GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., – The BISSELL Pro Cycling Team has finalized its eight-member roster for the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. Team leaders Ben Jacques-Maynes and Tom Zirbel will equally play critical roles in the success of this high-profile race.

Ben Jacques-Maynes returns to this tour with a history of strong results. He placed 16th overall during last year’s Tour of California, and for two consecutive years has placed in the top ten for the time trial.

Zirbel will also battle in the time trial. In 2008, he placed 2nd at the USPRO and 8th at the Stage 5 Tour of California time trials, and also boasts a 1st place victory Tour of Utah 2008 Time Trial. Zirbel is also well-known for his memorable breakaway in last year’s final stage of the Tour of California.

After six years of racing on separate teams, Andy Jacques-Maynes joins his brother Ben in California for his first race back in the pro ranks, following a successful 2008 season. He ranked 2nd in the road race and 3rd in the time trial at Elite U.S. Nationals last year. The BISSELL Tour of California roster will also include New Zealanders, Jeremy Vennell and Peter Latham. Vennell adds to the team’s time trialing strength as the 2009 New Zealand Time Trial Champion. Latham, new to the team for 2009, was a member of the New Zealand Olympic and World’s Track Championship teams.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., – The BISSELL Pro Cycling Team announces that BISSELL Inc. will continue as the title sponsor of one of the country’s top continental cycling teams for 2009. Mark Bissell, Chairman and CEO of BISSELL Inc., builds on his six-year history with cycling by assuming ownership of the team, which will come under the direction and management of Glen Mitchell.

“The team has had a fantastic year and has surpassed the goals that we had in the beginning of the year,” says Mitchell. “I am very excited about becoming more involved with the team, and I look forward to the challenges ahead in building this team to the next level. We have a solid platform of riders from this year and have recruited some talented athletes to strengthen the squad at our targeted races for ’09.” Joining Mitchell on the management team is Eric Wohlberg, who, after 16 years as one of the strongest riders in North America, will assume the new role as Sport Director.

Time trial powerhouses Ben Jacques-Maynes and Tom Zirbel will be returning to next year’s team, and will play key roles as team leaders. Jacques-Maynes was ranked 3rd in this year’s NRC standings, while Zirbel completed his season with an impressive second place finish at the USPRO Time Trial.

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-Ben Jacques-Maynes Makes His Return-

Grand Rapids, Mich., – BISSELL Pro Cycling’s (BPC) Tom Zirbel is back on form and ready to challenge America’s top time trialists in pursuit of the USA Cycling time trial championship. Zirbel’s recent Tour of Utah Stage 5 time trial victory sent out a clear warning that when he exits the start gates on August 30 in South Carolina at the Greenville Hospital Systems USA Cycling Pro Championships, he will be on a mission.

“I feel really good right now and my time trialing is where it needs to be,” said Zirbel following his Utah victory. “My mid-season crash kept me off the bike long enough to feel the effects but this warm-up gave me the confidence I needed – just to know that I’ve returned to where I was earlier in the season - and I am looking forward to leaving it all out there on the course in Greenville.”

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By James Lockwood

To mix things up in this year’s Nature Valley Grand Prix, organizers added a 1-kilometer climb up the bluffs of the Mississippi River valley to the third stage of the St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial.

Mix it up , it may have, but it did little to change the result as Bissell’s time trial specialist and former Nature Valley champion Ben Jacques-Maynes took the win by 8 seconds over Healthnet-Maxxis’ Rory Sutherland. Along with the stage win, Jacques-Mayne also assumed the overall lead by 7 seconds over Healthnet’s John Murphy, who finished third in the time trial following his third-place finish in Thursday’s second stage Cannon Falls Road Race.

Jacques-Maynes conquered the hill and 6-mile course in 12 minutes, 32 seconds, followed by Sutherland at 12:40 and Murphy at 12:45.
Jacques-Maynes said the hill was the challenge, despite the strong headwinds going out on the first, flat 2.5 miles. However, at only one kilometer and an average grade of 6 percent, it was a course that suited him.

“Little 1-kilometer climbs like this have my name written all over it,” he said.

Still, the hill presented a bit of a strategic challenge for the riders – where to push the pace, where to recover, and how to ride up the climb. “I left it in the big ring,” Jacques-Mayne said. “It was a bit of a gamble, but the gamble paid off.”

