Health Net-Maxxis rider Karl Menzies took his second official – and third unofficial – win at the International Tour de ’Toona Friday, retaining the leader’s jersey in the process.

Menzies recently returned from visiting his father, who has terminal cancer, in his native Tasmania.“When I say I’m motivated, people don’t necessarily understand what I mean,” Menzies said. “He told me, ‘I don’t want you sitting here watching me die. I want you back racing and winning.’”

Winning Friday’s 77-mile stage 5 Martinsburg Circuit Race in a bunch sprint earned Menzies a five-second bonus in a race where the overall is tight and still influenced by the stage 1 team time trial, which his Health Net squad won ahead of Toyota-United.

The bunch sprint didn’t come easily, however, as Health Net had to chase down a breakaway that included Toyota-United’s Caleb Manion, who at one point was virtual race leader on the road.

When the gap had dropped to about 30 seconds, Colavita-Sutter Home and KodakGallery-Sierra Nevada took up the chase, looking to set up a bunch kick for their sprinters. As the gap dropped, Health Net’s Frank Pipp attacked and brought along Ben Brooks (Navigators Insurance).

“When Manion was finally back in the peloton, we were content to let Frank and Ben go, but Colavita and Kodak wanted the bunch sprint so they brought them back,” said Health Net team director Jeff Corbett.

The final catch was made with 5 km to go.

Toyota-United sent sprinter Ivan Dominguez to the front to take the bonus seconds away from Menzies, said Toyota-United team director Harm Jansen. “But a bit of a scramble put him out of contention,” Jansen said. “Still, Health Net was under some serious pressure today. That was the goal – to wear them out for tomorrow’s stage.”

Saturday’s 96-mile “Queen Stage” of the seven-day, seven-stage National Race Calendar event goes from Altoona to Blair County Road Race and features two climbs.

Jansen said he hopes his team, with riders in third through seventh place overall, will be able to isolate Menzies on the first climb.

Menzies and Health Net, however, have other plans.

“I’m going to every race wanting to win,” Menzies said. “That’s not me being selfish or cocky. I know my dad is watching the results every day. I’m happy with the way things are going at the moment. I’m in a positive mood, and that helps me and the whole team. All the guys have worked hard every day this week.”

In the rush to the line at the end of stage 5, Menzies’s teammate and training partner Rory Sutherland took the Tasmanian to the final corner.

“With the way the final kilometer is set up, if you’re out of position, you’re out of it,” Menzies said. “The finish has tight corners, and you have to be near the front. Once Rory launched, it was all over. It was perfect.”

Rounding out the day’s podium were Kevin Lacombe (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Charles Dionne (Colavita-Sutter Home).

Menzies now leads Sutherland in the general classification by 13 second, a quintet of Toyota-United riders by 24 seconds, and a trio of Navigators riders by 31 seconds.

Menzies knows Saturday’s hilly race could be a tough one, and, should he get dropped, he said he would be happy to see Sutherland win.

“When you’re going uphill and you’re getting dropped, you call on everything you can to get back and over the climb. I definitely have massive motivation, for me and the team,” he said. “Rory can climb with anyone who would make the front group. It doesn’t matter to the team whether I win or Rory wins. The team is doing all this work for us this week. We have no choice but to win or go down swinging. We’ll do the best we can to win for the boys.”