Mara Abbott, riding for the composite team Discover Bicycles/Athletes for a Cure, jumped from the field led by Jeannie Longo to catch the remnants of the break of the final climb to Mt Hood Meadows ski resort to win stage 4, the Wy’East Road Race at Mt Hood Cycling Classic.

“I knew that coming up here was my best chance, the pace slowed down a bit, Jeannie Longo was leading but she was switching side to side a lot, and she switched to the side and we bunched up a little bit and I decided to go. I caught the break about half way between when I attacked and the finish, it was awesome.” said a smiling Abbott.

As expected, the race came down to the last 2 miles. An early break with Martina Patella (ValueAct) and Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) was off the front, and the Aaron’s team, driven by Meredith Miller, led the chase. Longo added her power to the chase in the final miles.

“The break stayed away with 2 k to go. I caught Meredith with about 800 k to go.” said Beveridge.

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There was no telling who would hold onto the yellow jersey as the professional women cyclists approached the starting line of the 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic famous Sunset Road Race starting line. Pure determination was present on every face as the riders started the selective 68-mile course, with circuits in the Sunset Drive hills.

For most of the race, two were in front of the field of 20 riders. As they hammered it out through the downtown Redlands finish, Alex Wrubleski of Webcor Builders charged, drilling across the line first, and not only winning today’s stage race, but narrowly beating Mara Abbott of High Road for the overall 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic win, by a slim one second margin. Leigh Hobson of Cheerwine and Kim Anderson of High Road were second and third for today’s stage race, respectively.

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Stage Two 1.2 mile downtown Redlands criterium race, sponsored by 1st Centennial Bank/KWB Wealth Managers, brought numerous attacks and a bunch sprint finish. 19-year-old Swedish star Emilia Fahlin from Team High Road sprinted across the finish line and took the biggest win of her young career. Alex Wrubleski, from Webcor Builders, and Brenda Lyons, from Advil/Chapstick rounding out the top three. Mara Abbott, from High Road continued her lead in overall points.

“This course has a lot of corners and fast laps, which I like,” said Fahlin, who is a first time Redlands Bicycle Classic participant. “Everyone talks about this race. It’s a big goal for the team.” Fahlin fought her way to the end, knowing she was to protect the lead of Mara Abbott and take time bonus seconds away from the opposing GC riders. “After I took off seconds for the first bonus I was a little tired, so I had to push it.” Fahlin took the time bonus sprint at the half way mark and then again at the finish.

“The race went according to plan,” continued Fahlin. “Since we only had four riders, it was perfect to have other teams do the work. Hopefully they will be tired tomorrow. With two laps to go Cheerwine and Webcor started to pull hard. I think the last lap was all Cheerwine but I saw that they were starting to get tired in the last decent before the last two corners. With the two corners to go I saw a rider come out and I just jumped on her wheel and came out around her in the last corner. It was really fun!”

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After battling it out with her breakaway companions, Katherine Carroll, from Aaron’s sprinted to a big win in Stage One. Former Canadian national champion, Alex Wrubleski, from Webcor Builders followed with second; and Leigh Hobson, from Cheerwine grabbed third. Mara Abbott, from High Road, just a few seconds behind in a group that bridged to the breakaway kept the yellow jersey, coming off of her win at Thursday’s Prologue race.

The pro women cyclists lined up to complete 4 laps of 17.5 miles in the 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic Stage One Circuit race in Beaumont, Calif.
This year’s course required a different strategy from the former Oak Glen Stage One race. The 17.5 mile course took the riders through Beaumont’s rolling hills, bordered by open fields. Bogart Park provided a grueling hill that threw some of the hardest obstacles. After the steep climb, the wind to be difficult for the riders.

Some found the challenging course inviting. “I thought the course was fantastic,” said Hobson. “It was definitely a challenge with the climb, but it wasn’t as selective as a mountain top finish. Teams could race more aggressively.”

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Team High Road continued on their winning ways with Mara Abbott winning the Redlands Sun Time Trial Prologue with a 25 seconds lead over Aaron’s Kat Carroll. Coming in one second later, is High Road’s Kim Anderson to round off the podium. Under cloudy skies, Abbot, who finished fourth in last year’s prologue, raced the 5 kilometers and climbed the 207 final hill in eleven minutes and ten seconds, with an average speed of 26.98 km/hr.

“It went really well, I was able to keep a good mental attitude about it, I felt really confident, not necessarily confident that I could win but confident that I prepared myself to do a really good race.” said a very happy Abbott about her ride.

Women’s Podium (l-r): Kat Carroll (Aarons), Mara Abbott (High Road), Kim Anderson (High Road)

With both Webcor and Aaron’s team placing each three riders in the top fifteen, all with less than a minute between them, High Road is looking forwards to defending the jersey, even if they are only fielding 5 riders in this race.

“It’s going to be interesting, we’ve got some pretty strong teams to go up against, Webcor is in a good position because they have quite a few good riders get good placings, but we’ve got a good position too, we’ve got Kim in third, we’ve got Mara in first and despite the fact that we’ve only got five riders, they are all pretty fit, they’ve been riding well together and do what we can.” said High Road DS Kristy Scrymgeour.