Sutherland said if it wasn’t for the climb, the time gap to Jaques-Maynes might have been larger.

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Canadian Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) outsprinted his breakaway companions to win the final stage, the Hood River Criterium, of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. World B Champion Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) was second and Italian Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living) came in third.

Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) wins the sprint ahead of Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) and Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living)

“I was on [Chris] Wherry’s wheel and he sat up, I knew that he’s not going to deliver me to the line, I was just waiting for that, and I was able to get on, I think it was Bazzana’s or Stevic’s wheel, and I came around him at the end. I came around the corner in third wheel.” said Pinfold.

Australian Rory Sutherland protected by his Health Net-Maxxis teammates came in safely across the line to win the overall general classification, shadowed at the line by second place Darren Lill (BMC) and third place Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell).

“I think it was a learning experience for a lot of the guys, a lot of the boys hadn’t done that kind of stuff before. Look at the start list, look at the teams that are here, this is probably one of the. I’d say, one of the best field ever put together on the domestic scene, this and Redlands of course, so it was by no means an easy feat that’s for sure. The guys seemed to get better every day, and really rode above and beyond today, to be honest they don’t get paid enough to do that kind of stuff because they just killed themselves for somebody else and that’s a pretty amazing thing.” said Sutherland about his team.

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In idyllic conditions for a time trial, Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) won stage 3, the Mt Hood Cycling Classic Gorge Delights time trial in a decisive manner, stopping the clock with the fastest time of 37:29, with an average speed of 29.61 mph (47.64 kmph).

Slotting into second place, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) was 25 seconds slower, and GC leader into the stage, Darren Lill (BMC) finished in third place, at 32 seconds back.

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With the roads still wet for the 1.7 mile course through the downtown streets of Portland, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) blitzed the 2008 Mt Hood prologue producing an average speed of 37 mi/h (59 km/h). Third from last rider to leave the start gate for the in an out and back course, Jacques-Maynes crossed the line with a time of 2:45, 3 seconds faster than second place finisher Jonathan Garcia (BMC), and third place World B Champion Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United).

“I found the biggest gear I could and muscled it all the way into the line. I think these shorter things just suit me, three minutes of racing does not a week long stage race make, it’s a good way to start it and I’ve got good form, hopefully the week is going to go well. Looking forwards to the Friday time trial.” said Jacques-Maynes.

Ben Jacques-Maynes speeds down the course, photo c. Lyne Lamoureux

The Bissell team is ready to defend the jersey. Last year, Jacques-Maynes grabbed the leaders’ jersey on the second stage, and held on to it until the time trial. He ultimately finished third on the overall classification.

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Continuing where he left off last season, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) defended his title and won the Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial, part of the Sequoia Cycling Classic. After 40 kilometers over a hilly terrain, Jacques-Maynes crossed the line in fifty-six minutes, twenty-five seconds with a lead of forty-nine seconds over second place Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis) and one minute fifteen seconds in front of third place finisher Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast).

Time Trial podium (l-r): Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit/Medifast), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis)

The riders went out at 30-second intervals with Ben Jacques-Maynes in the final positions on the start list.

“I had guys in sight the whole time, steady flow of riders to catch and that always helps motivation and I never cracked, I was working my gears really well and doing what I could.” said Jacques-Maynes.

Rounding off the top five were Heath Blackgrove (Toyota-United) at one minute seventeen seconds back from Jacques-Maynes and Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis) with one minutes 20 seconds gap.

While not part of the NRC calendar for the men this year, the Sequoia Cycling Classic has a long tradition, and is one of the last few training races before the NRC races start in April, and riders are taking one of the few last opportunities to refine their forms. A lot of riders are still recovering from the illnesses from the Amgen Tour of California and were using these last few races as testing ground.

The course started off with a 400 feet climb over Rocky Hill and into rolling and twisting Yokhol Valley gradually climbing 400 feet again before the turnaround and return to the start/finish line. Conditions were windy with a tailwind on the way out and a strong tailwind on the return with rain falling on a few of the last competitors.

Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), winner
“We did a training camp in Visalia several years ago on Sierra Nevada, I’ve ridden all these roads plenty of time, the third time I’ve done this time trial, I did the Rocky Hill road race, way way back when, that was actually my first pro race ever, so got a pretty good history year in Visalia, last year was good, the year before I was second in the time trial. So I know these roads, it’s beautiful out here, definitely hard, hard riding. You never feel like you’re in a rhythm, these roads are always up and down, turning, watching pot holes, always thinking that you could be going faster, never in a rhythm, and coming back over Rocky Hill was just brutal, headwind, I was just trying to make it over the hill honestly.”

“With a big break with the end of Tour of California and the start of the NRC racing, I’ve purposely taken a bit of a break, I was a week sick, and then I took another week off. So this is actually the end of my first week back of training, I want to be a bit underdone right now and not be going too well. I’m going at time trials, that kind of comes naturally to me but there’s definitely room for improvement on my form for coming into Redlands and Georgia. Looking forwards to the month of April and stepping back into the NRC races. We’re just going to go out and race as hard as we can, try to win as many races as we can.”

Rory Sutherland (Health Net Maxxis), second place
“It wasn’t the greatest, I don’t think a 40k timetrial is meant to go well, that’s the idea. For Karl (Menzies) and myself, we come here with no team support, it’s pure training for the next few weeks coming up getting ready for the big competition so the fact kind of reiterates that things are going in the right direction. I would have been content with being in the top 10 just to race again after the last fee weeks off. It went okay I guess and I think timetrials like this without a lot of pressure on top of them are very good timetrial training in general, you can kind of get used to your position and try different things and there’s not so much stress associated with this, it’s a good test in that respect.”

“I got sick straight after California like I had the whole week off, I’m still coughing up things. I think that everybody’s come out of that like in an interesting state, there’s a small percentage that seems to come out healthy and stay healthy. “

“Back to 100%? probably not, but that doesn’t necessarily say that if I am I’m going to go a minute faster. I feel like I need to be healthier but I’m in a good mental state at the moment and that’s the best thing.”

Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast), third place
“It’s pretty hilly, it’s a tough course, that hill on the way out is tough but with 30 second intervals between the guys is pretty nice because you have people to chase right away so I caught my 30-second and minute guy pretty quick on that hill, it’s pretty good. I don’t have more power than everybody but I have a pretty good position on the bike so with the wind and the hills, I think it worked towards my favor a little bit.”

“Headwind on the way back, so on the way out there, it feels pretty good, you’re going pretty fast and you feel good, and then after that turn around you have some hills to come back out and then a lot of headwind on the way back in, so you had to be sure to keep something in the tank on the way back, so yeah pretty happy.”

“We worked with some guys, Steve Hed, he knows a lot about positioning, he does our wheels and bars and we had some good times with him and he helped us dial in our position, took a lot of the width out of my shoulders with the position of my elbows so that helped a lot I’m sure, it’s good to work with people that know what they’re doing. “

Heath Blackgrove (Toyota-United), fourth place
“It’s a tough course. It’s a challenging course, up and down the whole way, with a bit of wind today. Hadn’t really seen much of the course beforehand so it was a bit of a surprise. Yeah a 40k time trial, you know how to pace yourself for that. “

“It’s hard to say (where my form is), I’ve felt about average this last week, so really just here for training and try to get some good racing as well. It’s not often that you get a long time trial like this so I think it’s really good. Building up for Redlands. After the way I felt this week, I’m pretty happy with today, but I still think I’ve got a bit to improve so. Go for myself in Redlands or help the team, we’ve got some good hitters, we’ve good some good depth this year.”

Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis), fifth place
“I was a bit surprised, I’m not like Ben, Rory or any timetrialist. I’m either good or I’m bad. I was good today. As Rory said, it was good training to do a 40km effort where it just against yourself, you can just see where you are with fitness. I’m pretty happy, I could not have gone any quicker.”

“I’m pretty pissed off that I’m only three seconds off Blackgrove, that’s annoying. Five seconds off Reid, I think I would have been on the podium otherwise, with five seconds. Five seconds, I would have been on the podium, it would have been a beautiful photo.” said a laughing Menzies.

In the unofficial and unannounced ’stylin’ competition, the winner is blogmeister Michael Hernandez (VOS Racing) with his all white skin suit. But is a white skin before Easter allowed? Coming second, with an honorable mention is Mark Santurbane (California Giant Berry Farms), who finished 11th, with his multicolor shoe covers.

