THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Tina Pic and Andrew Pinfold charge to Hood River criterium wins; Sutherland and Beveridge lock up the overall titles.
Longo grabs time bonus to move into second
Colavita's national crit champ Tina Pic won her second Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage on Sunday while 19-year-old Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) locked up the overall title despite a nasty crash in the last corner of the race.
Jeanie Longo-Ciprelli (River City Bicycles) grabbed third place in the sprint and took a four-second time bonus that moved her from third to second on GC, passing three-time Mt. Hood winner Leah Goldstein (ValueAct Capital)
On the men's side, Symmetrics' Andrew Pinfold outsprinted Toyota-United's Ivan Stevic and Successful Living's Alessandro Bazzana for the win. Health Net-Maxxis used up all its resources to protect Rory Sutherland's overall lead, hauling back a breakaway by team time trialing the last three laps, shedding its used-up riders as it went.
Sutherland finished in the lead group with one teammate nearby, just a handful of seconds behind the ten-rider breakaway that had built up a maximum 45-second lead.
The only GC threat in the break was Bissell's Teddy King, who, by finishing in the break with a few seconds' advantage on the pack, moved himself past Rock Racing's Michael Creed into fourth on GC.
It was the second stage race win in two weeks for Sutherland, who won last week's Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas.
Women's Race
Longo came into the final stage just two seconds behind defending champion Leah Goldstein. She raced the same way she raced all week at Mt. Hood: when the pace slowed, she went directly to the front of the pack and drilled it. However, several of the most powerful teams in the race — Pic's Colavita squad, race leader Beveridge's Aaron's squad and Goldstein's ValueAct team — were intent on keeping the field together.
While Tibco and Cheerwine were aggressive on the front all day, the other teams kept the group intact and the race entered the final two laps with all the favorites together. A last minute attack by Kim Anderson (a Team High Road rider on the composite Discover Bicycles team) was reeled in and Longo took a flyer into the course's uphill backside. Pic and Kiesanowski quickly jumped onto the French legend's wheel and each came around her on the last straight.
Pic said she came to Mt. Hood primarily for some hill training, but was happy to win both of the race's criteriums.
"I could have gone up to the mountains to train by myself, but this is much more fun," she said.
Beveridge, who had been well-protected by her team throughout the day, overcooked it in the last corner and slid out. She was given the same finishing time as the leaders and came to the final podium walking gingerly with bandaged legs and arms.
Longo, a surprise entrant at Mt. Hood, said she enjoyed the scenery and the hill training in Oregon. However she said she should have won the overall title if officials had not ruled her handlebars were too low at Friday's time trial. Last minute adjustments caused her to miss her start.
"I am happy with my performance personally, but I should have been in the leader's jersey by more than a minute," she said.
She also said she was dissappointed with her competitors' tactics.
"I think it might be more aggressive. Some riders just sat on the wheels. I'm pretty sure they could do better ... yesterday I had to do the pace at the bottom of the hill — I am not a motorcycle! I would have liked someone else to be faster at the bottom of the hill with me to prepare the break," she said.
Men's Race
Bissell came into the final stage with little hope of moving Ben Jacques-Maynes, in second at 31 seconds, ahead of Sutherland. However the team hoped to bump Teddy King past Rock Racing's Michael Creed, who was just one second ahead of King in fourth.
King's break came together in the first ten laps of the race when he latched onto a group that included Rock's Portland home-boy, Doug Ollerenshaw, who was most concerned with winning bonus sprints to preserve his lead in that competition.
While Health Net kept the break's lead to a reasonable margin, King kept it moving fast enough to pick up the one second he needed.
"I guess I was kind of the motor," he said. "The other guys would start playing games on the prime laps and I would just keep them rolling, keep them motivated," he said.
In the final laps, Health Net sacrificed its remaining riders as four of them took monster pulls and then sat up, bringing the break's lead down from 45 seconds to about 20 at the line.
Up front, Stevic and Bazzana led through the last corner but Pinfold powered past on the left. Stevic, about six inches shorter than Pinfold, was stuck on the right as the road narrowed and was left with little room inside Pinfold. Stevic reached out and touched Pinfold's saddle as the three went over the line, but he did not protest the finish.
Sutherland is coming off a strong spring season that has included a prologue win at Redlands, an impressive fourth place on the Brasstown Bald stage of the Tour de Georgia and a wire-to-wire win at Joe Martin.
He attributed his success to a stress-free team and personal situation.
"I put it down to being happy. Last year was a great year, but everything was new. This year I'm happy with the team situation. I've got a lot of control within the team of who is with us and where we race and all those sorts of things. No stress — that's the idea."
Sutherland, who now has a commanding lead atop the National Racing Calendar rankings, said he plans an easy training week after winning back-to-back week-long stage races .
"I'm a big advocate for recovery. I know what works for me is a few days off the bike. I took nearly a week off after Georgia and then a week back on again and then Joe Martin and it's fine, you know."
