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Home » Top Stories » Road » Cascade Cycling Classic

Leipheimer and Armstrong win Cascade

Escuela and Rais take final stage

By Kathie Reid
Published: Jul. 14, 2008
Levi Leipheimer (Astana) prepares to defend his race lead on the final stage
Levi Leipheimer (Astana) prepares to defend his race lead on the final stage
Photo: Kurt Jambretz www.actionimages.cc

Though not the French version he’d hoped to don this July, Levi Leipheimer (Astana) did appreciate the Oregonian yellow jersey he slipped on Sunday at the close of the Cascade Cycling Classic’s sixth and final stage, the Awbry Butte Circuit Race.

Atop the podium alongside BMC riders Jeff Louder in second and South African Darren Lill in third, the two-time Tour of California winner smiled when handed the CCC trophy: “They didn’t even give me a trophy at the Dauphine!”

Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce) was also all smiles as she claimed her final yellow jersey, one she’d held since the opening stage on Wednesday. Christine Thorburn (Webcor), Armstrong’s Olympic teammate in Beijing in three weeks, took second. The 20-year-old Canadian Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) placed third, and also took the Best Young Rider’s jersey.

Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living) took the men’s final stage, outsprinting Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) and Ted King (Bissell). Amber Rais (Team Tibco) won the women’s final stage after being in a two-woman break all day with Armstrong. Gina Grain (Webcor) took the bunch sprint for third.

The early break
Departing from Summit High School in Bend, it took until the start of the second, 16-mile lap of the hilly circuit course before a break got clear. The move contained Tim Johnson and Kyle Gritters (both Health Net-Maxxis), Justin England (Toyota-United), Omer Kem (Bissell), Ian McKissick (BMC), Chris Jones (Team Type 1), Jonathan McCarty (Garmin-Slipstream), Rolf Eisinger (Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo), Allen Krughoff (Team Rio Grande), Christian Helmig (Metro Volkswagen-FCS), Will Routley (unattached) and Tyler Wren (unattached).

The highest placed rider in the break on GC was McCarty at 4:33 behind Leipheimer, and with riders representing all of the other top-10 teams, the peloton seemed content to let the break stay away, gaining as much as a 2:25 gap.

With two riders to protect in the top three on GC, BMC rode tempo at the front the majority of the day.

“We sort of made the decision to try to consolidate what we had,” Louder explained. “Second and third against Levi is definitely an honor. It’s great for the team. Really the boys rose to the occasion and I’m really proud of them. Everybody just rode strong today. We weren’t defending the lead, but we had a lot to lose. Everyone was stacked up behind us.”

Leipheimer sat near the front all day protected by teammate Chris Horner. “BMC did a ton of work,” Leipheimer said. “Guys like Scott Nydam, Ian McKissick — I can’t name ’em all — but they really did a lot of work, and suffered. I can’t say enough good things about BMC. I think they’re America’s next big team.”

The break was caught on the fifth lap and Leipheimer attacked on the climb to the final KOM. Botero and Louder jumped across. “It was getting hard and I figured the best defense was offense,” Leipheimer said. “I was feeling good and I wanted to put in an attack to see what happened.”

That was brought back, then five men went clear just before the finish — Milne, King, Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United), Leipheimer and Escuela. The came around the last corner just seconds ahead of the pack.

“Moises [Aldape] led me out going into the final corner,” said Milne, who took second. “I knew that Stevic and Escuela are very fast, so I wanted to get a jump going through the corner, which I did. I kinda looked through my legs to see a gap, and was like, ‘Okay, I gotta keep going,’ but Escuela’s got another gear.”

Two women alone
With a 2:55 lead in the GC coming into the women’s final 67-mile stage, many anticipated that Armstrong would ride defensively. When the field hit the first QOM, though, it was evident that wasn’t Armstrong’s plan.
Riding without teammates all week, Armstrong said her best bet each day was to just take out as many teams as possible on the climbs. “I was just going up for the QOM, and I looked back and I had a big separation,” she said.

She saw Rais trying to bridge, and sat up so Rais could catch. And they were off for the rest of the day. They finished almost three minutes ahead of everyone else.

Armstrong came through the final corner first. “She didn’t need the time, so I went for the sprint,” Rais said. “My contacts were flipping up, I was going blind, just thinking, ‘Stay in a straight line, stay in a straight line! Go fast!’”

In the field behind, Webcor and Aaron’s drove the pace all day. Aaron’s priority was to put time into Thorburn to try to move Beveridge into second. Beveridge wasn’t feeling good, though. “In the second lap, I got on the radio, and said, ‘Guys, I’m gonna pass out, and I don’t know if I’m gonna finish this,’” she said. “And they kept me in the race, they were awesome. I attacked Christine three or four times. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight, but I had nothing today.”

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