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Kiwi trackies clean up at Mt. Hood opener
A pair of New Zealander track riders — in the States for some summer road racing to tune up before the Olympics — took the first two spots in the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic women's prologue on Tuesday.
Joanne Kiesanowski of the Tibco team, a four-time national points race champion who has moved her focus to the road recently, finished less than a second ahead of Alison Shanks of Jazz Apple, a New Zealand-based team. Shanks is a pursuit rider on the track.
In the men's race, Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes cranked out a 2:45, almost three seconds faster than early leader Jonathan Garcia of BMC. Garcia started almost 50 riders before the finish and still had the best time of the day until Jacques-Maynes, the third-from-last starter, crossed the line.
Garcia held onto the second spot, while Toyota-United's Ivan Stevic slotted into third less than a second behind.
Jacques-Maynes said he rode almost the entire flat course in his 54x11 gear, and was searching for a higher gear.
"It was brutal. You just hit the biggest gear you have and drive it to the end. It went so fast, I looked up and I was like 10 meters from the end."
Jacques-Maynes was third overall at Mt. Hood last year after wearing the leader's jersey for three days. He said he intends to try to keep the leader's jersey until the end of the race this year. "I know these climbs, I think I can ride them pretty well. We have a much stronger team here this year," he said.
Health Net's Phil Zajicek, who was second placed last year, and teammate Rory Sutherland each came in at about six seconds behind Jacques-Maynes.
Women's
Kiesanowski said pre-riding was key to success on the 1.7-mile out-and-back course in downtown Portland. “I just went around and around and around it, I knew every foot of it. I just knew I had to have a good turn around because it's basically another standing start.”
The podium: Kiesanowski, Shanks and Dotsie Buasch (Colavita-Sutter Home) — another trackie —all came in at 3:08 and a fraction.
Aaron's rider Meredith Miller was fourth at 3:09.
Three-time Mt. Hood champion Leah Goldstein (ValueAct Capital) turned a 3:15 for 15th place, a fraction of a second ahead of France's Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli.
