Routley, Teutenberg win Redlands stage 1, Neben and Day defend overall

Amber Neben (Dare To Be-BMW-Bianchi) became the first rider to defend the Redlands Classic leader’s jersey on the Beaumont circuit Friday, finishing with the same time as stage winner Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (HTC-Columbia), who now sits in second, 14 seconds behind Neben on the GC.

Teutenberg outsprinted TIBCO’s Brooke Miller and Webcor Builders’ Joelle Numainville to take the win in the 68-mile City of Beaumont Road Race. Teutenberg also picked up 15 seconds in time bonuses at the finish and intermediate sprints, cutting in half the nearly 30-second lead that Neben took in the prologue Thursday.

In the 106-mile men’s road race, Will Routley (Jelly Belly-Kenda) won the stage from a three-man break that went away on the final climb. Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes, also in the break, moved to within one second of Ben Day (Fly V Australia) in the overall with the six-second time bonus at the finish. Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home) finished third.

Friday marked the first National Racing Calendar road stage contested after USA Cycling instituted a ban on race radios earlier this year.

No escape
The women rolled away from the start with a slight tailwind Friday and the pace ratcheted upward quickly. With the brutal crosswinds that have marked the Beaumont stage in the previous two years missing, the peloton remained largely intact over the three-lap race.

The elephant in the peloton, HTC-Columbia, worked to defend its two top-five positions in the GC and marked nearly every attack that came from the bunch. The pressure of the group’s speed and the vigilance of the HTC-Columbia women stifled nearly every move. A handful of riders were able to move clear by five to ten seconds, but no definitive breakaway formed.

“We were covering breaks and trying not to let them go,” said Teutenberg. “We weren’t riding on the front all day. We just tried to close the breaks and go for the time bonuses.”

Defending NRC champion Alison Powers found the day, “kind of boring, actually. It was pretty fast. Some teams tried to attack, but it was obvious that nothing was going to get away.”

As the peloton approached the finish sixty-one riders strong, the Colavita-Baci lead out train took over the front of the race and opened the throttle into the final corner. Teutenberg exited the corner onto the 400-meter closing straight in third wheel and opened her German national road championship sprint. Teutenberg held off former U.S. national champion Brooke Miller to take the stage win.

“The girls were pretty tired, so we couldn’t get the whole lead out going. I jumped on Colavita’s lead out and they did a really good job. I was third around the corner and opened up the sprint and was able to hold everyone off at the line.”

“The sprint was a bit messy,” Miller said. “Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Colavita-Baci) was leading out Kelly Benjamin, coming into the last corner. Ina was on Kelly’s wheel and I was on Ina’s. Coming out of the last corner, Kelly lost Theresa’s wheel and they sort of let off the gas.

“It’s a pretty long finishing straight and it’s a bit uphill,” Miller continued. “I tried to get the jump on Ina to see if I could get a gap and hold it to the line. But she went at the same time I did. I got up next to her and it was just a drag race to the line. She’s just really hard to beat.”

Teutenberg picked up five seconds in intermediate time bonuses and with the ten seconds she gained at the finish, she moved into second overall and secured the points jersey. She thanked her team for the win.

“The girls set me up perfectly today, and really made it possible for me to win in the end.”

Zero to forty in ten blocks or less
The men’s race got off to a hot start in the cool temperatures as the peloton rolled through downtown Beaumont at 40-plus mile per hour. The mild tailwind pushing the riders out of town never showed its teeth and the day was free of the cross winds that helped shred the men’s and women’s races in 2009.

Day put the race radio ban to the test just seven miles into the stage when a stiff chain forced a bike change on a long false flat. The radio ban compounded with malfunctioning radios between the chief referee and team cars to land Day at the back of the 32-car race caravan following the service. The field sat up for the overall leader, however, and Day returned with three of his teammates to the front of the peloton.

Paul Mach (Bissell) took out the first KOM at Banning Bench, just off the front of the peloton. At only 19 seconds down on GC, there was no chance the 2009 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic champion would get away. Day’s teammates took to the front of the race as they topped out and turned the screws for the first time on the long, gradual descent to the start/finish, dropping a handful of riders in the benches above town.

The bunch was together when they returned to downtown Beaumont to face the first of five laps through Cherry Valley and Bogart Park. The status quo did not last long, however, as Belarussian Andrei Krasilnikav (Holowesko Partners) attacked near the start/finish, bringing Rob Britton (Bissell), Eric Boily (Spidertech-Planet Energy) and Daniel Holt (Team Type 1) out of the peloton. The break built a 30-second advantage over two miles. After drawing back a tandem UnitedHealthcare effort by Andrew Pinfold and Brad White to bridge the gap, Fly V Australia riders allowed the gap to grow steadily for three laps, reaching a maximum of 4:05.

Holt fell off the pace in the break at the base of the Bogart climb on the first lap and the peloton absorbed him on the following lap. The remaining riders in the break rolled smooth turns for three laps as their advantage grew. Britton and Krasilnikav split the remaining KOM and sprint competitions, securing the points and mountains jerseys, respectively.

Meanwhile, Day’s teammates rode affront the peloton nearly the entire day. Jelly Belly pitched their tents on Day’s wheel and rode in second position until the fourth lap when they sent two riders to assist in the ramped up chase. With the 3:05 gap coming in with two laps remaining, Fly V Australia lit the engines over Bogart Park, putting Jai Crawford and Phil Zajicek on the front over the final switchbacks of the two-mile climb.

At the summit the lead was just one minute as more than five separate groups rolled onto the steep, two-lane descent to the outskirts of Beaumont. With the crosswinds muted, the groups came together on the run-in to the final lap. Fly V Australia and Jelly Belly kept the pace high for the first four miles of the final lap, but White was able to get a gap when he attacked up the left side of the road as the peloton bore down on the break.