Men’s TT Top 10

1. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Pro Cycling) 00:56:25.68
2. Rory Sutherland (Healthnet/Maxxis) +00:49.12
3. Jonathan Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast) +01:15.47
4. Heath Blackgrove (Toyota United Pro Cycling Team) +01:17.78
5. Karl Menzies (HealthNet/Maxxis) +01:20.84
6. Luis Amaran Romero (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light) +01:22.53
7. Scott Zwizanski (BISSELL Pro Cycling Team) +01:32.18
8. Michael Grabinger (Successful Living.com P/B Parkpre) +01:44.41
9. Mike Olheiser (Memphis motor werks/Carve) +01:48.82
10. Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics) +01:54.84

Full results here

Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics) won the hard way at the Merco Cycling Classic Road Race on Sunday, March third. After a select group of twenty-four riders managed a substantial gap to the rest of the field, the Canadian soloed away on the final lap to cross the finish line with over one minute ahead of the charging group. Winning the sprint, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) finished a second time on the podium over the weekend, ahead of Anibal Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home).

“I jumped with one (lap) to go, I was just having to chase stuff all day long by myself so you might as well make that effort off the front. You’re going to make that effort anyway so you might as well do it off the front. I’m sure I got my gap while the other three big teams were looking at each other, bluffing each other into committing to the chase, when you’re by yourself either you’re covering stuff all day long or you might as well be throwing it down. If you go, you go.” said Wohlberg.

The field of over 100 riders started off early on a somewhat chilly Sunday morning to cover five loops of a rolling 24-mile course surrounded by acres of blooming almond trees, and their frequent companions, bees. With only a few teams having support cars in the race, the spirit of cooperation was evident amongst the teams, as cars supported multiple riders for the 120 miles race, with BMC’s Gavin Chilcott providing feed support to Astana’s Chris Horner and others.

The first lap started off relatively easy as most riders were trying to warm up, Matt Seagrave (Kahala La Grange) managed to get a gap of five minutes to the field before being caught in the second lap.

Attacks on the second lap

Attacks were relentless on the second lap, with each team trying to be represented in the break, and shutting down any moves that they didn’t like.

Fast Freddie Rodriguez (Rock Racing) covering an attack

“Complete flurry of attacks, we had one guy up there, one group would go across, then another group would go across and we had one guy in each of those bridging moves, suddenly you have a big group up front and everyone sits up in the back, race over.” said Jacques-Maynes about the attacks on the second lap.

A successful break of about 24 riders finally went on the second lap, and quickly established a gap which grew to over 10 minutes by the final lap. Most teams were well represented in the break with multiple riders, which included Colavita-Sutter Home’s Tyler Wren, Davide Frattini and brothers Alejandro and Anibal Borrajo. Rock Racing also had four riders in the break: David Clinger, Sergio Hernandez, Sterling Magnell and Brock Curry. Bissell with three riders: Jacques-Maynes, Aaron Olson and Morgan Schmitt. California Giant Cycling Team also had three riders, Any Jacques-Maynes, Patrick Briggs and Jesse Moore. Also in the break were Amgen Tour of California King of the Mountains Scott Nydam and returning from injury Brent Brookwalter from BMC, Keven Lacombe (Kelly Benefits/Medifast), Markus Weinberg (Kahala-La Grange), Mark Shimihara (Team Clif Bar), Daniel Holloway (VMG) and Wohlberg.

The breakaway group on the third lap

Ben Jacques-Maynes and his team didn’t like to way the break was being controlled, so they attacked with less than three laps to go to reduce the numbers to around fifteen riders. “Colavita took control on the pack and acted like they were in control and so, when three quarters of the break is sitting on, it was time to start breaking it up so half way through the race we started attacking them for a bit. (We) really wanted to break it down a little bit, drop some dead weight and, we brought it down, we still had the 3 of us in the front.”

With one lap to go, Wohlberg launched his solo move, and the group didn’t respond as they were busy watching each other to see who would chase.

“When Wohlberg went, Colavita was killing every single move that we did, it was like ‘hey you want to kill move, kill that one, that’s the one that you need to kill right now, if you don’t, you’re going to lose the race’.” said Ben Jacques-Maynes.

