Cascade Classic - Stage 1
Bissell's Ben Jacques-Maynes Opens Cascade With Run-Away Win. Evelyn Stevens of Webcor fastest in the Women's sprint finish.

Bend’s BMC Cascade Classic continues to attract international quality cyclists, competing over four days in high and dry Oregon. Last year it was Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner who decided to come and wreck havoc on the peloton after their team wasn’t selected for a little three week race in France. The women’s race contained Kristin Armstrong  who stopped by Bend on her way to Beijing and a gold medal.

While neither the Astana boys nor Armstrong are racing Cascade this year, the field is still packed with talent. Bissell returns to Oregon, with a lucky hand of racers who helped launch Paul Mach to the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic win last month. Familiar faces to the Bissell squad are Chris Baldwin (OUCH) and Corey Collier (Rio Grande) who filled out the podium under Mach. Baldwin’s arsenal includes former national cyclocross champion Tim Johnson, former NRC winner Rory Sutherland and a relative unknown Floyd Landis, who raced that little race in France a couple of years ago.

Rock Racing is bringing a brash squad including Tour of California stage winner Francisco Mancebo and former US Postal rider and esteemed climber Victor Hugo Pena.

After being fired from Rock Racing last spring, Mike Creed has found a new home on Team Type 1 and his team will be ready up to the mountainous challenge.  The Trek-Livestrong team under the guidance of Axel Merckx includes UCI track champion Taylor Phinney, and will be competing for the best young rider jersey. Competition for the jersey will come from the U23 Felt/Holwelsko Partner/Garmin team with the talented Peter Stetina, who took the title last year.

Kristin Armstrong finished her racing on this side of the ocean last month but the women’s field contains some of the top teams and racers in North America. Rising talent Evelyn Stevens (Webcor Builders), who entered road racing last summer as a category four racer, comes to Bend after shocking the peloton with her win at the Fitchburg Lonsjo Classic and also had wins at Battenkill and Valley of the Sun.

Seasoned sprinter Tina Pic (Colavitta Sutter Home) along with Portland-based teammate Kelly Benjamin. Julie Beveridge, who took third place at the 2008 race, is now on Team TIBCO and teammate Amber Rais also finished in the top ten last year. Team Type 1 is armed with U.S. time trial champion, Allison Powers who will one to watch on the stage three Skyliners Time Trial. Locally-based teams Veloforma/ZYM on the women’s side and Land Rover-ORBEA on the men’s, are both sending teams and hoping for a home court advantage.

Smith Rock Road Race
The first stage, the new Smith Rock Road Race, was designed for a fast sprint finish and the women heeded the call, launching the field with Evelyn Stevens (Webcor) and Tina Pic (Colavitta). Stevens took the win along with a ten second bonus. ValueAct’s Chrissy Ruiter took third, Gina Grain (Webcor), fourth, and Joanne Kiesenowski (TIBCO) rounded out the top five.

The men’s field saw more of a split; Bissell asserted its Oregon dominance with Ben Jacques-Maynes finishing ten seconds ahead of a fast moving chase group of ten. Jeff Louder (BMC), runner-up to Leipheimer last year took second with Rock Racing’ Mancebo in third. Teammate Oscar Sevilla finished in sixth behind Rory Sutherland in fifth and Chris Baldwin (OUCH) came in eighth.

Tomorrow’s race, the Three Creeks Road Race, takes racers up through the Sisters mountain range and ends in the Deschutes Forest. Look for the climbers to take control and try to gain time in anticipation of the upcoming time trial.

Ouch/Maxxis Report
Baldwin takes first KoM jersey, Sutherland 5th in Cascade opener.
 The first stage of the 2009 Cascade Classic was billed as a stage for the sprinters, with the battle for the overall classification not heating up until Wednesday’s first climbing stage. However, warm, windy conditions and some odd race dynamics served to split the field and narrow the list of contenders after the first stage to little more than 10 riders, with all but 21 members of the field nearly five minutes back.