Tomorrow’s stage is the 110km Beaumont Road Race, a new stage in the Redlands Classic, and everyone is expecting a field sprint. With time bonuses on the line, attacks should be flourishing.

Mara Abbott (High Road), winner

“To be able to, on a race like that, go out and do so well is really exciting because I know I prepared myself but you don’t know what everyone else will do.”

“The thing that I really love about this course is that it’s so interesting. There are so many things that happen during it, it’s not just a straight climb, it’s not a flat course, it’s so interesting. And there’s a million different ways that you could ride it, you could ride it all day long and ride it different every time so it’s really fun. I actually had fun riding this course every single year. This is my third time riding this course.”

“You know, I think when I started out, this was my first NRC race that I’d ever done, and then I ended up getting fourth last year, and so you learn more about yourself as a racer and hopefully keep getting better and better, that’s the natural progression.”

“Beaumont is fun, I actually like the loop. It’s cool, because it’s got a little bit of everything, it’s got flat sections, some long straight sections, it goes up through a climb through this little neighborhood and so it’s cool because it’s the kind of course that’s it’s whatever you make of it.”

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Nineteen-year old Emilia Fahlin of Team High Road launched from her five-woman breakaway to take the sprint ahead of Rushlee Buchanan (Tibco), and her teammate US National Road Mara Abbott. With three High Road riders in the break, Fahlin was able to recover from her move to initiate the break before launching her winning attack.

“After my attack, I got a bit tired and had to hang on for a bit so I was really happy that Kim came up, she did a really great job today, she’s so strong and I’m so impressed at such great team, and but after a while I went around with all the others to keep up the speed and to get everybody to work.”

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), and with the Women’s World Cup races being held in New Zealand, a smaller but powerful women’s field took to the 32 miles Downtown Grand Prix held in Merced, California.

High Road, Value Act and Tibco teams getting ready before the start of the crit

The attacks started off early in the 40-lap races with Kim Anderson (High Road) launching solo off the front early on in the race. The solo move was not part of the original plan.

“I don’t know how, I think I was just going for the sprint and then Kristy (Scrymgeour) said you have a gap, and I said allright. I was just getting the go, go, go, it just happened that I was out there for ever.” said Anderson.

The field let Anderson dangle in front about half the race before reeling her in with 15 laps to go, and counter-attacks started immediately. Buchanan attacked and Fahlin followed her move to get a small gap, and Proman’s Virginia Perkins with Anderson bridged to create a four-rider break.

The riders in the break cooperated together to try and escape from the field. “It was good, I raced with these girls last weekend and I kind of knew what to expect. I was just watching and tried to be patient, and then go when I needed to go. We formed a break and we all worked well together, everyone was pushing through.” said Buchanan.

Having two High Road riders in the break gave a chance for Fahlin to rest before the final lap. “It was good because I told Emilia just to come and roll whenever she wanted but actually we were all working pretty strong so it worked well, it was good, it was a really fun crit.” said Anderson.

Field chasing

High Road’s Anke Wichman unsuccessfully tried to bridge to the break and when she was reabsorbed by the field, Abbott started chasing solo with 3 laps to go, and managed to catch the break with a bit less than two laps to go.

“Mara had attacked when she got to us so we had two laps to go, and then she kept on going, then I think I attacked again to keep it really fast with one lap to go, and then Mara attacked coming around this corner, and then Emilia went around for the sprint. It worked out perfect.” said Anderson.

A smiling Abbott, known more for her climbing ability, was happy to have been able to help the team win. “I enjoyed the crit, crits are challenging for me, to be able to feel that I did something useful, and I did something right is a very good feeling. This is my first year on the team and I want to learn to work with everyone and I want to learn the ropes, you want to be there for everyone.”

Buchanan was happy with her results, and looking forwards to the next day of racing. “With two laps to go I tried to put the pressure on because I knew that Mara was coming right behind us and then Mara caught us, I was just watching, just try to go with them. Kim went over here with lap to go and I chased her down. I was pretty much on the red line for the whole last lap and then only just got there.”

High Road’s plan of aggression payed off with 3 riders in the top 5. “We decided that we wanted to be there from the start but still we weren’t sure about all the girls racing here. We try to have someone in the break if something goes and we want to be part of the whole race so we want to have a girl in every attack.” said Fahlin.

Final podium (l-r): Mara Abbott (High Road), Emilia Fahlin (High Road), Rushlee Buchanan (Tibco)

Top 10 Results

1. Emilia Fahlin (Team High Road - Women)
2. Rushlee Buchanan (TEAM TIBCO)
3. Mara Abbott (Team High Road - Women)
4. Virginia Perkins (PROMAN Racing)
5. Kim Anderson (Team High Road - Women)
6. Anke Wichmann (Team High Road - Women)
7. Flavia Oliveira (Vanderkitten)
8. Mary Ellen Ash (Easton/SugarCRM/Specialized)
9. Rachel Paul (Procyclery)
10. Natasha Perry (Velo Bella-Kona)

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 Men’s Crit Report and Photos