While the chasing group attacked each other, Wohlberg built up a gap of over one minute, and was able to enjoy crossing the line. “I did a full lap solo. It was pretty tough, I don’t know who was chasing.”

Ben Jacques-Maynes won a close sprint ahead of Anibal Borrajo to finish on the podium for the second day in a row, following his third place finish in Saturday’s criterium. “I’ve done good on this sprint before, I’ve been fourth and fifth, we were in a small group, Borrajo, once again, wanted to sit on my wheel. The group came back just at the top of the hill, we got all back together and Aaron hit on the front, got his wheel, dropped me off with 250 to go and just tried not to die in the headwind.”

Ben Jacques-Maynes takes the sprint for second place

Wohlberg was happy with the weekend of racing by his teammates. “It was very aggressive actually, it was good racing. Beautiful out, not too many bees which is nice, fantastic marshalling both yesterday and today so we’re always very happy to come up here. I’m in Sunnyvale so I’m relatively local. It’s great to see these races continue and Merco stepping up to keep this race going and the town of Merced is fantastic.”

Ben Jacques-Maynes was pleased to see Wohlberg claim victory. “He’s been a training partner for years, he came second to me a couple of times last spring so I’m one hundred percent for him, great ride by him. He waltzed away from a stellar field here, he proved his class once again.”

Wohlberg was disappointed that his team, Symmetrics, did not get an invitation to the Amgen Tour of California. “We were training for Tour of California hoping that we’d get into that, but it didn’t work out for us. It’s kind of disappointing so we got three guys in Northern California still riding pretty hard right now so we’re going to try to pick these events as much as we can and continue with our season.”

Wohlberg is not sure if he will do the third race of the series, the Fresno criterium. “It was a great race last year when it was a full on stage race but if it just a one-day criterium, it’s a classic criterium but that’s not really my cup of tea. That’s kind of argy bargy all day long. If I had all my hockey gear down here.” said a laughing Wohlberg. “Maybe one of these days, there’s going to be a guy in hockey gear doing a criterium and that’s going to be me.”

Eric Wohlberg following a Colavita-Sutter Home wheel early in the race

Top 10 Results

1. Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics)
2. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Pro Cycling Team)
3. Anibal Borrajo (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light)
4. Andy Jacques-Maynes (California Giant Berry Farms)
5. Daniel Holloway (VMG/Felt)
6. David Clinger (Rock Racing)
7. Markus Weinberg (Kahala-La Grange)
8. Brent Brookwalter (BMC Pro Cycling Team)
9. Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light)
10. Aaron Olson (Bissell Pro Cycling Team)

All photos copyright Lyne Lamoureux.

See also:

• Merco Cycling Classic Women’s Road Race Report and Photos
• Merco Cycling Classic Men’s Crit Report and Photos
• Merco Cycling Classic Women’s Crit Report and Photos

After his small 3-man break lapped the field with only two laps to go, Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home) won the chaotic sprint ahead of Chris Horner (Astana) and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell).

“To the last corner, I was in third wheel with two teammates ahead of me, I looked back and saw that none of the other two guys were close, so I relaxed a little bit the last 50 meters and enjoyed the win.” said Borrajo.

The Merco Credit Union Cycling Classic race has a long rich history and denotes the opening of the California road racing season. While this year the race is not part of the National Race Calendar (NRC), teams such as Rock Racing, Bissell Pro Cycling, California Giant Cycling Team and BMC chose to send squads to hone in their form for the
upcoming season.

A field of over 95 riders took the start of the 50 laps, 40 miles course in downtown Merced buffeted by winds, and attacks started immediately from the get go.

The successful break was made right after a prime and Horner just kept riding hard, and a group of nine splintered from the field. The break included Colavita-Sutter Home duo Borrajo and Tyler Wren, Bissell’s teammates Jacques-Maynes and Richard England, Kayle Leogrande (Rock Racing), Elite Mens National Criterium Champion Daniel Holloway (VMG), Adrian Garrits (Kahala-LaGrange) and Canadian national road champion Cameron Evans (Symmetrics).

“There was a prime and I just kept on riding hard right after the prime, and it split to the nine of us and I did a couple of hard laps on the front and then everyone did a really good job of rotating through. I think the break had pretty much all the strong guys in it, everyone was comfortable and was working well together.” said Horner.

