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Dominguez, Armstrong score Panorama wins
Bessette takes women's GC lead
For Chris Horner, Friday’s Panorama Point circuit race was simply another day of defending his yellow leader’s jersey at the Redlands Bicycle Classic. For Lyne Bessette, however, Friday’s race finally saw her overtake Geneviève Jeanson (RONA) and move into the women’s overall race lead. Horner and Bessette now lead the race, while Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) and Kristin Armstrong (T-Mobile) took big stage wins for their teams.
Despite winning the prologue and the stage 1 Crestline road race, Jeanson has shown weaknesses all week long, most notably on Thursday’s stage to Oak Glen, where she lost 49 seconds to Bessette and saw her race lead dwindle from 1:11 to a mere 16 seconds. Following the Oak Glen stage, Jeanson walked gingerly between the awards podium and the medical control trailer, clearly showing the effects of back-to-back days of hard effort.
On Friday, there were more chinks in the armor, and Bessette exploited the situation to ride her way into yellow. The Panorama race, introduced at last year’s Redlands, features four loops of a 9-mile, up-and-down circuit highlighted by a short-but-steep climb to Panorama Point, three miles from the start/finish line.
The overall race leaders were content to play a tactical waiting game early, with Bessette’s Quark team, Sue Palmer-Komar’s Genesis Scuba squad and RONA all putting riders into a breakaway on the first lap that included Anna Milkowski (RONA), Melanie McQuaid (Ford), Grace Fleury (Genesis Scuba), Amy Moore (Quark) and Kate Maher (Basis). Meanwhile, all eyes were on Jeanson, who was about 20 riders back in the peloton the first time up the climb.
"The first time up the hill, we could see she was suffering," said Bessette.
For Bessette, though, the word of the week has been patience, and she waited until the third lap to make her move. After drifting back into the pack, Bessette attacked hard along the side of the road, with Armstrong, Christine Thorburn (Webcor) and Palmer-Komar managing to grab her wheel, but Jeanson offering no response.
"I felt flat again today," said Jeanson. "My preparation [for Redlands] was not optimal, and I’m paying the price right now."
Meanwhile, Thorburn, who rode so well on the Crestline and Oak Glen stages, had a little more difficulty on the power climbs of Panorama, and fell back to the Jeanson group.
That left Bessette, Armstrong and Palmer-Komar, who passed the original break and worked well over the final lap and a half, allowing Bessette to take a minute and 10 seconds out of both Jeanson and Thorburn, and then setting up the sprint for the stage win, which Armstrong took over Palmer-Komar.
"Every day’s been a different situation, and [the race] has been getting mixed up, back and forth, and just to have a stage win, for T-Mobile, is wonderful. It’s one of our goals on the team, and we’ll take each day as it goes," said Armstrong.
For Bessette, meanwhile, it will only take two more days, Saturday’s criterium and Sunday’s Sunset Loop, for her to claim the overall title.
Day for Dominguez and Horner
On each of the first two road stages at Redlands, Health Net has employed the same tactic: send two riders out on a breakaway to put the pressure on Horner and his Webcor Builders team. On Friday, it was more of the same, as Mike Sayers and Danny Pate went on the attack two laps into the six-lap men’s race, along with Alex Candelario (Jelly Belly-Aramark), Dominguez and Kevin Bouchard-Hall of the U.S. U23 National Team.
Each day, however, as Horner has extended his lead in the overall, the tactic has had less of an effect. And with Sayers 10 minutes down in the general classification and Pate 14 minutes behind, Horner and his team had plenty of room to play with. As a result, Webcor again got help from other sources, and the break’s lead never exceeded 2:30.
"Monex was chasing, probably to protect [Davide Frattini’s] place in the overall [9th]," said Horner. "That’s what kept that group close. We were willing to give a solid five minutes to that break."
Only when another group of five went, this one containing Jelly Belly’s Ben Brooks, did Horner feel the need to rally the troops. "For us, it was critical to bring Ben Brooks back, because he was only five minutes down," said Horner, who noted that was the difference between just riding tempo to keep the break in check, and really having to work hard to control a more dangerous group.
Meanwhile, the lead group of five, including sprinters Candelario and Dominguez, rolled along well until the two Health Net riders began to attack with two laps to go. That sprung Pate loose, but it may have come too soon.
"I think we went too early," said Sayers. "We were just trying to test them, but they didn’t react."
Unfortunately, Horner and Grajales were rolling up on them from behind, after breaking clear the last time up the big hill. "Cesar just went so hard up the climb that he split the group," said Horner, who saw an opportunity to gain more time on third-placed Adam Bergman (Jelly Belly) and fourth-placed John Lieswyn (Health Net).
"They’re all going to be attacking me on Sunset, so I might as well get as much time as possible," he said.
Horner and Grajales picked up Dominguez at the KOM hot spot, then, with Horner driving the pace to gain as much time as possible, chased down Bouchard-Hall before finally picking up Pate.
Those five came onto the long, straight finishing stretch together, with Dominguez sprinting in ahead of Pate and Grajales for a hard-earned stage win.
"Basically Horner was the man," said Dominguez. "He was driving from the [KOM] until the end, and I was having a free ride. Then I was like, ‘Well, I’m the only sprinter here, so I think I’m not going to have any trouble.’ But you never know.
"It’s very important," he said of the win. "It’s a big race, and it’s the first time for me in this race and it’s the first time for the team in this race."
Horner, however, is no stranger to Redlands, having won the overall three times. And he took another big step on Friday toward making it four.