White slingshoted off of the breakaway and rode a five-second advantage onto the base of the Bogart Park climb. The counter-attack from White’s UHC teammates never came though as he was caught on the climb.

No second-place for a second year
Sensing hesitation in the peloton and standing on good legs, Amaran attacked at the steepest point of the climb, the final switchback with a pitch of 18 percent. He rode over the summit with a three-second advantage and Routley soon gained his wheel. The pair was drilling the descent when Jacques-Maynes joined them to fill out the race-winning break.

“I tried and I didn’t get the gap I wanted, but I stayed with it,” said Amaran.

“When I went I knew that no one was going to go,” Jacques-Maynes said. “Everyone was watching the jersey riding alone on the front and that’s when you start firing. It’s a no brainer at that point.”

As soon as Jacques-Maynes joined the group, Routley went to the back, refusing to ride for the Bissell leader – a regular winter training partner – who threatened the overall positions of his Jelly Belly teammates. “It was Ben Jacques-Maynes and me going full gas to the line,” said Amaran. Even without Routley sharing the load, the break pushed their lead out to 18 seconds as they entered Beaumont for the finish.

Day tucked into the middle of the group in the final two miles as the sprinters’ teams took over on the point. UnitedHealthcare led the chasers through the final corner, but the break entered the final, uphill straightaway with a ten-second lead – too much to close in the final 400 meters.

Routley, who finished second at Beaumont in 2009, exited the corner at full gas and opened the sprint early. Jacques-Maynes clung to his wheel to the line, while Amaran faded in the closing meters. “Last year I was in the break here as well,” said Routley. “I lost the sprint and got second and that kind of sat in the back of my mind all season. I knew that final corner and I knew where to go and when to go. Experience pays off.”

Alejandro Borrajo (Jamis-Sutter Home) took the field sprint ahead of Pinfold and Kyle Wamsley (Bissell).

Also finishing in the first chase group were Carter Jones and Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly-Kenda) and Rory Sutherland (UnitedHeathcare-Maxxis). With the ten-second time bonus and seven-second advantage at the finish, Jacques-Maynes moved into second place overall at just 0.65 behind Day. Jones and Reijnen dropped to third and fourth, respectively.

As he did at the San Dimas Stage Race a week earlier, Day pointed to his teammates as the reason he remained in the race lead: “This stage can be a complete disaster to control,” said Day. “Every race I go to right now I’m losing form sitting on the back of these guys. Hats off to these blokes, you know.”

The overall standings are more compact after stage 1 than in any year in recent history. Fourteen riders find themselves within 30 seconds of the race lead and a maximum of 29 seconds in time bonuses is possible over the final two stages. The four-way Bissell threat of Jacques-Maynes and brother Andy, Jeremy Vennell and Paul Mach is particularly dangerous, as each is capable of riding into the race lead in Saturday’s stage 2 criterium or Sunday’s stage 3 road race with aggressive, intelligent riding.

Radio silence
The silence was deafening Friday as directors rolled out the high technology – marker boards and shouting – to communicate with their riders. A few riders shared their thoughts following the stage. Stay tuned to VeloNews Monday for riders’ full reaction to the radio-free Redlands.

“It seemed that once people got into a break, they never wanted to work. I don’t know if it was that they didn’t know what to do without the radio or what.” -Alison Powers

“Team Bissell is going to be fine without radios. Less wisecracking.” -Ben Jacques-Maynes

“Honestly, if you’re a cagey rider and you’re able to watch what’s going on in the race, it’s only going to serve you well. And beyond that, if you’re strong, it’s going to serve you well because you’ll have that little bit less support, that crutch. I think you’re going to see this shifting effect, and we may have seen it today, that you’ll have the stronger, more experienced guys are going to be up there that little bit more because we have to figure it out more, make that snap decision.” -Will Routley

Technical criterium greets riders Saturday
Stage 2 returns to Redlands Saturday afternoon for the technical, nine-corner City of Redlands Criterium. The elongated figure-eight track is mostly flat and will likely lead to bunch sprints for the men and women. However, as both fields learned in 2009, the tricky cornering heading into the finish straight can put riders on the ground – Colavita-Sutter Home and Jelly Belly – or off the front – Teutenberg.

The men’s sprint field is loaded; most teams in the running will brandish two or more potent weapons and with the technical nature of the run-in, look for ghost attacks and long lead outs.

Hilton Clarke (Bahati Foundation) and Raymond Kreder (Holowesko Partners) will face off against Jonathan Cantwell and Bernie Sulzberger (Fly V Australia), Karl Menzies and Pinfold (UnitedHealthcare) and Borrajo and Ivan Dominguez (Jamis-Sutter Home). Cantwell won the same match-up, minus Kreder and Pinfold, two weeks ago at the Tour de Murrieta.

It is hard to pick against Teutenberg in the women’s field, although Miller, Kelly Benjamin (Colavita-Baci) and Coryn Rivera (Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12) should tender a strong counter offer.

FILED UNDER: News / Race Report / Road TAGS: Redlands Bicycle Classic

Brian Holcombe

Brian Holcombe is the managing editor of Velo Magazine. Holcombe joined VeloNews in 2009 following years spent introducing students to whitewater kayaking and working in avalanche control, among other more risky ventures. His graduate work in communications at the University of Denver focuses on innovation and digital media management. Holcombe is a CSU Ram fan and proud parent and has been accused of attacking too much on the VN lunch ride. Follow him on Twitter @FCBrian.

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