Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing), the winner of this year's Cascade Classic. (Image credit: Jon Devich)
Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla captured the BMC Cascade Cycling Classic title, but not before helping his teammate Francisco Mancebo move into second place ahead of BMC's strong-man Jeff Louder who placed third. The six-stage race culminated in Bend, Oregon on Sunday.
"I am very happy to win here in Cascade," said Sevilla. "I could not have done this without the help from all my teammates. This is an important win for our team Rock Racing, especially because it is a great race in America. It's also important for me - I'm very pleased to win this jersey."
Sevilla and his teammate Mancebo, who started the stage in third place, followed a last minute move on a descent to the sixth and final stage finish. Sevilla had a healthy lead in the overall classification, but reverted to a domestique role to help his teammate Mancebo gain the additional seconds needed to bypass Louder and take second place in the overall.
"I was very happy to help him do that because he is my teammate but also my close friend for many years," said Sevilla. "He worked so hard for me this week and I wanted to work for him in the end."
Sevilla moved into the race lead after his stage two victory atop Three Creeks Snow Park. The subsequent race for the overall title did not come without a hard-fought battle between top GC contenders Jeff Louder and Ian McKissick (BMC), Chris Baldwin and Rory Sutherland (OUCH p/b Maxxis) and Jeremy Vennell and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell).
"All the teams were very strong, especially BMC who were attacking a lot," Sevilla said. "My team worked very hard, they have a lot of experience and this victory is for the whole team. We also have a directeur Lorenzo [LaPage] who is very intelligent and very calm guiding us this week."
Sevilla noted that he will be taking a well-deserved rest after completing two back-to-back stage races in two continents in just ten days. The Spaniard placed fourth in Spain's Vuelta a Madrid, then had thirty hours of travel to Oregon's Cascade Cycling Classic. He hopes recovery in time to put forth another winning performance at the Tour of Utah held in August.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"The Tour of Utah is very similar to this race," Sevilla said. "There is a lot of climbing and I want to have a good race there. I will go to Los Angeles for a few days to recover and then take a week training camp in Utah to prepare for the stage race."
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
