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Stage 1
Tuesday, July 21
Smith Rock Road Race
71.2 miles |
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BJM Dedicates his Cascade Win to Friend, Chris Hipp
The Cascade Classic kicked off on Tuesday with a new stage over 71 miles of rolling terrain with 1 KOM. It was expected to be a course suited for the sprinters with a flat, fast finish, but Ben Jacques-Maynes rode a brilliant race which capitalized on his abilities to take the solo win.
The race was fast from the start with average speeds of 50kph over the first hour. Jeremy Vennell and Omer Kem covered the early moves but a group of 10 got away just before the KOM. The split quickly grew to 30 seconds but teams not content with their numbers in the break organized a chase to bring down the gap.
Accelerations over the KOM reduced the gap which allowed a group of 15 to quickly bridge up to the break. BJM and Jeremy covered the move and BISSELL had 2 riders in the front group. The new lead group of 23 had diversified composition including overall contenders and sprinters. Slipstream led the chase and held the gap to 30 seconds for awhile. However without help from other teams, the chase group eventually sat up and the gap increased to 4 minutes.
BJM and Jeremy forced the sprinter’s teams in the break to do the work to set up their sprinters for the finish. Cross winds and accelerations split the break in half with BJM and Jeremy both in the front group. The BISSELL duo continued to cover the accelerations and alternate attacks.
With 1k to go, BJM broke free to the finish and took the win solo. He leads the GC by 14 seconds over Louder (BMC) and 16 seconds over Mancebo (Rock Racing).
Jeremy finished in the select front group 20 seconds back. The top 20 are within 1 minute of BJM’s time, but the rest of the field sits 4:41 back.
Ben dedicated his win to his close friend and fellow cyclist, Chris Hipp, who died of an embolism while out riding last week.
BISSELL sits in great position and looks to ride aggressively over the next 5 stages. "I hope we are able to have a good time trial here," says BJM. "But we aren't fully depending on the time trial anymore as we did the last couple of weekends. We want to come out here to race aggressive and have a good one."
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Photo courtesy of
Brian Hodes - VeloImages |
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Photo courtesy of
Brian Hodes - VeloImages |
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Photo courtesy of
Brian Hodes - VeloImages |
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Photo courtesy of
Brian Hodes - VeloImages |
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Photo courtesy of
Brian Hodes - VeloImages |
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Photo courtesy of
Brian Hodes - VeloImages |
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