Mancebo captures stage and overall on final day at Redlands Bicycle Classic

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Francisco Mancebo (5 Hour Energy/Kenda) finished off four days of hard work by his team by escaping solo to win the final stage and claim the overall victory at the 2013 Redlands Bicycle Classic.

It was always going to be a tall ask for Chad Haga to hold onto the overall victory in Redlands with former Tour de France contender Mancebo breathing just five seconds down his neck, and as expected the Spaniard attacked until he could go clear - riding free to narrowly hold off the charging sprint of criterium winner Juan Jose Haedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman p/b Sutter Home) in the finale of the Sunset circuit race.

Because the race rules specified that the time for the overall classification would be taken at the start of five finishing short laps, Mancebo gained half a minute's advantage over Haga, the result of an attack on the last climb of the big loop. He tacked on a 10 second time bonus for good measure by holding off Haedo for the bonifications on the finish line.

"The guy just knows how to go, and I couldn't go with him," Haga said, the disappointment weighing. The team might not have been able to hold off Mancebo from stealing time bonuses, but the award of GC on the start of the five short laps was insult to injury.

"They can do whatever they want, because it's their race, but consistency would be nice," Haga said.

Third on the stage behind Mancebo and Haedo was Elbowz Racing's Travis McCabe, who followed up the solid work of his teammate Andres Diaz, who was solo off the front for three laps before being caught by Mancebo on the last large circuit.

The mountains jersey was wrestled from the shoulders of Matt Cooke (Champion System) by Carter Jones (Bissell), while Chris Kriek (Jelly Belly/Kenda) held onto the green sprint jersey despite being shelled from the main group on the circuit.

After winning the Redlands Classic in 2011 but having little luck matching the same success that propelled him to the NRC overall victory that year, Mancebo buckled down with his 5 Hour Energy team and hired a coach to regain the form of previous years, according to his team.

Staying in California between San Dimas and Redlands for the past three weeks allowed him to focus solely on training and rallying his team to support him this week.

"It was a great start for the 5 Hour Energy/Kenda Team," directeur Frankie Andreu said. "It was a tough race, and a strange race because Optum was so shorthanded they couldn't do too much.

"We were worried about the Jamis team, so our tactics were definitely different than normal - we tried to put some guys up the road to be up there for Paco when he attacked, but in the end it was Diaz who helped him."

Diaz was disappointed to miss out on the stage: being away with Mancebo, who was solely focused on getting enough time to win the overall meant he could have been given free reign to win, but after a day of being in the breakaway he just didn't have the legs.

"I went solo for four laps, and then I went with Mancebo, but I was dying - I couldn't go. I tried," Diaz said. "I was helping him, but my legs couldn't handle it in the last lap."

Powers, Abbott write their Redlands success stories

Comebacks were the theme of the day on the final stage of the 2013 Redlands Bicycle Classic women's race: the stage was won with an impressive solo effort by the diminutive former Giro Donne champion Mara Abbott, who returned from retirement to join the Exergy-Twenty16 team this season.

It was also the triumphant return of Alison Powers, who suffered a devastatingly close one-second defeat in last year's race, and ended the previous year's event with a broken elbow. Powers took the overall win, points jersey, NRC series lead and the Women's Prestige Series overall and points lead.

For Abbott, who has previously won the hill climb time trial and Oak Glen mountain-top finishes in Redlands, it was a new experience to come solo to the line in downtown with plenty of time to raise her hand in victory.

"It was awesome to be back here and to have success. This is a cool stage, and a special one to win, and it's especially great to win solo," Abbott told Cyclingnews.

She was joined in her breakaway by former teammate Claudia Haüsler, who ultimately was dropped and picked up by the chasing yellow jersey group, and Abbott had to ride the largely downhill and fast finale on her own.

"The harder the race is, the better it is for me," Abbott said. "It was nice to have someone in the break who you know, and can have confidence in the amount of work they'll do. I knew we had to get the maximum amount of time possible on the circuit, because the last 10km are a terrible 10km to be alone."

In the end, Abbott didn't have enough time to threaten Powers' overall lead, but the result proved that she is back to her form of old.

"I had to step away from the sport to know I wanted to do it. I made a conscious decision to come back, and I think that makes me a stronger competitor," Abbott said. "I feel as strong as I ever have."

The Sunset Road loop was no walk in the park for Powers, however: Olympian Amber Neben attacked from the drop of the flag, trying to isolate Powers from her Now & Novartis for MS team which has been so dominant this week. While Neben's dual attacks in the opening laps ultimately failed, they did shatter the peloton, leaving Powers with one teammate: Katie Donovan, to keep her safe.

In second place overall, Specialized-lululemon's Tayler Wiles said she and others attempted to attack and put pressure on Powers to no avail. "We attacked a bunch, and I thought we had Alison to the point of cracking, but Katie (Donovan) was always there - she rode really strong."

In the latter part of the race, the attack of Abbott and Haüsler, both nearly two minutes behind Powers on the overall standings, was the only move of quality enough to open up a lead which caused a little panic on the Now & Novartis camp.

"There was a little panic with Mara and Claudia up the road on the last couple laps, because they're strong," Powers admitted. "But thank goodness I had Katie Donovan and a few allies in Lululemon - they had second place on GC to lose - but when they got to more than a minute, 1:20, that's when it was time for me to work hard, too."

Powers helped to drive the pace, as did Rhae Shaw, who saw a chance to move over third-placed Optum rider Brianna Walle, who had been distanced in the mid-race attacks - one of which came from Shaw herself.

"When Mara went, I knew I had to do some work to make sure that GC came back - Brianna had been dropped," Shaw said. "I helped Now a little bit to drive it back into town. Third on GC is a huge accomplishment for Vanderkitten. We're really proud of it."

Powers was all smiles as she stepped onto the podium again and again: first for the yellow jersey, then for the points jersey, again for the overall and points jerseys of the Women's Prestige Series, the NRC overall leader's jersey and the podium for the top team.

It followed a week of practice for this final day: Powers won the time trial, the Beaumont Circuit and the criterium, falling just shy of a clean sweep of the stage victories, but to finally take home the overall jersey put her smile into high beam mode.

"I"ve been second place, third place, second place ... so it's awesome to bring home the yellow. We've had such good success, every person on the team did something. It's a true team victory."

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