Colavita's Tina Pic and Toyota's Hilton Clarke take crit wins and the overall lead in Portland.
The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic ventured into new territory Wednesday with a new venue for the sixth year of the event: a hilly criterium held in a verdant city park wrapping around a long-extinct volcano.
The new event delivered large crowds and down-to-the-wire racing action that saw the mens and womens overall leads switch hands in the final meters of the crits. The fact that Portland was enjoying some of the nicest weather of the spring only helped improve the festive atmosphere in Mt. Tabor Park.
In the women's race, national criterium champ Tina Pic (Colavita Sutter Homes) outsprinted GC leader Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) and took the overall lead (along with the lead of the climber's and points competition).
In the men's race Toyota-United dominated the final two laps of the race and delivered its sprinters Hilton Clarke and Ivan Stevic to the front, where they raced each other to the line. While Stevic was the better placed on GC by three seconds, Clarke won the intramural sprint and, thanks to a 10-second time bonus, took over the GC lead from overnight leader Ben Jacques-Maynes of Bissell.
Stevic, who was third on GC after the prologue, moved past Jacques-Mayne into second.
Health Net-Maxxis' Rory Sutherland, who led out the sprint only to be passed by Stevic and Clarke in the final meters, moved up to fourth on GC.
Both new leaders, Pic and Clarke, gave little indication that they intend to try to hold onto the lead in the upcoming hilly stages, starting with Thursday's Cooper Spur Circuit Race.
"It's just a day to wear the jersey," Clarke said with a laugh. "We'll just keep everyone guessing all week."
Pic said she hasn't done much climbing training this spring, and that after her first glance at the hilly criterium course she thought she had little hope of a win. But the 135 feet of climbing per lap proved to be less selective than she (and many others) expected.
"Once you were in there, it wasn't so bad," she said. "You kind of got of swept along on the lower part of the climb."
The race moves up the Columbia River Gorge for the remaining stages, starting with the circuit race Thursday.
Men will do 85 miles: 4 1/2 circuits of an 18.7-mile loop. The women do 3 1/2 circuits for 66 miles. The course has one long climb each lap. On Friday the race tackles the difficult 18.5-mile Scenic Gorge Time Trial and on Saturday comes the most mountainous stage of the event, the Wy'East Road Race.
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