and McElveen for first and second places.

Behind them, Waite ended up riding with Kris Sneddon (Kona).

"I didn't feel like I had enough to pull off a late race attack, so I opted to go steady with Sneddon," said Waite. "He sat on because his teammate, Spencer, was behind - it was cool - I understood completely."

Sneddon said, "I was trying to help out Spencer, but things didn't go according to plan. Spencer didn't have as good of a ride as he was hoping to have. There are no radios or anything so I didn't know what was going on behind. Spencer had a bad day, which sucks, so I moved up in the GC ahead of him."

Ben Sonntag (Stan's) and yesterday's stage winner Cole Oberman (Rare Disease Cycling) rounded out the top five of the elite men since McElveen is being scored only in the under 25 category.

Bishop leads Waite by a comfortable 9:24 going into the final stage, but Sneddon is only about 1.5 minutes behind Waite.

Sneddon, who has attacked often all week implied that there would be some more fireworks tomorrow. "We'll see what happens tomorrow. It's everything I got tomorrow - it's the last day. Shoot all the bullets you have and maybe you'll hit something."

Women

In the women's race, Mary McConneloug won her first stage of the week. She had a rough start and had to chase back up to the top women.

At the front, Rare Disease Cycling teammates Cheryl Sornson and Selene Yeager rode together. NoTubes teammates Vicki Barclay and Sarah Kaufmann chased them, with McConneloug behind them

On the big climb at 10 miles, Barclay and McConneloug rode away from Kaufmann. Then on the John Wert Trail, the two caught up to Sornson and Yeager, but Yeager could not hang with them.

That left Sornson, Barclay and McConneloug, who was sort of on and off with them as she kept stopping to swipe in and out of the enduro and East Coast Rocks segments while Barclay and Sornson were not.

Going up the Bear Meadows climb toward the Tussey Ridge, Sornson and Barclay, the top two in the GC were marking each other closely.

Barclay, who is second overall, said to Cyclingnews, "As we were coming up to the ridge, I thought I'd have to make a move. I got onto the ridge first, but there was a lot of bobbling going on with me and Cheryl. I wasn't going to get any time on Cheryl and she wasn't going to let me get any time on her."

McConneloug was still on and off with the lead duo as she went through another East Coast Rocks segment. She elected to stay back just a bit to accommodate the fact she was riding a hardtail instead of a full suspension.

"The three of us rode Tussey Ridge together. It was amazing," said McConneloug to Cyclingnews. "They were flying and I was flying right behind them. I let them go a little bit because of my style of riding - I was on a hardtail and I needed to ramp up some sections while they were steadier. I did sort of peek at the view for a moment through my peripheal vision."

Coming off Tussey was another enduro section and McConneloug again had to close the gap after swiping out. With about seven miles to go, she went into full chase mode, then caught Sornson and Barclay on a climb near the end.

"I attacked and they let me around when I asked," said McConneloug. "I rode away and got some time, then I put my head down, locked out my fork and gave everything I could to go get that stage win.

Sornson said, "When Mary went for it, with about two miles to go, we just let her go. Neither of us had much left. There's only so much fire in the engine and I wasn't to stay safe on GC."

Barclay said, "I could have maybe gone with her, but Cheryl wouldn't let me. We let Mary ride away. We rode together to the line so the GC is the same as it was yesterday."

Going into the final stage, Sornson leads Barclay by a large 10:30 gap. Yeager and McConneloug are separated by just four minutes in a battle for third.

Race leader Sornson said, "Hopefully, it will be another good day tomorrow. I think Selene and Mary will want to race, so I'll probably have to hang onto their wheels."

U25 men and women

Second place overall finisher Payson McElveen also claimed the under 25 men's stage win. He finished ahead of Cole Oberman and Cory Rimmer. McElveen continues to lead the GC.

"I put a few more minutes on Cole. I think my lead's pretty safe going into tomorrow, but it's sure not going to be easy," said McElveen to Cyclingnews.

Emily Shields (Project Dirt/BMC) was the top under 25 woman.

"I felt much better than yesterday. I had a good start, unlike the other days," said Shields to Cyclingnews. "I was with the two women's leaders Cheryl and Selene for a bit. I stayed with them as long as I could, then Mary and Vicki caught me and I stayed with them for a bit. It was cool to ride with them. I got about eight more minutes today in the GC."

Singlespeed

Rich Dillen (Faster Mustache) claimed the men's singlespeed stage win today ahead of John Merriam (Crosshairs Cycling) and Scott Smith (TVB Race/Tomato Head).

Unfortunately, race leader Matt Ferrari (Freeze Thaw Cycles) crashed on a high speed descent and fractured his hip. Forced to withdraw from the stage and the race, Kurt Gensheimer also known as "The Angry Singlespeeder" took over as the new singlespeed men's leader.

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