The break rode well together and stayed ahead of the chasing field led in turns by the California Giant Cycling Team and Rock Racing Team.

The chase

Then dissension hit the break, with riders attacking for the numerous primes.

“And then one guy started getting a little greedy for the primes, the group gave him two, and then he started going for three and sprinting, and then it was like if you’re going to do that, then we’re just going to start attacking each other, and that’s what happened. With Ben there, and myself, and Colavita guy (Borrajo) then it was strong three of us and once we got a little bit of a gap then it was on from then on.” said Horner.

“We were rolling good then dissension crept in, the attacks started. It was basically two attacks and then we were gone. Chris goes, everyone is like ‘what do I do’” said Jacques-Maynes.

With thirteen laps to go, the group of three riders, Horner, Jacques-Maynes and Borrajo started increasing their lead ahead of a chasing group of six remnants of the break followed by the peloton.

Under the impetus of Horner, against the wishes of his breakaway companions, the trio started to catch up to the field.

“We were rolling pretty good, I saw with about seven laps to go, we were just seeing the field but we weren’t going to catch them I didn’t think especially as Borrajo started easing up so I started easing up, Chris has other options, he’s the only guy strong enough to do the work of three men and drive the whole thing down. ” said Jacques-Maynes.

Horner wanted to catch the field to cause chaos for the finishing laps. “I like the chaos of the sprint, I don’t really like it when I’m on the same lap as everybody but when I’m one lap up and all I have to do is follow a good sprinter’s line then that’s perfect. The only problem is that the other 2 guys didn’t want to so I have to do two or three laps on my own to close up the gap on the back and then unfortunately I think I closed it with three to go and I just couldn’t get that recovery to get to the front in time.”

With 5 laps to go, Holloway and Evans tried to go at it alone and stayed away until the final corner.

The field absorbed the final riders of the original breakaway and the trio caught the field with less than three laps to go, and started to work their way through the field.

On the final lap, a frustrated Jacques-Maynes was caught behind a crash. “It was basically the three guys trying to work their way through guys that were getting popped, and then, people got aggressive in the little chicane, two guys crossed wheels, started crashing, crossed my wheel, I would have turned straight into a barrier and everyone crashed into me so, that was with half a lap to go.”

Horner was happy with the chaos and just wished that the catch had been a lap or two before. “You just want that chaos and I wanted to be able to hop on like a Bahati’s wheel to the sprint. If maybe I would have caught one lap before it could have been different because I would have been fresh, the other two guys were sitting on my wheel with two or three before we caught so they have a full five laps of rest so when we caught the back end of the field, they were a little bit fresher to go through the field and I was a bit kind of red. It didn’t quite work out to plan but for sure I wasn’t going to win it if we come three guys out of the last corner, it’s too clean of a sprint, and then they’re just going to kill me.”

Borrajo pulled ahead of the other two riders and easily crossed the finish line ahead. “I felt very good in the first breakaway, I was trying to watch Horner because I know the level of rider he is, and as soon Horner moved, he jumped away and made a break of three. I felt good, I knew that I was faster than the other guys.”

Horner still sick from Tour of California, was enjoying the sunny day in the Central Valley and going back to his roots of crit racing. “I’ve done this race many, many times, I grew up doing these races. I’ve been a crit rider for my whole life more than anything. If you grew up in the States, that’s what you are, if you don’t ride crits then you don’t make a living.”

Final podium (l-r): Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Alejandro Borrajo (Colvaita-SutterHome), Chris Horner (Astana)

Top 10 Results

1. Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light)
2. Chris Horner (Astana)
3. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Pro Cycling Team)
4. Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light)
5. Keven Lacombe (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast)
6. Davide Frattini (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light)
7. Brian Bosch (Sierra Pacific Racing)
8. Andres Gil (Pacific State Bank Cycling Tea)
9. Aron Gadhia (Kahala La Grange)
10. Justin Williams (Rock Racing)

All photos copyright Lyne Lamoureux.

See also:

• Merco Cycling Classic Men’s Road Race Report and Photos
• Merco Cycling Classic Women’s Road Race Report and Photos
  
• Merco Cycling Classic Women’s Crit Report and Photos