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Stevens, Ben Jacques-Maynes take Cascade opener
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Under a blazing high desert sun in Central Oregon, the 30th Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic opened Tuesday with the 71-mile Smith Rock Road Race.
This season's breakout woman, 26-year-old amateur Evelyn Stevens (Webcor Builders), took the bunch sprint ahead of Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Chrissy Ruiter (ValueAct Capital).
In the men's race, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) soloed away from a break to cross the line 10 seconds before Jeff Louder (BMC) and Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing) in second and third.
For the men, eventually, a successful break
While attacks came early and often from the 184-strong men’s field – the largest field in the race’s history – it was a break of eight that stuck just after the KOM at mile 33 that really set things rolling.
Seven teams were represented, and riders included Steve Bovay (BMC); Darren Lill and Matt Wilson (Team Type I); Chris Baldwin (OUCH-Maxxis); Jeremy Vennell (Bissell); Peter Salon (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin); Anibal Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home); and Victor Hugo Pena (Rock Racing).
Just after the first feed zone around mile 35, a group of 15 riders bridged to the break, expanding the number of teams represented to 10 with California Giant Berry Farms, Trek-Livestrong, and Land Rover-Orbea joining.
BMC facilitated the bridge, and Louder, who was second overall at Cascade last year, explained that he was initially nervous when the break got away – “I was panicking a little bit. I didn’t like it because I knew Baldwin was there, and there was a Rock rider there. There were a bunch of good riders there” – so they started chasing prior to the KOM, located roughly a mile prior to the feed zone.
“We were chasing pretty hard because we wanted to get the move back,” he said. “We went through the feed zone, and just the mayhem of the feed zone, I think, basically split the group up. It wasn’t our intention to split the group through the feed zone, but basically that’s what happened. It was pretty obvious what we were doing, we were chasing all out, so I don’t have any guilt about that.”
With the success of the bridge, a variety of GC contenders were not only present in the 23-man break, but had substantial support now, such as Louder who was accompanied by teammates Ian McKissack, Tony Cruz, and Bovay; Lill and Wilson, joined by Chris Jones; Baldwin, accompanied by Cameron Evans and Rory Sutherland, another GC contender; and Jacques-Maynes, supported by Vennell. Rock Racing had the greatest numbers, as four teammates joined Hugo Pena that included Nicholas Sanderson, Mancebo, Oscar Sevilla, and sprinter Ivan Dominguez.
Once solidly together, the break increased its gap to a maximum of 3:45 by mile 66, and the men of Rock Racing did a fair amount of the work on the front. Former Spanish national champion Mancebo explained that Rock brought a strong team and intended to go for the overall as well as stage wins. Their objective was to try to get away from the group at the end to put some time on other GC contenders, while Dominguez would be able to take care of himself in a bunch sprint.
With roughly six miles to go, riders from Team Type 1 initiated a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks that began splintering the break over a succession of small rolling hills. Jacques-Maynes explained that, with about 2k to go, there was a group of about five off the front. “Baldwin took a hard pull ... I came over the top of him, and took a hard pull,” he said. “I pulled for about 10 seconds or so, and looked back, and (had a) gap. I turned back, and it’s the 1k to go sign, and was like, alright, if you’re going to hand me a 1k time trial, I’m going to make the most of this situation. Just put the head down, put it in the 11, and try to (get) the bike across the finish line.”
He did just that, and dedicated his win to Chris Hipp, a friend and competitive cyclist who died on a ride in Menlo Park, California last week.
With time bonuses, Jacques-Maynes will start Wednesday’s stage 2 Three Creeks Road Race in yellow with 14 seconds on Louder; just 20 seconds separate the first 11 riders on GC.
Women: full of surprises
With USA Cycling’s Elite Road National Championships scheduled next week in Bend, it’s no surprise that the women’s field at Cascade is filled with the country’s best female racers. What is a bit of a surprise, though, is that when the finish came down to a bunch sprint, it was Stevens, a New Yorker who bought her first bike just one year ago and entered her first cat 4 race just 10 months ago, who emerged victorious – right in front of five-time US National Criterium Champion Pic.
The record-breaking 101-strong field of women started just 10 minutes after the men, and raced the same course. While a number of riders said the pace in the first half of the race was fairly mellow, current NRC points leader Alison Powers (Team Type 1), who wore the orange jersey as the leader in the Women’s Prestige Cycling Series, said the second half of the race was “way hard” as attacks – many from Team Tibco – came fast and furious. “It was getting really hard and strung out, and it looked like a group was gonna stay off,” she said, “but nothing did.”
Pic said her team’s goal coming into the day was to keep things together and to take the sprint win. Coming into the final meters of the race, though, as teams were setting up their lead-outs, she was caught off guard by Stevens’s power, as well as how quickly the finish seemed to come.
“Suddenly, it was like 200 meters,” she said. “I just mistimed it. It came up really fast.”
Pic gave credit to Stevens for her timing and strength. Stevens, who won the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic as a guest rider with Lip Smackers and who is guest riding with Webcor Builders at Cascade, said she was trying to set up Canadian teammate Gina Grain for the win.
“I jumped to try to get the lead-out for Gina, and I think I just went a little too hard,” she explained with a laugh. “I’ve never really done too many lead-outs. I think a ValueAct girl was on my wheel, and I saw 200 to go, so I just kicked.”
The ValueAct girl was Ruiter, who was also taken off-guard by Stevens’s kick. She was on the right side of the road attempting to lead out Martina Patella, when she saw Stevens come from the left and quickly create a gap.
“She just jumped and then, I was like, well I need to go. She created such a big gap ... I just held on, and as soon as we had 200 to go, I stood up to sprint, and that’s all I had. (Pic) came around me right at the very end.”
With time bonuses, Stevens will start the second stage in yellow with 4 seconds on Pic and 6 seconds on Ruiter. The bunch sprint resulted in just 10 seconds separating riders down through 74th place, so the overall winner at week’s end could still be a surprise.
Race Notes
In the men’s race, seven riders finished outside the time cut, while three finished outside the time cut in the women’s race. The women’s race was also riddled with numerous small crashes, though no GC hopefuls were involved.
Editor's Note: Be sure to see Mark Johnson's interview with Stevens from the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic.
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