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Louder takes stage 5 at Cascade; Zajicek remains overall leader

By Kathie Reid, VeloNews.com
Published: Jul. 15, 2007

With another mountain-top finish on the schedule, Saturday’s fifth stage at the Cascade Classic held the promise of shaking up the overall standings in the men’s race. But while Jeff Louder (Health Net-Maxxis) won the day, Phil Zajicek (Navigators Insurance) retained his GC lead by coming across on his wheel for second in the stage, followed closely by Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United), Scott Moninger (BMC)and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health-Bissell).

Indeed, the stage results changed the top of the GC only slightly. Baldwin’s second place stayed firm at 13 seconds behind Zajicek, while Jacques-Maynes lost five seconds but retained third place. Louder’s stage win helped him move from fourth to third place in GC, jumping ahead of Chris Wherry (Toyota-United) by 11 seconds.

“Today’s a little bit of retribution for last year,” Louder explained, referring to the final day of competition when time bonuses helped Wherry take the leader’s jersey off his back. “It’s nice to finally stand on the first step for something [at Cascade]…it feels good to win.”

The Pacific Power Cascade Lakes Road Race began at Cascade Middle School in Bend and ended at the Sunrise Lodge at the Mt. Bachelor Ski Area. While the 87-mile course that ended with a nearly five kilometer climb would be tough on any day of a stage race, it was made even more challenging given that it came on the fourth day of competition and on the morning after a two-race day that included a hot and windy time trial and a blistering fast twilight crit.

Shortly after the 10:00 a.m. start, the attacks started coming, but it took quite awhile for one to stick. By mile 12, groups of riders began falling off the back of the peloton as a variety of surges occurred in succession, prompting one race official to exclaim over the race radio that the racers were “spread out all over hell out there.”

At roughly mile 30, Chuck Coyle (SuccessfulLiving.com-ParkPre) made an attack on a significant descent, and Roman Kilun (Health Net-Maxxis) and Edward King (Priority Health-Bissell) immediately bridged up to him.

While the break stayed together until mile 77, race leader Zajicek’s Navigator team controlled the pace of the peloton and never let the gap get above about two-and-one-half minutes. “We were rolling really steady,” Kilun reported. “Everybody was working really consistently.”

The three riders felt the pull of the Navigator-led field the entire time, though. “We got out there and I was hoping they were gonna give us a little more, or a little longer of a leash, but they were just keeping it at just about two-and-a-half minutes. It’d come below that and then they’d sort of let us go out a little more,” Coyle said. Though Coyle shared Kilun’s perception that the three were working well together, at mile 77, he couldn’t hang with the other two anymore, and began dropping back to the field.

Reinforcements arrived in the form of Frank Pipp (Health Net-Maxxis) and Brian Sheedy (Priority Health-Bissell), who bridged to Kilun and King while Coyle was dropping back. With the gap down close to one minute, Quinn Keogh (Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life) bridged up to the foursome on his own. The gap started to increase again, but never got past two minutes.

With roughly 5 kilometers to go, the break began falling apart, and eventually Kilun was left alone out front; he was also reabsorbed into the pack by 3km to go. “Once we started getting…up those rollers, I could tell those guys were getting a bit more tired…Maybe with a couple more guys, if we’d been able to stick together, I woulda been able to stay away,” Kilun said.

With just 2km to go, yet another uphill sprint was on for a road race stage win. Ryder Hesjedal (Health Net-Maxxis) “did the early work the last few kilometers,” Louder said, “and that really took the pressure off of me. I could just really relax and look for the right wheel, and luckily I found it and got the win.”

That wheel belonged to Scott Moninger (BMC). “Scott went really hard into the parking lot [of the Sunrise Ski Lodge], and I think he’s done that before and got some pretty good gaps. So I just found myself right there, right at the right moment, had a little momentum, and so I could get up to him…he went really hard and just kinda gave me a little break, and I could then kick to the line.”

Louder told a local tv station after the finish that getting the stage win was important for him and his team. “You know, sometimes it just doesn’t shake out right and you don’t get the jerseys. So the next best thing is to win a stage, you know. It’s like repaying the team for all their hard work…Roman Kilun and Frank Pipp got up the road today and gave Ryder Hesjedal and myself a pretty good break, so it was a pretty good day all around for Health Net.”

Sunday’s sixth and final stage will be an 80-mile circuit race that includes a challenging 17-mile loop. With an abundance of time bonuses available and only one-and-a-half minutes separating the top five GC riders, it promises to be exciting right to the final line.

Baldwin said that Toyota-United’s “race is against Phil [Zajicek]. And so far, Phil is showing that he’s the strongest guy in the race.”

Zajicek, looking fresh at the finish of the 5th stage, said, “I’m feeling good. It’s fun…It’s gonna be hard tomorrow, but the boys are up for it, I think.”

Race notes

Today’s stage took a heavy toll on the peloton, as 18 riders did not finish the race.

In an official communication released by the race officials after stage 5, it was noted that David Vitoria (BMC) “was riding with the leaders with less than 1 km to go and was directed off course by a marshaling error. His time has been adjusted to reflect the time of the second group across the finish line.”

2007 Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic
Stage 5: Pacific Power Cascade Lakes Road Race
1. Jeff Louder, Health Net-Maxxis, 87 miles in 3:39:37
2. Phil Zajicek, Navigators Insurance, same time
3. Chris Baldwin, Toyota-United, s.t.
4. Scott Moninger, BMC, s.t.
5. Ben Jacques-Maynes, Priority Health-Bissell, at 0:05
6. Jonathan Garcia, BMC, same time
7. Justin England, Toyota-United, s.t.
8. Burke Swindelhurst, Toyota-United, s.t.
9. Ryder Hesjedal, Health Net-Maxxis, at 0:15
10. Chris Wherry, Toyota-United, at 0:15
Overall
1. Zajicek, 323 miles in 12:27:25
2. Baldwin, at 0:13
3. Jacques-Maynes, at 0:49
4. Louder, at 1:16
5. Wherry, at 1:27
6. Moninger, at 1:55
7. Garcia, at 2:14
8. Hesjedal, at 2:26
9. David Vitoria, BMC, at 2:40
10. Swindlehurst, at 2:48