Tanner fastest in break sprint

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David Tanner (Fly V Australia) captured a hard-fought victory by winning an eight-man breakaway sprint to the line at the Downtown Criterium, stage four of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic on Saturday night. The Australian out-paced US Elite Criterium National Champion Steve Reaney (Cal Giant) in second and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) in third.

“I had Jay Thomson with me and he was perfect and did everything spot on,” Tanner said. “He took control of the race with a lap to go and all I had to do was finish off the last 200 metres. Thanks to him I was able to sprint and not have to chase the rest of the guys down.”

There were no changes to the overall classification and Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis) will lead the race into the fifth and final stage at the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race p/b Deschutes Brewery on Sunday. His teammates will have their hands full attempting to contain Fly V Australia’s duo Ben Day in second place overall and Darren Lill in third.

“First and foremost we had to think about the overall tomorrow,” Sutherland said. “We had to stay safe today. We had four guys chasing
eight guys all night. They did a great job. It would be fantastic to win the race tomorrow. But, I think everyone is going to have to try really
hard tomorrow. It is a hard circuit to ride on the front, a hard circuit to ride on a wheel, it’s at one o’clock mid-day and 90 degrees outside.”

Some 150 Pro men lined up to start the penultimate stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic, a 75-minute criterium held on a non-technical, 1.75-kilometre course held in a bustling downtown Bend, Oregon.

The race kicked off in the late evening with thousands of fans lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the pro cyclists in action. Several short-lived breakaways circulated off the front of the field until two riders broke the elastic band. Jay Thomson (Fly V Australia) and prologue winner Jesse Sergent (Trek-Livestrong) gained a time advantage of roughly 20 seconds.

A chase group of four riders bridged across to include US Elite Criterium National Champion Steve Reaney (Cal Giant), Caleb Fairly (Holowesko-Partners), Mike Northey (Rubicon-Orbea) and Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies) who was the highest placed rider in the overall classification 2:04 minutes behind Sutherland.

Several laps later two more riders joined the mix to include Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) and David Tanner (Fly V Australia) and formed a group of eight riders.

“It looked a little bit dangerous so I jumped across to it,” Tanner said. “It turned out to be the right move. We had to be careful because one guy was only two minutes down on GC and we had to monitor how far we got. Everyone rolled through and cooperated well.”

UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis pushed the pace at the front of the peloton to maintain the gap to a manageable 40 seconds. They successfully reduced the gap to roughly 15 seconds at the finish line.

Kiesanowski brings Tibco victory in Bend

Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco-To the Top) took full advantage of a superb team lead-out to take the bunch sprint victory at the Cascade Cycling Classic stage four criterium held in downtown Bend, Oregon. She outpaced Canadian National Champion Joelle Numainville (Webcor Builders) who placed second and Leah Kirchmann (Keller Rorhback) in third.

“My team was amazing and we had it lined up from a couple of laps out,” Kiesanowski said. “We had five of us lined up with one lap to go. Meredith [Miller] was amazing on the last straight away and gaped people out, she was very strong. We still had four of us around the last corner and it was a great team race.”

Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12) retained the lead in the overall classification heading into the final stage Awbrey Butte Circuit Race, the same course she won the US Elite Road National Championship title on last month.

“We had a lot of help from a lot of teams today because there were a lot of people gunning for the stage win,” Abbott said. “We had to just make sure nothing super dangerous went.”

Some 90 Pro women lined up to take on a 50-minute criterium held in downtown Bend as the penultimate stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic. An early move include three of the most aggressive teams Amber Rais (Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light), Robin Farina (Vera Bradley Foundation) and Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco-To the Top).

Race organizers offered a series of cash primes that kept the pace high enough to shut down all attempted breakaways before gaining any significant time. Farina picked up many of the events cash prizes through out the race.

Carla Swart (Vera Bradley Foundation) won the first two intermediate sprint for time bonuses and placed second in the third sprint, enough to move into the lead of the event’s sprint competition. The sprints were also contested by Megan Gaurnier (Tibco-To the Top) who started the day in second place.

“Alison Powers gave me a lead-out for the first set of points and I came around Megan on the second one,” Swart said. “We were a little confused on the third one because it wasn’t announced and Megan had gone off the front. We had a delayed reaction and I did what I could to get second. I haven’t had any points and we just decided to go for it tonight.”

Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light and Vera Bradley Foundation continued to put pressure on the front of the field by launching one attack after another. Runner up in the overall classification, Cath Cheatley (Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light) made a solo run for it with six laps to go. Her efforts were short-lived and she was reeled back on in the following lap.

Tibco-To the Top proved to be the dominant lead-out team lead by Meredith Miller. The squad’s duo sprinters Kiesanowski and Brooke Miller rounded the final corner in good position to sprint. In the end it was Kiesanowski that won the bunch sprint to the line.

“We shut down everything because we knew we wanted a bunch sprint and we were confident in our ability with both Brooke and I," she said. “It was either Brooke or I, I was on her wheel so I just decided that I needed to go because I could feel the others coming up behind me. It’s great to have the strength on a team like that to be able to decide who is up for it.”