June 7/11 8:40 am - Mt Hood Classic: Men's Stage 3, 4 and Final GC

Posted by Editoress on 06/7/11
 

English Conquers Three Summits, Takes Overall

In the men’s race, Nate English (Yahoo! Cycling) started the final stage wearing the King of the Mountains jersey and he proved why by riding to a solo win in the 91-mile stage that included more than 10,000 feet of climbing.

Men's overall winner Nate English leads Ian Boswell up one of the three summits. ©Pat Malach

English and Bend’s Ian Boswell (Trek-Livestrong) gained an advantage on the other overall contenders as they tried to bridge to an early breakaway of four riders on the third major summit of the day. When Boswell got a flat tire and was delayed waiting for the support vehicle to get through on the narrow, sometimes snow-lined forest service roads, English set out with Sebastian Salas (Team H&R Block) and slowly tracked down the quartet in front.

English then separated from Salas and reeled in all but one escapee by the time the race turned back toward Cooper Spur. He finally caught Dave Vukets and ended the Trek-Red Truck rider’s stage win hopes in the closing kilometers. By the time he hit the ski area 10 km later, he had gained 1:46 on the second-placed rider Salas, who had also caught and passed the original breakaway riders. The rest of the blown-apart field came across the line as single riders or in small groups. Stefano Barberi (Team Stefano Barberi) was third at 2:21. Lang Reynolds (Hagens Berman) finished fourth, 2:28 behind English. Trevor Connor (Team Rio Grande) rounded out the op five, coming in at at 2:34

Elite national road race champion Mike Olheiser of Alabama, who came into the final stage after winning the yellow jersey with an impressive gun-to-gun solo breakaway in front of the 130-rider men’s field at the citerium the evening before, finished 27th, more than 11 minutes behind English.

“I put a pretty big effort in last night,” Olheiser said. “(English) was just the strong guy of the day. He was attacking like crazy. He just had the legs today. It was good still. It was a great stage — beautiful.”

Chad Haga, who had taken the race lead at the prologue and wore it for two stages before losing it to Olheiser at the criterium, finished 31st, 11:34 off the winning pace after suffering two flats, one before each of the first two climbs.

English, who started the day third overall, said the rollercoaster Three Summits course helped him climb to the top of the podium.

“This is a good race for me,” he said of Hood’s Queen stage. “It’s all climbing and descending with very little flat in between. So it’s just all about chugging along, which is what I’m good at. I’m not good at short efforts. We finished on a climb today and that’s good. And it’s not super steep, so it doesn’t favour a pure climber.”

Report by Mt. Hood Cycling Classic