Skujins takes the win in Winston-Salem

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Toms Skujiņš followed up his stage win at the Tour of California earlier this month with a solo victory at the Winston-Salem Classic on Sunday in North Carolina. The young Latvian bridged to an earlier move and then set off on his own with just over a lap remaining. Team SmartStop's Jure Kocjan finished second from a chasing group, just nudging Hincapie's Joe Lewis into third.

The result was a remarkable performance for Hincapie, whose director Thomas Craven hails from Winston-Salem, which is only a few hours from the team's home base in Greenville, South Carolina.

"It's a home race for us, and it makes it more special that we got first and third, and the KOM and sprint," Skujins said. "We did a good race today."

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Good is an understatement, as the team put Mackenzie Brennan in the early move to mop up the mountains and sprint classifications, and then Skujins and Carpenter bridged across from the field. Carpenter was 1km from the line in second when he was caught and passed by the group with Kocjan and Lewis.

"I thought nobody would work with us, so we made a first selection with three or four to go, and before passing one to go, I told Robin I'd go solo and try to keep it going, because I didn't know how the other guys were feeling," Skujins explained. "We needed to put them under pressure. It was definitely really hard, once I attacked, it was hard to get in the rhythm but once I did that I kept it going and tried to keep a cool head."

After his break through performance to win the San Jose stage in the Tour of California and leading that race for three days, the Hincapie team confirmed their performance earlier in the month was no fluke today in Winston-Salem.

"Alll the guys had to ride the front really hard [in California]," Skujins said. "I'm so thankful for them. This win is for Craven and all the guys. They rode their hearts out for me in California and I'm just happy to pay them back."

Unlike Hincapie, the defending champions Smartstop struggled with injured and sick riders and were on the defensive all day. They put time trialist Evan Huffman in the early move, but Kocjan was the only rider to be able to follow the Hincapie riders.

"It was really aggressive, but unfortunately we were one of the favorites so everyone was racing against us," Kocjan said. "My guys spent a lot of energy in the first half of the race. In the end I was alone. Hincapie was amazing today, they were so strong and they had the numbers in the front. Lap by lap I felt better and better, and after California my form is coming.

"I'm happy, but I knew the last two laps I was one of the strongest guys, but this is cycling and only the victory counts. I'm a little bit disappointed. Our team is not 100 per cent, we lost three guys, they are injured and Eric Marcotte is sick, so we were lacking four strong guys."

Lewis said he struggled in the final lap to hang onto the chasing group, but found a little bit extra to sprint for the podium after an aggressive final few laps. "That's how we always ride. When we ride aggressively, we put the other teams on the back foot," Lewis said. "We had the numbers in the front and everyone was scared of us. I was really struggling to keep on over the hills, so I dug as deep as I could. I got tailed off a little bit on that last hill, but I managed to get on and attack with 300m to go, I just got caught by Jure at the line. I'm proud of the team. I'm proud of how we rode. I'd have loved to have won, but a podium with a teammate that I'm great friends with feels just as good. It's a team win."

With 106 miles of a technical, hilly circuit and temperatures soaring into the upper 80s, the men's field was happy to let Optum's Tom Zirbel, Evan Huffman (Smartstop) and Mackenzie Brennan (Hincapie) escape the field early in the race, and though the trio stayed out front for much of the race, they never gained much more than a minute's lead. Halfway through the race, Logan Loader (Amore & Vita) bridged across, adding new life to the breakaway but the field became increasingly aggressive and kept the four to 55 seconds. Defending champion Travis McCabe attempted to bridge across at the start of six laps to go, but wasn't allowed much leeway.

With four laps to go, the race behind was smashed to bits by a series of attacks, with Hincapie leading the charge and Optum's main man Jesse Anthony suffering an ill-timed puncture. A chasing group with Skujins, his teammate Robin Carpenter, Loader, Huffman and Airgas-Safeway's Connor McCutcheon emerged at the front at the line with three laps to go, with Zirbel chasing behind with Jure Kocjan (Smartstop) and several others, but he was called back to help Anthony.

Unitedhealthcare's Marco Canola and Jonny Clarke, Nicolas Tanovitchii (Jelly Belly) and Kocjan formed a chase group behind the five leaders with two laps to go, but they never had a hope of catching. Skujins launched a wicked attack on the climb during the penultimate lap and no one from the leading group could follow. McCutcheon's rear derailleur cable had detached trapping him in his hardest gear, while Carpenter was happy to play the team tactics and Loader and Huffman were cooked from their earlier move.

On the final lap, Carpenter left the rest behind, but was caught by the chasing groups, which had come together, with 1km to go. Kocjan sprinted up the hill to the finish to beat Lewis, with Anthony finishing a frustrated very close fourth place.

"I had to do a big time trial with a couple guys on my wheel because they all had teammates up front," Anthony said. "The last lap was a lot of work for me, and I didn't have a lot at the finish. I was so close to the podium. I thought we were still chasing three guys, the information was hard to come by out there on the last lap. I don't think I could have played the finish any differently, though. I was just racing to win or get on the podium and I had to put myself out there to do it. We tried to split up the race and make it hard, because we don't have a good sprinter for the finish and he was having a soft day. It didn't quite pan out for us."

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