Albrecht breaks Armstrong's streak

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Bontrager-Livestrong swept the podium Friday during the stage 3 Cascade Lakes Road Race of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic, with Jasper Stuyven taking the win in front of teammates Lawson Craddock and Gavin Mannion. Francisco Mancebo (Competitive Cyclist) finished in the same lead group as the Bontrager-Livestrong riders and seized back the yellow jersey from Jamis-Sutter Homes' Luis Amaran.

In the women's race, Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies' Lex Albrecht soloed in for the stage win in front of Exergy-Twenty12's Andrea Dvorak and Now & Novartis for MS rider Beth Newell. Dvorak's teammate Kristin Armstrong finished safely in the bunch and held onto her yellow jersey heading into the Saturday evening downtown criterium.

The traditional Cascade Lakes Road Race course included a slight change this year for the men, who started and finished atop Mt. Bachelor. The men raced 148km, while the women tackled 112km.

The women's race followed a similar pattern as the men's, with constant early attacking driving up the pace but not paying off with any breakaways that could stick. Eventually a lead group of eight riders stretched the elastic to its breaking point about 80km into the race and peeled away from the bunch, setting out on what would end up being the day's winning move.

The final break included Albrecht and teammate Courteney Lowe, Dvorak, Newell, Rachel Warner (FCS-Rouse), Veranique Fortin (TIBCO-To the Top), Jazzy Hurikino (Vanderkitten) and Jackie Kurth (Primal-Map My Ride).

The eight escapees initially rotated well together, building a lead of more than four minutes. But the presence of Dvorak, who started the day in eighth place, less than three minutes behind second-place rider Alison Powers (Now & Novartis for MS), ended their cooperation.

"I think at that point a lot of the team cars came up and there wasn't as much cooperation pulling," Dvorak said. "I kept pulling though with maybe one or two other riders, if that. Unfortunately we were on terrain that doesn't really suit my strengths. There were a lot of downhills, and it was flat and windy."

Newell was one of the riders who stopped working, confirming Dvorak's notion that her presence in the group forced her to sit in. "We got about three, four minutes, and Andrea Dvorak would have been ahead of my teammate," Newell said. "Ali Powers was second in GC, and [Dvorak] would have moved up, so a couple of us were sitting on after that."

The gap came down to around 3:30 at the bottom of the final climb to Mt. Bachelor, and then it quickly came down to two minutes before the time splits stopped coming from officials. The break started whittling down on the final climb; as the pace went up riders started popping off the back until there were just three left off the front. Albrecht, Dvorak and Newell maintained their advantage until Newell finally popped out of the group and fought desperately to bridge back up. The track rider wasn't able to make contact and was joined by Warner with less than 1km remaining.

Without time splits since the bottom of the climb, Dvorak thought she and Albrecht still had several minutes advantage, so she drove the pace and eschewed the stage win in hopes of gaining enough time to move into second overall.

"Had I known that the gap was only a minute or two minutes, I might have rode differently and not maybe dragged Lex, who obviously rode very strongly all day, and perhaps played a little more cat and mouse with her to the finish," Dvorak said.

Unlike Dvorak, Albrecht had no confusion about what she was riding for: the stage win. "It was special for me to have the win today because it was my grandfather's birthday, and he passed away in January," she said.

The win provided Albrecht the chance to honor her grandfather with a special salute for her family.

"When he was being treated in the hospital when he was sick, he gave us the A-OK sign," she said. "So I thought it would be pretty cool to cross the line with the A-OK sign. It's going to be pretty special for my family to see those pictures."

Armstrong continues to lead Powers in the overall competition by 2:23 and Optum's Carmen Small by 2:37. Tibco's Megan Guarnier is in fourth, 2:41 down, while Small's teammate Jade Wilcoxson is 2:59 down in fifth.

Mancebo drives, Bontrager sweeps

The men's race began with a long descent off of Mt. Bachelor for the start of the clockwise loops around the mountain and the nearby lakes. Constant attacking early in the race set a high early pace and contributed to the 43 kph average speed for the day. Despite the attacking, none of the short-lived breaks that formed was able to stick until Ryan Wills (Elbowz), Adam Farabaugh (XO Communications) and Justin Rossi (Marc Pro-Strava) got away about 74km into the race.

With none of the lead trio a threat to the overall, the field appeared content to let the escapees ride off the front, and they built an ultimate gap of 4:30 with about 30km of racing remaining. That's when the leaders' luck began to change. Jamis-Sutter Home got some help from Bissell in reeling the escapees back, and just four miles later, the break had lost more than a minute of their advantage.

With the lead dwindling, Wills decided to take off, leaving his breakaway comrades behind after he jumped to take the sprint points. "They burnt their matches pretty early on," he said. "So it was pretty easy for me to sit back and then take the sprint and carry on to see if I could hold on."

But with less than 14km remaining, Wills' lead was down to just two minutes on the lower slopes of the final climb, and his day off the front appeared to be doomed. He had a little more than a minute over the compact field with 10km to go, and with less than eight to go attacks on the front of the chase laid waste to his advantage.

"I think if I'd have had another minute at the bottom of the climb, I would have made it over that last little climb to the flat finish," he said.

Kenda/5-Hour Energy's Nate English attacked the compact bunch and was the first rider to reach Wills, quickly dispatching the Elbowz rider and setting off on his own. Bontrager-Livestrong's Craddock moved up next, with Max Jenkins coming along as well. The trio on the front was soon joined by most of the field before Mancebo hit the front and set a pace that blew things wide open.

Within a couple hundred meters, Mancebo's pace had reduced the lead group down to just nine riders, including five from the Bontrager-Livestrong squad. Joining Mancebo in the lead were Stuyven, Craddock, Mannion, Boswell and Joe Dombroksi from Bontrager; Chris Baldwin and Carter Jones from Bissell; and Phil Gaimon from Kenda.

Mancebo sat in the front for the final 3km, driving the pace in an effort to gain enough time on Amaran to win back the jersey he had lost the day before in the time trial. The current National Race Calendar leader tried in vain to coax some of the other riders in the group to share the pace, but no one obliged, choosing instead to let the former Spanish national champion tow them to the finish line.

"It's normal, no," he said of the lack of help in the finale. "Everyone has their own goal. Some guys wanted to win the stage. For me, I did my work to get to the finish and take yellow."

Mancebo got the group close before Jones, the best young rider, attacked and Craddock followed. Just behind, Mannion was setting up a lead out for Stuyven, who overtook Jones and Craddock for his first-ever summit win. His teammates hung on to complete the sweep.

"There were five of us in a group of nine, so it was perfect," Stuyven said. "And I'm quite fast at the finish line. The team did a perfect lead out, and so it was just perfect. I think everyone knew that with five of us it would be hard to beat us."

Gaimon came in next, followed by Baldwin, Jones, Mancebo, Boswell and Dombroski. Jenkins, English and Andy Jacques-Maynes came in about 20 seconds later, while Jamis rider Peter Van Dijk led the field home about 38 seconds in arrears.

Mannion, who now leads the sprint and mountain competitions, said the development team's podium sweep was a bit of a surprise, but it was no accident.

"The goal was to get as many guys in the lead group as possible, but we obviously never expected to put five guys in such a select group," Mannion said. "So when we crested that final climb it was an amazing feeling. We knew what we could do coming into the finish."

Mancebo now leads Jones in the overall competition by 22 seconds and Craddock by 31. Kenda's Gaimon and English now sit fourth and fifth, 35 and 37 seconds down, respectively.

Full Women's Results

Full Men's Results