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Zirbel, Phillips win Cascade TT
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National Racing Calendar points leader Tom Zirbel (Bissell) won Thursday’s stage 3 Skyliner’s Time Trial at the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic, 11 seconds ahead of Ian McKissick (BMC) in second, and 44 seconds ahead of Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) in third.
In the women’s race, 31-year-old former national road champion Jessica Phillips (Team Lip Smacker), whose last full season racing was in 2004 with European team Equipe Nurnberger, took the win by 10 seconds over Alison Starnes (Team Tibco) in second place, and by 12 seconds over current national time trial champion Alison Powers in third.
In the mens and womens races, Sevilla and Webcor's Evelyn Stevens retained their overall leads, but the places below them shuffled a bit after the TT.
Conservative takes the day
Coming into the stage 119th on GC at 13:49, Zirbel was the 50th rider to take the line in the field of 167. He was the 40th rider to cross the finish line, though, as he flew past 10 riders who started ahead of him – spaced 30 seconds apart – on the 16-mile out-and-back course that includes mainly climbing on the way out and descending on the way back.
A strong time trialist who this season has proven himself as an all-around contender with near overall wins at Fitchburg Longsjo and the Nature Valley Grand Prix, Zirbel executed his plan of starting out a bit conservatively on the course.
“This is a hard course from the get-go, you’ve got too be careful,” he said. “We’re not super-high elevation, but it’s easy to blow yourself on a course like this on day 3 of a tour. I tried to stay within myself a little bit the first quarter, the first half of the climb, and see what I had at the rest. And then of course, I’m going to go faster on the descent because I’m heavier than most riders ... that’s where I was able to put some time into a climber like Sevilla.”
Zirbel thought his early start was another advantage. “I went an hour before a lot of these guys, and it was probably 7 to 8 degrees cooler for me. That makes a big difference.”
McKissick came into the day expecting a good result. “I’ve been working on a time trial bike at home, and working with my coach,” he explained. “We’ve been working really hard to get my time trial up to par, trying to reach Zirbel. It’s getting a little closer but still didn’t do it today. But I expected to do well today.”
While Sevilla established an even stronger hold on the overall lead, he said that he felt tired after his efforts in stage 2. He took it fairly easy on the first 5k of the TT then got faster as he felt better.
Sevilla retained the yellow jersey, but there was a bit of shuffling behind him on GC. Jeff Louder (BMC) moved up into second at 40 seconds back, while Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing) dropped one spot to third and is 1:04 back.
A good news text
When it came time for the women’s podium, a Team Lip Smacker racer took the top step – but it wasn’t Phillips, the actual winner. She was back on her bike, riding toward her host home, and only found out through a text message from a team soigneur that she had won the stage.
“I was surprised,” she said when tracked down by phone. “I mean, I felt like I had a really good time trial. My teammates and I had spent a lot of time talking about the course, and I actually text messaged with Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo-Lifeforce and overall winner of Cascade last year) this morning about the course, so yeah, I felt like I had a really good ride. And I have a new really awesome time trial bike. But I don’t know, I never really ask my place when I finish. I assume someone would just tell me.”
Powers was confident she’d put in her best effort and, due to her third place, expressed some concern about defending her time trial title at USA Cycling’s Elite National Road Championships on nearly this same course in one week.
“I felt super strong today,” she said. “I couldn’t have been happier with how I rode. I couldn’t have done anything better ... I’m surprised (with today’s results). I don’t know these two girls who beat me ... Jessica Phillips is super strong, and maybe she had an amazing ride today – good for her. And Alison I’ve never seen before, so it’s a surprise. She’s strong, so that’s good.”
Stevens retained a healthy hold on the yellow jersey with her fourth place finish in the stage, but, as in the men’s race, other top spots changed hands. Team Tibco now holds second through fourth places with Amber Rais at 1:02, Katharine Carroll at 1:06, and Best Young Rider Julie Beveridge at 1:10.
Though it was her first day not on the stage podium, Stevens was happy with her time trial, and still ecstatic to be in the overall lead. “It’s exciting. We’ve got a strong team to support it tomorrow, so hopefully we’re ready to go and keep me in yellow.”
Race Notes
The hot weather, challenging courses, and fast pace continued to whittle down the size of the men’s field at Cascade. Thirteen men finished outside the time cut, including Freddie Rodrigues (Rock Racing) and Ryan Trebon (Rideclean p/b Patentit.com).
Please check back soon for more Pat Malach photos from the time trial stage.
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