Chris Baldwin In the end, Chris Baldwin of the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis took the top points on the day’s one King of the Mountains climb to earn the first KoM jersey of the race. Rory Sutherland finished 5th on the day behind stage winner Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), who dedicated the win to close friend Chris Hipp, who passed away a week ago when he suffered a pulmonary embolism during a ride.

Baldwin, who finished 8th on the stage, was part of the first move that finally stuck, about a third of the way through the 114km stage.

“Tim (Johnson), Brad (White), Pinner (Andrew Pinfold) and Cam (Evans) had all been following moves the first part of the race,” Baldwin said. “Tim told me to follow one as well, so I jumped on the next move that went and it stuck.”

The group of eight never got too far off the front, holding a gap of around 30 seconds on the peloton over the top of the climb. Despite being represented in the break, BMC didn’t like the makeup of the front group and took up the chase to bring the break back.  Instead, they shattered the peloton, bringing a group of 15 up to the break, including Sutherland and Evans, and creating the winning move.

“It was chaos back there,” Baldwin said. “A lot happened coming through the feed zone. Basically, if you got a feed bag, you didn’t make the split.”

Despite the presence of some top flight sprinters in the winning move, they never got the chance to have a go at it. With 5 km remaining, the group started attacking each other, with the break splintering and reforming.

“Mike (Tamayo, the team directeur sportif) had scouted the finish beforehand, and there was a roller with about 5 km to go,” Baldwin explained. “We planned to attack there. I gave it a nudge, but there was a block headwind and I didn’t get too far. There were a lot of counterattacks., and we really didn’t have a chance to regroup for the finish.”

With 1 km to go, Jacques-Maynes escaped solo and held off the remnants of the break by a handful of seconds. Both Baldwin and Sutherland were in the first group of nine riders just behind Jacques-Maynes, and site 0:20 behind the Bissell rider in the overall standings. Evans came in with the second group and is at 0:38. The peloton arrived nearly five minutes behind the stage winner.

“Overall, I think we got a really good shake out of this one,” Baldwin said. “We have three of us up here. Rory is riding well. I’m feeling good. We’ll see how things go tomorrow.”

Cascade Classic Stages
July 21 - 26
Stage 1 Smith Rock Road Race 71 miles
Stage 2 Three Creeks Road Race 78 miles
Stage 3 Skyliners Time Trial 14 miles 
Stage 4 Cascade Lakes Road Race Road Race  83/71 miles
Stage 5 Downtown Bend  Criterium 90 min/60 min
Stage Aubrey Butte Circuit Race  83/66 miles

