Dragoo wins Cascade Cycling Classic overall

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Sara Poidevin won the final stage at the Cascade Cycling Classic Sunday, but the Rally Cycling rider was unable to overcome the deficit to race leader Allie Dragoo (Sho-Air Twenty20), who took an emotional overall win for the team she only recently re-joined.

Dragoo finished third on the stage behind Poidevan and Emma Grant (Colavita-Bianchi), and it was good enough to seal her general classification victory by seven seconds over Poidevin and one minute over teammate Jasmin Duehring in third.

After the win, a tearful Dragoo thanked her team for the effort throughout the week after she took yellow on stage 2.

"My team gave their all for me and I'm really proud of them," Dragoo said. "It means a lot to me how much they worked. I was so anxious and stressed, obviously, because I've never been in this position in a nice stage race like this, and I just owe it to all of them.

"It's really special to me, especially because it's been a couple years of ups and down, and it really feels good to end the stage race season with a win," said Dragoo, who moved to Cervelo Bigla in the offseason but returned to the Sho-Air team last month. "I owe it all to my team, so thank you."

The 78km stage on the edge of host city Bend, Oregon, offered a saw-tooth profile for the women as they traversed three laps of the circuit. Temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit only added to the day's challenge.

The race started aggressively with multiple attacks flying off the front of the field. Nothing could stick, however, as Rally and Sho-Air continued to pull back the moves. Sho-Air would pull back any Rally attacks, and Rally would pull back almost everything else.

A breakaway of three that included Abbey Mickey (Colavita-Bianchi), Stephanie Roorda (Sho-Air Twenty20) and Hiedi Franz (Rally) stuck a move during the second lap. The trio had a gap of 1:10 with 40km to go and Sho-Air on the front of the peloton.

Rally slipped Sho-Air's grasp and sent Poidevin and stage 1 winner Kirsti Lay up the road to join the break when the gap was just 18 seconds. Sho-Air immediately recognized the dangerous move and had Dragoo and two other riders fighting to bring it back.

Over the top of the first QOM of the day, the breakaway composure got shook up again, with Kaitie Antonneau (Cylance) and Margot Clyne (JLVelo) joining Poidevin and Roorda up front with a slight gap.

Sho-Air chased down the move with 20km to go, and the race reshuffled once more. Another group of five sneaked away and built a gap of 20 seconds, but Dragoo and Sho-Air again mowed down the advantage, and with 5km to go it was clear the race would come down to the 500 metre finishing climb, where Poidevin made the winning move.

"I was second or third wheel going into the bottom of the final climb, and I just went as hard as I could to the steep pitch," Poidevin said. "I was sitting second for most of the way up, and then at the line just had a little bit extra. It was cool to come away with the win.

"I didn't look back," Poidevin said. "I just tried to go as hard as I could, because that's all any of us could do at that stage. I just hoped I was getting more of a gap than I did."

After the finish, Dragoo said she got a little help up the final climb from "the man upstairs."

"I was just praying this whole way up this climb because I knew it was going to be very hard," she said. "She was riding away from me like no big deal, and I was just praying like, ‘Please give me legs. Please give me legs.' Thankfully, I got third and got some seconds, but it was very close.

"It feels really good," Dragoo said. "I'm crying because – I don't know if I was expected or I just put the expectations on myself was more like it – so it feels good to win for once." 

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