June 4/10 9:08 am - Mt Hood Classic: Stage 2 results, Hamilton wins

Posted by Editoress on 06/4/10
 

This really wasn’t how Marc de Maar of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis wanted to take over the leadership of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. Second place overall perhaps – as it appeared he had done after earning a four-second time bonus for 3rd place on the race’s second road stage – but not the lead.

But when his teammate and race leader Morgan Schmitt was handed a 20-second penalty for what was deemed excessive drafting of a neutral support car following a wheel change for a flat tire, de Maar was elevated to race leader.

Schmitt was one of a number of riders who experienced flats on the course around Mt. Adams in Washington state, and as a result, the wheel change he got was delayed, and the cassette was mismatched to his SRAM drivetrain.

Unfortunately, UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis Directeur Sportif Gord Fraser and Team Mechanic Eric Sperling were changing their own flat tire on the team car, and weren’t able to perform the wheel change for Schmitt.

According to Fraser, what he had heard from the Team’s riders is that the peloton had sat up to wait for the yellow jersey to return to the fold – a commonly applied unwritten rule in the peloton when the race leader experiences a mechanical or sometimes a crash.

However, race officials determined that if Schmitt hadn’t drafted, he wouldn’t have been able to re-integrate, and thus, issued the penalty to the race leader.

“I think under the circumstances, the race officials needed to show a little bit of discretion in handing out the penalty,” Fraser said. “What Morgan did wasn’t unusual. Mostly, I feel bad for him. He took the race lead with the win in Stage 1. This was a big moment for him. And to lose the lead in this manner is just a shame.”

The stage otherwise went mostly according to plan. A break of four riders got off the front mid-way through the first of two laps of a 53-mile loop that included two climbs totaling over 3,500 feet per lap. The four riders out front eventually built up a lead of around 3:00 on the peloton.

“The break rode quite well,” said Directeur Sportif Gord Fraser. “We put Max Jenkins and Eric Barlevav on the front to ride tempo to keep the break under control. It was a good introduction for Eric on riding to protect the leader’s jersey.”

The UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis-led chase steadily brought the gap down, with the Bissell squad and riders from Cal Giant chipping in some of the pace-making.

On the final climb, de Maar went to the front and rode a hard tempo that shattered the peloton and left groups of riders strewn about the roads behind the front group of about 25 riders. The effort also served to bring the gap to the four leaders down significantly.

On the final 10-mile downhill run to the line, “we knew it would be a bit touch and go whether we’d catch the break,” Fraser said. “Those guys were quite strong.”

In fact, the chasing pack caught all but one of the riders from the break, with Nic Hamilton (Trek-Red Truck) putting in a late attack that was enough to hold on by a couple bike lengths. De Maar took second in the bunch sprint to earn 3rd place on the stage, and the time bonus that appeared to move him up to 2nd overall, just ahead of Paul Mach (Bissell), the race’s first leader.

“The guys rode really well today defending Morgan’s jersey and I think he deserved to keep it,” Fraser added. “Now, we just have to see how things go with the time trial today.”

Instead of going into the time trial with three of the top five riders in the overall classification – with an eight-second cushion for the leader – UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis goes in with de Maar essentially tied on time with Mach, Chris Baldwin 4th overall at 0:07, and Schmitt now 0:12 back of his teammate in 9th place.

UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis press release

Profile of the stage (one way)