Stage 1 Result & General Classification
Smith Rock Road Race
71 miles - 2:22:53
1 32 Ben Jacques-Maynes BISSELL Pro Cycling  2:22:53
2 1 Jeff Louder BMC Racing Team 2:23:07 0:00:14
3 95 Francisco Mancebo Perez Rock Racing 2:23:09 0:00:16
4 14 Matt Wilson Team Type 1 2:23:13 0:00:20
5 27 Rory Sutherland OUCH Pro Cycling Team 2:23:13 0:00:20
6 97 Oscar Sevilla Rivera Rock Racing 2:23:13 0:00:20
7 62 Anibal Borrajo Colavita Sutter Home 2:23:13 0:00:20
8 21 Chris Baldwin OUCH Pro Cycling Team 2:23:13 0:00:20
9 64 Davide Frattini Colavita Sutter Home 2:23:13 0:00:20
10 38 Jeremy Vennell BISSELL Pro Cycling Team 2:23:13 0:00:20
11 4 Tony Cruz BMC Racing Team 2:23:31 0:00:38
12 11 Darren Lill Team Type 1 2:23:31 0:00:38
13 22 Cameron Evans OUCH Pro Cycling Team 2:23:31 0:00:38
14 8 Steve Bovay BMC Racing Team 2:23:31 0:00:38
15 17 Chris Jones Team Type 1 2:23:31 0:00:38
16 91 Ivan Dominguez Rock Racing 2:23:31 0:00:38
17 65 Lucas Sebastian Haedo Colavita Sutter Home 2:23:31 0:00:38
18 96 Victor Hugo Pena Rock Racing 2:23:31 0:00:38
19 73 Guy East* Livestrong 2:23:41 0:00:48
20 86 Michael Northey* Land Rover-Orbea 2:23:44 0:00:51
21 2 Ian Mckissick BMC Racing Team 2:23:47 0:00:54
22 239 Colt Trant 2:27:34 0:04:41
23 51 James Mattis California Giant Berry Farms 2:27:34 0:04:41
24 144 Kevin Rowe Bobs-Bicycles.com 2:27:34 0:04:41
25 93 Freddie Rodrigues Rock Racing 2:27:52 0:04:59
26 76 Taylor Phinney* Livestrong 2:27:52 0:04:59
27 145 Eric Slack* Bobs-Bicycles.com 2:27:52 0:04:59
28 210 Ryan Mckean Bend Bike N Sport 2:27:52 0:04:59
29 112 Brad Gehrig* ColeSport 2:27:52 0:04:59
30 227 Adam Carr Ten Speed Drive / BH Bicycles 2:27:52 0:04:59
Complete Results .Pdf

Women's Stage 1 Results & General Classification
Smith Rock Road Race
71 miles - 3:09:19
1 263 Evelyn Stevens Webcor Builders 3:09:15 0:00:00
2 301 Tina Pic Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooki 00:04
3 278 Chrissy Ruiter ValueAct Capital Cycling  00:06
4 267 Gina Grain Webcor Builders 3:09:25 0:00:10
5 253 Joanne Kiesanowski Team TIBCO 3:09:25 0:00:10
6 351 Kirsty Broun Team Lip Smacker 3:09:25 0:00:10
7 348 Erica Zaveta Team Group Health 3:09:25 0:00:10
8 252 Katharine Carroll Team TIBCO 3:09:25 0:00:10
9 276 Kristin Mcgrath ValueAct Capital Cycling 00:10
10 363 Erika Graves Kahala LaGrange 3:09:25 0:00:10
11 316 Alison Powers Team Type 1 3:09:25 0:00:10
12 251 Julie Beveridge* Team TIBCO 3:09:25 0:00:10
13 355 Anne Samplonius Team Lip Smacker 3:09:25 0:00:10
14 308 Carmen Mcnellis Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooki :00:10
15 328 Christina Smith VELOFORMA 3:09:25 0:00:10
16 376 Rachel Neylan PROMAN Hit Squad 3:09:25 0:00:10
17 337 Ally Stacher* Wines of Washington/bikesale.com 3:09:25 0:00:10
18 258 Lauren Tamayo Team TIBCO 3:09:25 0:00:10
19 255 Amber Rais Team TIBCO 3:09:25 0:00:10
20 307 Stacy Marple Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooki  00:10
21 371 Yukie Nakamura Metromint Cycling 3:09:25 0:00:10
22 282 Olivia Dillon Touchstone Climbing 3:09:25 0:00:10
23 293 Ambre Levy DFT p/b Treads 3:09:25 0:00:10
24 303 Cath Cheatley Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooki 3:09:25 0:00:10
25 295 Tiffany Pezzulo DFT p/b Treads 3:09:25 0:00:10
26 326 Alice Pennington VELOFORMA 3:09:25 0:00:10
27 377 Coryn Rivera* PROMAN Hit Squad 3:09:25 0:00:10
28 395 Heather Kay 3:09:25 0:00:10
29 372 Jane Robertson Metromint Cycling 3:09:25 0:00:10
30 333 Gillian Moody Wines of Washington/bikesale.com 3:09:25 0:00:10
Complete Stage 1 G.C. .Pdf

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