Shane Kline (Rally Cycling) sprinted to victory Saturday in the downtown criterium stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic, winning the bunch kick ahead of Holowesko-Citadel's Miguel Bryon in a photo finish, with Holowesko's Joe Lewis in third.
"It was close," Kline said after the finish. "I was not quite sure I got it, but I think I got it. I'm just super excited to walk away with the win today. It's my fiancé's birthday, so now I'll be able to call her up and say, 'Hey, baby, I won. Happy birthday.'"
Kline's win wasn't without a fight for his team, however, as an 18-rider breakaway went up the road and gained 40 seconds on the chase before Rally's concerted effort started digging into the advantage.
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"The guys did and awesome job chasing the break down," Kline said. "They really just drilled themselves to pull it back, and we actually had no one left in the last few laps, so I was a little alone."
The course in downtown bend is a long rectangle with tricky turns on corners three and four, and over the years it has lent itself to being friendly for breakaways. The big group that went up the road was a serious threat to stay away.
In the escape were Lewis, United Healthcare's Alex Cataford, Adrian Hegyvary, Greg Henderson and Chris Jones, Rally's Curtis White, Silber's Jean Emile, Jelly Belly-Maxxis' Ullises Castillo and Taylor Sheldon, H&R Block's Jean-Denis Thibault, Hangar 15's Francisco Mancebo and Erik Slack, CCB Velotooler's Noah Granigan, NSWIS' Liam Magennis, Axeon Hagens Berman's Logan Owen, Gateway Harley Davidson's Bryan Steve Gomez Penaloza and Storck-CCN's Tony Baca.
The breakaway escaped the bunch about 25 minutes into the 75-minute race, and the gap quickly went up to 30 seconds, then jumped to 40 seconds with a half hour left. Rally took care of business from there, and the gap was down to less than 20 seconds with a handful of laps remaining. The race was back together with five laps to go, but Rally had used all its bullets to bring it back, leaving Kline to freelance his way to the line.
"I ended up riding into those first two turns first wheel on the final lap because I didn't want to get swarmed," Kline said. "I knew if I got swarmed it was over because I had nobody to keep me in position. I came out of the second turn first wheel and then Robin [Carpenter] just hit it."
UnitedHealthcare's Luke Keough immediately jumped on Carpenter's wheel, and Kline followed suit.
"They opened a gap because they went so hard, and it was just perfect for me to slot on. I just followed those two wheels all the way through the last two turns and out of the last turn," Kline said.
"I've been known to hesitate in a sprint, so I said, ‘Just go.' As soon as we came out of the turn I put it in the 53-11 and just went."
Kline had the early advantage over Bryon, and it only grew as the Holowsko rider had to hesitate for a moment when the rider in front of him dropped a chain. In the end, Kline held off Bryon by a whisker.
Despite the drama on the stage, little changed in the general classification, with UnitedHealthcare's Gavin Mannion leading Holowesko's Carpenter by one second and Rally Cycling's Evan Huffman at three seconds. UnitedHealthcare's Daniel Eaton is fourth, 16 seconds down, and Jelly Belly-Maxxis' Serghei Tvetcov is fifth at 34 seconds.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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