Sweeting, Powers win Cascade Classic prologue

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Bobby Sweeting (5-hour Energy/Kenda) and Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) claimed the opening prologue time trial wins Tuesday evening at the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic and will wear yellow going into Wednesday's stage 1 McKenzie Pass Road Race.

Sweeting beat Timothy Rugg (Kelly Benefit Strategies/LSV) and Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly-Kenda) to claim the first National Race Calendar yellow jersey of his career, while defending champion Powers bested Tibco-To the Top's Shelley Olds and Colavita Fine Cooking's Laura Brown to reclaim the yellow jersey she won last year.

The 4.5km Tetherow Prologue Time Trial course circled around a golf course on the southwest edge of town and featured 55 meters of climbing, but the final 300 meter hill that riders ascended last year was cut from the race due to construction along the course. Although the final bit of elevation gain was gone, a consistently steady crosswind provided a new challenge.

Rugg, who started eighth out of 201 riders, set the early fastest time of 4:33 and had to wait 50 riders before Sweeting crossed the line with the new best time of 4:28. Sweeting, who finished third in last year's opener behind Chad Haga (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Francisco Mancebo held his lead through 143 more riders before celebrating his win.

"I've won a couple of NRC stages, but I've never taken the yellow jersey before," Sweeting said. "I've really been focusing on this prologue ever since we finished the Tour de Beauce. So it was my goal to come out here and win it, and I'm just really, really happy to be able to do it."

Sweeting claimed his first NRC stage win at Cascade in 2011 during the final Awbrey Butte circuit race stage, but he was unable to pick which result means more to him – his first stage win or his first yellow jersey.

"Awbrey Butte was the first NRC stage win of my career, so that was really special," he said. "But I've never worn the yellow jersey before, so this is right up there with it."

Sweeting's teammate David Williams came close to taking over the stage lead on Tuesday, as did BMC Development Team rider Silvan Dillier and Haga, but none could best Sweeting's mark. Tvetcov, who won the opening time trial at the Nature Valley Grand Prix in June, came close with a mark of 4:34 but had to settle for third.

Now Sweeting and his team will have the unenviable job of defending yellow during stage 1, which features two ascents and a mountain-top finish. But the team has multiple cards to play, and Sweeting understands his role as a support rider for two-time Cascade champion Mancebo, who finished 13 seconds off the winning mark for 40th place. Nevertheless, he'll be hoping to keep the race lead as long as possible.

"I'm going to do my best on the finishing climb," Sweeting said of Wednesday's stage. "I've never been in the front group on that climb before. And by front group I mean Mancebo, because he's always by himself. So I'm going to do my best to not lose too much time and then try to have a great stage 2 time trial. But if I pass off the jersey to Mancebo tomorrow, that would be awesome."

Powers' Cascade focus pays off

The women's race saved the best for last, as Powers, starting in the final position, stormed over the course in 4:53 and was the only woman rider to break the five-minute mark. Olds, who started 34th out of 109 riders, came in with the second-best time at 5:02. Brown was two seconds slower than Olds with a time of 5:04.

Powers finished behind Kristin Armstrong during last year's prologue but eventually took over the race lead when Armstrong abandoned after stage 3 to focus on her upcoming Olympic bid. This year the NOW rider spent four weeks prior to Cascade at home in Colorado focusing on the race.

"Since Kristin isn't here I really wanted to win," Powers said. "You have to take it day by day, but day number one you really have to win, and so I'm super happy to have a good race and really put a fair amount of time into the other GC rivals."

NOW's Lex Albrecht set the early mark to beat with a time of 5:05 but was eventually knocked down to fourth as first Olds, then the other favorites, started coming in. Kristin McGrath (Exergy-Twenty16) came in fifth with a time of 5:06, while her team leader and 2010 Cascade winner Mara Abbott settled for 75th place, losing 46 seconds to Powers. Janel Holcomb (Optum), who won the 2011 race, was 24th at 5:09.

Despite the poor showing from Abbott, who recently won the Giro Rosa in Italy, Powers tagged her as one of the main rivals to keep an eye on.

"She's climbing really well, and the whole team, they have several strong time trialers and strong climbers. And Tibco, with the time bonuses and Shelley [Olds] being such a good sprinter, that almost killed me last year. So we have our work cut out for us, for sure."

That work will begin in earnest during Wednesday's stage, which features 119km and 2,004 meters of climbing over two ascents. The first climb of the day takes riders up and over McKenzie Pass, where they will climb 1,120 meters over 35km to the otherworldly lava field at the top of the pass. A fast, straightforward descent leads into the town of Sisters before riders start the final 17km climb to Three Creeks Snow Park, racing up another 516 meters of elevation gain before it's all over.

All of this week's stages, save for the time trials, offer time bonuses of 10, six and four seconds for the first three riders across the line.

Pro men results

Pro women results