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BMC's Lill and Tibco's Kiesanowski win Mt. Hood's circuit race and take the overall leads.

Published: May. 15, 2008
2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage 2: Kiesanowski outsprints Jeannie Longo
2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage 2: Kiesanowski outsprints Jeannie Longo
Photo: Casey Gibson

BMC's South African, Darren Lill, won Thursday's second stage of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic by peeling away from the remnants of the peloton on the final climb a bit less than a kilometer to go.

Lill, who won the fifth stage at Mt. Hood last year, barely held off a late charge by Health Net's Rory Sutherland and Symmetric's Christian Meier. Lill took over the leader's jersey from Toyota-United's Hilton Clarke, who was dropped by the lead group about 8km from the finish of the hilly circuit race.

In the women's race, Tibco's Joanne Kiesanowski regained the leader's jersey that she won in Tuesday's prologue but gave up to Tina Pic following the criterium.

Kiesanowski was able to sit in for much of the race while her teammate Helen Kelly was in a break. When the group came back together and approached the final climb, Kiesanowski marked every move, including those by an aggressive Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli.

"I was just always staying in the top five or 10 positions, just making sure I was always in the front group no matter how big it was, even if it was just one person attacking," the New Zealander said.

Longo went to the front on the final climb. "She did a pretty good lead out for the last couple k, probably, and she just kept winding it up, winding it up and I was just on her wheel and I just came around her." Longo was second and Aaron's Felecia Gomez was third.

The race was held on an 18.7-mile circuit that included a long, steady climb on a wide highway each lap, followed by about four kilometers of steep climbing toward the finish line, then a fast twisty descent with stunning views of snowcapped Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams.

A fourteen-man breakaway got together on the first climb of the men's race and was away for most of the day. The break included local fan favorite Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), 2007 Redlands Classic winner Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefits), cyclocross star Ryan Trebon (Kona) and two Health Net - Maxxis riders, Matt Cooke and Matt Crane.

The break built a maximum lead of near three minutes, but the Bissell team, protecting GC hope Ben Jacques-Maynes rode the front to keep the margin reasonable. Meanwhile, Bajadali collected KOM point to take the lead in that competition and Ollerenshaw collected enough sprint points to take that jersey.

On the final ascent, the break and the pack blew apart, but Cooke maintained a tenuous lead until he was caught with about three kilometers to go, where he was caught. With Cooke caught, Health Net's Phil Zajicek worked to set up Sutherland for the sprint, but they were unable to catch Lill when he took the field by surprise with about 800 meters to go.

"It seemed at the time that nobody wanted to do anything, but I don't think anybody could," Sutherland said.

Lill said he knew the final kilometer well from last year and he planned his point of attack before the race. Despite his plans, the final meters took him by surprise.

"For a moment I thought I'd gone too long — I came around and the climb just went up a little bit longer than I had hoped. For a moment I wasn't sure I was going to hold it but I just prayed, you know, 'Lord please let me hold it to the line.' "

2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Stage 2: Lill wins, and the officials come second.
2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Stage 2: Lill wins, and the officials come second.
Photo: Casey Gibson

Lill was delayed slightly by an official car that mistakenly got beside him as he approached the finish line, allowing Sutherland and Meire to close the gap even further. Nevertheless his 10-second finish bonus put him into the overall lead with a slight edge over Sutherland.

Friday's stage is expected to the most critical for the GC contenders. The 18.5-mile time trial includes several steep climbs on the Columbia River Highway.

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